“When you take more of this, you leave more behind.” What am I?
Holidays Build Up Over Time
Holidays feel like moments on the calendar, but they are not sudden events.
They are expressions.
What we experience during a holiday is rarely created that day. It is revealed. It is the natural outcome of how we have been living, relating, and perceiving all year long.
We tend to think in terms of deposits and withdrawals in relationships, and that metaphor is useful, but it is incomplete. What we are really building is not just a balance sheet. We are training ourselves in how to see.
Every conversation matters.
Every pause where patience wins matters.
Every moment where we choose generosity without needing it returned matters.
Not because we are earning something later, but because we are shaping the system we live inside.
Over time, people learn how much they can lean on us. How much they can crash without breaking us. How safe it is to be honest. How steady we remain. This is not transactional in a simplistic way. It is relational physics.
Wisdom Does Not Require Pain
There is a belief, deeply embedded in modern culture, that pain is the teacher. That hardship is required for growth. That wisdom only comes through suffering.
That belief is false.
Only the fool requires pain in order to learn.
Wisdom prepares before necessity arrives.
As Aesop reminds us in the fable of the ant and the grasshopper, “It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.” The ant does not wait for winter to teach it a lesson. It gathers while the sun is warm, not out of fear, but out of understanding.
https://read.gov/aesop/052.html
The lesson is not about work versus play. It is about perception. The ant sees winter coming, not as a threat, but as a certainty that can be met with calm preparation.
This is how relationships work too.
When we practice generosity consistently, even when nothing is wrong, we build the ability to give when something is. Not because we are stronger than others, but because giving has become normal.
Crisis Reveals, It Does Not Create
When something unexpected happens around the holidays, illness, loss, conflict, stress, we often say, “This ruined the holiday.”
But that is rarely true.
What actually happens is that the holiday reveals how we’ve trained ourselves to respond. People who have practiced perspective can still bless others in the middle of disruption. People who have practiced generosity can still give without collapsing into resentment.
This does not mean outcomes are predictable. Life is complex, chaotic, and nonlinear. But habits matter. Perspective matters. Practice matters.
Giving is not about receiving later. It is about becoming someone others trust enough to be generous with when the moment comes.
That is why transformation stories endure.
The story of Ebenezer Scrooge is often framed as a redemption by fear or suffering — but that’s only half the story.
Seeing Differently Changes Everything
The story of Ebenezer Scrooge is often framed as a redemption through fear or pain. But that misses the point.
Scrooge does not change because he is punished. He changes because he learns to see differently. Once his perception shifts, generosity becomes obvious, even joyful. Giving no longer feels like loss. It feels like alignment.
The miracle is not that others forgive him. The miracle is that he finally understands how the system actually works.
The Holiday Is the Balance
When a holiday arrives, what we feel is not luck or coincidence.
It is the balance of what we’ve been practicing all year.
Not just what we’ve given, but how we’ve seen.
Not just our actions, but our orientation.
Not just our outcomes, but our habits.
Holidays do not demand joy. They reveal whether joy has been cultivated.
And that is good news.
Because it means every ordinary day matters.
Grateful for the communities, conversations, and quiet practices that make moments like these meaningful.
Riddle Answer: Footsteps
