Your Tree’s a Mess—And That’s Beautiful

Merry Christmas, to whoever stumbled across this.

I hope, dear reader, that you have a joyous Christmas. Not the kind where everything is perfect and glittering like some fairy-tale postcard—no one really lives in one of those. I mean the other kind. The real kind. The one where the joy doesn’t come all at once, but sneaks up on you, piece by piece, when you weren’t even looking.

Think of a Christmas tree. If you decorated it with only one kind of ornament, it’d look odd, wouldn’t it? But the real ones—the ones in real homes—they’re always a mix. There’s that one ornament you love most, the one you smile at every time. Then there’s the one someone gave you that you secretly don’t like but keep anyway because they’d notice if you didn’t. There’s the old one you forgot you had, tucked away in a dusty box, and another you didn’t think would fit but somehow does. And then there’s that silly one you’re a little embarrassed to admit you actually love.

But when you step back and switch on the lights—suddenly, all those odd little ornaments make sense. Together, they’re something more. That’s the kind of joy I mean. The quiet, patchwork kind. The messy kind. The human kind.

Why am I telling you this? You already know it. Of course, you do. But sometimes even the things we know slip away from us. Alexander Pope once said, “To err is human.” So naturally, forgetting is human too. I forget all the time. I get caught up in my own version of what someone once called a cognitive bias. Fancy words, right? It just means that even if we know life is imperfect, we still sometimes focus too much on what feels wrong when we’re in the middle of it.

This is a really pretty Christmas Tree.

Your Christmas tree—your life—it’s already decorated. You might not like every single piece of it, and that’s okay. But if you only look at the bits you don’t like, it’ll just make you sadder. Step back. Turn on the lights. Let everything come together. Acceptance won’t fix it all, but it’ll make it a little lighter to carry.

And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, this is a terrible metaphor. But not the thought. Anywhere you go, you’ll find the same truth: that life is built of imperfect pieces, and when they come together, they make something unexpectedly beautiful.  Ah, the wisdom of wonky decorations.

So, may your wishes come true—or at least the important ones. And may you find a little joy in the middle of all the mess.