Tis the season for hustle and bustle, for overwhelm and stress, for long lists of things to be done and bought and baked and wrapped. I’d like to propose a different, three-pronged approach with which I am experimenting. My suggested holiday trinity includes spontaneity, surrender and hope.

Let’s start with spontaneity. This past weekend was set aside to accomplish a long list of holiday tasks, since it was my only open weekend for the entire month. Stuff needed to get done! Yet my son called with an invitation to come see him at work at the Tech Interactive museum in San Jose to make snow globes, which he had done the day before and thought we would enjoy. So Ken and I let go of the things we were planning to get done and went to the Tech and made snow globes, which was so fun! Us and some little kids and families…so what! It was spontaneous, unplanned fun, and I am so glad we did it.

This also folds into surrender, or for those of you who don’t like the sound of surrender, you can substitute in acceptance. I’ve been thwarted by being unable to find a particular gift that someone wanted for Christmas this year—a great idea that I really wanted to give them, but it was sold out everywhere, like Cabbage Patch Kids or the newest PlayStation. Yet I didn’t get all bent out of shape about it. I jumped through unnecessary hoops to try and find it, but not with the usual pressured energy I have been known to bring to such endeavors. And then I let it go and moved on. Same with my choice of cards this year, and baking…accepting what is and not stressing about what could be. My brain never stops thinking, constantly coming up with ways that I could make things bigger and better, yet I am learning that I don’t actually have to do it all. I can appreciate the idea and also let it go. For years, I’ve been practicing letting go of perfection, and while it sometimes feels uncomfortable, right now it feels really good.

Now onto hope, which today comes from blue whales. After making snow globes and enjoying exhibits at the Tech, we went to see an educational film about blue whales, the largest animal that has ever lived on earth. For those who don’t know, I love whales, and blue whales remind me of the Hall of Ocean Life at New York’s Museum of Natural History, where a model of this leviathan dangles from the ceiling above. Blue whales were ninety-nine percent extinct due to commercial whaling, and while they are still endangered, they are also still here. The movie tracks two groups of scientists, one of whom found blue whales in the Indian Ocean, off the Seychelles, where they had not been seen in fifty years. Another scientist has spent her life tracking blue whales in Mexico’s Gulf of California, where after several years of the whales getting thinner and not having babies (probably because they were too thin and didn’t have the resources to nurse them), there was a surprising resurgence, with healthier, bulkier adults and several calves born in one season.

The story of those blue whales inspires hope, even if it’s a cautious and tentative hope. The whales (and in my opinion, humans and democracy) are still on the brink of disaster, but we can hope. Especially at this time of year, I feel love and gratitude and community, and it feeds my hope.

I hope you can make this a season of love and fun and letting go of all the things that don’t really matter, so that you have the energy to enjoy the things that do.