Amy Lu's View

It can be pretty easy to assume the worst.

This is the trap Toad falls into when Frog is late for Christmas Eve in their aptly titled story, “Christmas Eve.”

As Toad awaits Frog’s arrival for their holiday celebration, he starts imagining all the kinds of different horrible fates that may have befallen his dear friend: Falling in a hole, getting lost in the woods, being eaten by a big animal. Just like many of us “creative types,” Toad experiences that one of the downfalls of having a strong imagination is that can be overactive and torment you with anxiety.

But Toad doesn’t passively sit around waiting and worrying. He arms himself with a rope, and a lantern, and a big frying pan and is just about to set off to rescue Frog when Frog arrives.

My first response is to admire Toad for being ready to take action, but it probably would have been wiser for Toad to hang back and calm down and and try to accurately assess the situation. If Toad had charged off to “save” Frog, it’s very likely that Toad could have had some type of accident himself.

My family MO was definitely Toad-like: Spiral into negative thinking about potential disasters, and then after fully working oneself into a tizzy, race into action to fix things, ideally with a hopelessly complicated plan.

Our church theme for this month is “Stillness.” It’s been a hard theme for me to embrace, and when I started this post about Frog and Toad I didn’t think there was going to be connection to the topic. But now, as I write this, I’m certainly seeing one. I often equate “stillness” with passiveness and giving up, but this amphibian Yuletide tale is helping me see their can be wisdom in stopping to take a breath (literally and figuratively).

In fact, it was just a year ago on Christmas Eve when I fell on my ass after I got a bee in my bonnet (delicate way of saying mad at Chad) and decided I needed to take StanLee out in the middle of the night while we were visiting Chad’s family. (Yes, there was some alcohol comsumption involved). I barely made it out of the front door before I slipped on the ice. Luckily, I didn’t get seriously injured, but it hurt so bad that I’m still kind of astounded when I remember it. The fall may have also caused a leg issue that kept me from running normally for about four months.

That whole “Amy Falls on Her Ass on Christmas Eve 2019” debacle could have been avoided if I had just took a moment to be still and think through my assumption that StanLee was going to blow up if didn’t get to go outside right at that very moment.

Luckily, I’ve been more chill this Christmas Eve (and Christmas Day and Day After Christmas) and and there haven’t been any falls–although StanLee did almost trip me while I was putting him in his crate.

*Yes, now that is it Boxing Day, I am getting around to blogging about Christmas Eve. And for the record, this post officially fills my “Twelve Days of Christmas Blog Challenge” (Day #11?!) AND my “Frog and Toad Blog Challenge” (Post 5/15, one-third finished!).