The cover for the new DVD based on Babushka's story!

One of my favorite stories to tell at this time of year is the Russian folktale, Babushka. I love it so much that last year about this time I began writing a screenplay of it. In May of this year, we filmed it, and it is now preparing to be released as a DVD under the title “Voyage to Russia.” (Look for it at Amazon.com  in the next week or so!)

But if you’re not familiar with Babushka’s story, here is a synopsis:

Babushka is an old woman who is visited by the three kings and invited to go on a journey to meet the baby Jesus and bring him a gift. Sadly, she declines their offer, opting instead to stay home and attend to all of her household duties. Later, once she has washed the dishes, swept the floor, and dusted the furniture, she happens upon the basket of toys she had planned to give to the baby, and sets out to find him. However, when she arrives at the place of the child’s birth, both the baby and the kings are gone, and Babushka realizes she has missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

Unwilling to make her journey for naught, she rushes into the village to see if she can find the baby there. But since she doesn’t know what the baby looks like, to each child that she meets, she gives a gift from her basket in the hopes that one of them will be the baby king. According to tradition, Babushka is still searching for the child and giving out toys from her basket which never seems to be empty. For this reason she is often known as the Russian Santa Claus.

I resonate with this story and with Babushka in particular on a number of levels. I like to have a clean house. I like to take care of all of my tasks and fulfill my obligations. And yet, being so duty-bound, I’m afraid that at times I may miss out on some of life’s more spontaneous moments. Opportunities that may only come once in a lifetime.

Try to imagine yourself for a moment as one of the shepherds guarding their flocks when the angel appeared and told them about the birth of the Messiah. What if you had said, “No, you guys go on ahead without me! I’ll stick to the fields and watch the sheep.”

Perhaps a friend would have said, “Are you kidding me? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! The sheep are asleep. Come on!”

And maybe you would have desperately wanted to go, but instead, you consoled yourself, patted yourself on the back even, with the thought that you were the most responsible of the bunch. “If only there were more shepherds like me,” you would have thought.

Then your friends returned, filled with stories of awe and wonder. And wouldn’t it have stung a bit? To know that the opportunity had been yours, and you, “the responsible one,” let it slip away.

So here we are at Christmas — a season filled with opportunity. Opportunities to give. To love. To make wonderful memories. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss out on them. I don’t want to live with regret. Unlike the fictional shepherd above or Babushka, I don’t want to wonder what might have been.

Certainly, we are all busy this time of year, just like the rest of the year. And I’m not encouraging you to shirk your responsibilities simply because it’s the holiday. Instead, I’m asking you to determine what will truly matter in the grand scheme of things. The fact that your house is immaculate, all the clothes are laundered, and that there are no more emails in your inbox? Or the fact that you embarked upon a grand journey of the heart and saw the King of Kings?

The answer is all up to you.

Lindsay Bonilla

(Note: The story of Babushka is a folktale that has been told for many years, thus the author is unknown. However, there are many different written versions of Babushka that can be found on the web as well in print. One of my favorite versions comes from Saviour Pirotta’s book, “Joy to the World!: Christmas Stories from Around the Globe.”)