American Maven Lady: It's a Wonderful Life with Traditions & Light Therapy

Today I am pondering traditions. They are part of what makes a family, a home, a life and a legacy. I remember my Gran’s myriad of Christmas traditions not the least of which was the holiday menu. How and when relatives were visited was done the same way year after year- as long as they were alive. Every Christmas Eve I knew I’d find the big Santa face wrapping paper hiding my most important gift.

I try to uphold traditions but it isn’t always easy. Family time on Christmas Eve is one of the strongest that remains. Decorating the house and a live Christmas tree that smells good continues happening though every year I feel the task of making it all happen can feel daunting. It’s worth it- worth the effort required to set the stage with decorations and traditions because people are important.

I do my best to attend a production of Handel’s Messiah every December. I first heard it when I was nineteen and thought I’d stepped halfway into heaven. That first year I heard it live but only after listening to a recording while reading along with the written lyrics as the music played…over and over and over until I memorized all the lyrics. I remember cleaning the house with Handel’s heavenly music blasting. I was spellbound by the Scriptures brilliantly made more alive by such an incredibly gifted man. When I finally attended the production I don’t think my feet stayed on the ground. I was thrilled to the core.

My fascination with Handel has never ceased. Apparently Handel suffered as I do from SAD-Seasonal Affective Disorder which basically means that without enough sunlight in the wintertime one slows down in varying degrees and can even become depressed. I found help and was able to diagnose and treat myself with light therapy from NIH researcher Norman Rosenthal who wrote Seasons of the Mind and later Winter Blues. The sun’s magnificent rays enter through the eyes and into the brain where the control panels exist for energy levels, creativity, appetite and mood. Without the natural rays anyone can go downhill, some people more than others.

Dr. Normal Rosenthal’s research about SAD started at NIH

Apparently Handel struggled to compose during the winter months. Some of the great artists traveled south in the winter not just to have something to paint but to be able to paint at all. I marveled that Handel wrote the Messiah in its entirety in approximately twenty-three days during the summertime. His creative genius was unleashed in the warmth and sunshine and he was obsessed until the marvelous work was completed.