Tis the Season…Slow Down
When the holidays make their entrance with the coming of Thanksgiving every November, we may have many emotions that burst onto the scene. We may begin reminiscing about wonderful, joyful memories with family and friends over the years, or we may look back with grief and sadness about the happy holidays that never were. For some of us we may have experienced the physical loss of a loved one over the past year and look forward to the holidays with dread, wishing we could just fast forward our lives into the new year.
Yet, regardless of the myriad of feelings and emotions that either lift us up or send us crashing down into an abyss of pain, the holidays are all around us. Thus, most of us find a way to journey through the long or short month of December, culminating on December 25th, Christmas day and ending on January 1st, New Year’s Day. For this blog however, we will focus only on the Christian holiday of Christmas.
As we all begin our frenzied shopping and searching for the best deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we may spend money in abandon thinking material gifts, all packaged with silver, gold, or red and green say “I love You” in the best way possible. Those of us who may be suffering the consequences of the pandemic or monstrously high inflation that now grips our country, may lose ourselves in abundant scarcity. We don’t have the money to buy a big, green bushy Christmas tree or beautiful gifts for our loved ones to place under that twinkling emerald being. In our sadness we may fall victim to depression and despair.
Yet , no matter where we are in our lives currently, there is one thing we all have in common. We are all souls born of a Creator whose spiritual DNA consists only of love. At the end of our time here on earth, we all leave the same way that we arrived. We discard our physical form and return home as the eternal being of light and love that we have been and will always be.
So, let’s think about why we actually celebrate Christmas. Yes, Christmas in a Christian holiday. Christians celebrate the birth of a tiny babe name Jesus. He came into the world at a time in history when we deeply needed a reset button. We were losing our way and becoming lost in the material world. Hate and divisiveness were causing us to forget who we really are. Christians believe Jesus is the only son of God. Others, of different faiths have a different belief system and believe Jesus existed as a very wise man or perhaps an ascended master. It doesn’t matter what you believe to be true about who Jesus was, as much as understanding what he came here to teach us. Jesus came into this world to help all people of all religions or those with no religion at all.
Jesus’ ministry taught us basically three things, Love, Forgiveness, and Unity. First, he taught us that in order to love others, we must first love ourselves because we can’t give away what we don’t have. Self-love is at the foundation of his teachings. Next, he taught us to forgive others no matter what! As he lay dying on the cross, he called out to God a prayer for his murderers, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus saw the divinity in all people regardless of what they do or how they live their lives. Yet, we cannot truly forgive others if we cannot forgive ourselves for the times, we may have forgotten our precious divinity, and have fallen short of our commitment to be the love that we are. Forgiveness, we have come to understand, is much more for our own soul than it is for the person we have decided to forgive. Finally, Jesus taught us about unity. The old expression, “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you,” is about unity. We, every single soul ever born of God, is connected to every other soul by the brilliant matrix of holy and sacred light. Truly, whatever I do to you in thought, words, or actions, I do to myself. In reality there is only one of us here, both on Earth and in Spirit.
This is what Christmas is really about. This morning my husband said to me, “Ya know what? It seems that people are being more kind and nicer this year.” I agree! I feel it everywhere and try my best to offer kind words, appreciation, and gratitude to those who cross my path. Yesterday, we were driving and we pulled into a parking space on the side of the road. I looked at the license plate on the car in front of us and let out a small gasp. It said one word, “Kindness!” How’s that for validation! Inside the small store we met a wonderful kind man who helped us find what we were looking for, and we chatted for a while about normal, simple things. When we left, we both felt so joyful that we had met such a wonderful person. As we walked out the door we simply said, “Thank you for all of your help and have a wonderful holiday season.”
Thus, the message of this week’s blog is to slow down. As we get caught up in the frenzy of the holidays and the nonstop “doing,” let us be mindful that we are both human and divine. We are “human beings” while we journey through life here. The “human” part of us is always doing, which is necessary in the earthly world. Yet we are also immortal “beings” of beautiful transcendent love and brilliant light. Taking time to simply “be,” and spending quiet time in prayer and meditation helps to live a life that is always spiritually directed, no matter how much we need to “do.” Let us be grateful for the little things, a gentle smile from a stranger, a hug from a coworker who could tell we just needed one, the air of abundant kindness that seems to find us wherever we are, and most of all, a chance to give to others from our overflowing hearts and loving souls, much more than from our wallet or pocketbook.
Have a wonderful holiday season and a blessed Christmas everyone. May it be filled with an abundance of love, joy, appreciation for the gift of life, and maybe most of all lots and lots of laughter. Laughter is oh so good for the soul! Cheers!