Hopefully you'll take a moment to read about the spirit of the Christmas season; notwithstanding the uttermost tragic loss in Newtown, CT; for this is when we most need the love of our better angels!
Many of us have somewhat ambivalent feelings about Christmas, and yet we continue to celebrate it year after year. Obviously there's much controversy of
and about its meaning both in our personal lives and in the world at large.
To some it's definitely a religious holiday, to others purely commercial, and then to others it holds no meaning at all. Nevertheless, few of us are willing to give up the Christmas holiday in spite of uncertain feelings at times. The reason for this is that there seems to be a real meaning behind the Christmas season, a spirit we all somehow feel in our inner soul. Yet, contrarily our intellect doesn't fully comprehend all of the annual overt activity and goodwill, which is much absent during the rest of the year.
There seems to be a veiled, more serious meaning that Christmas is truly a spirit of the human heart. It is a time of year when the whole universe conspires to raise the vibratory level of consciousness on earth to one of peace and love toward one another. This season resonates to that sweet childlike innocence that resides in all of us; a time when heavenly angels inspire us to shift our focus away from fear and towards joy.
Christmas festivities are emphasized in two ways; one is the rebirth of the soul and the other is the return of the light to earth. Even before the rebirth of Christ, upon which our modern day Christmas centers, still further back in recorded history these two themes of rebirth and light have emerged again and again during this time of year. It's as though a divine consciousness moves forward year after year, during the darkest of times, to bring us back to light.
Yet even knowing the true meaning of the Christmas season is not enough to convince some people of its importance. "Peace, Goodwill, all Humbug!" famously cried out Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' wonderful 1843 novel 'A Christmas Carol'. Scrooge goes on to say, "These are nice ideas, but no more than a fantasy. I feel no peace. I feel no goodwill!"
As with Ebenezer, there is a way in which your own heart can experience his transformation of love and light, and that is to participate in the rituals of the Christmas season. No matter who or how old you are, your heart cannot resist the beauty of an ornamented Christmas tree or the glow of a mysterious Menorah. Cynicism gives way to the celebration when carefully preparing holiday sweets or stringing colorful lights around the entrance to your home. Any heart warms to a rousing rendition of 'Joy to The World' or the sensuous smell of roasting chestnuts on a crisp winter's eve.
Sadness dissolves when choosing gifts to delight and surprise those you love. The heart feels rich and fulfilled as you wrap them in bright holiday paper and bows. As we participate in the whim and richness of the season, life takes on an extraordinary hue – one of sweetness and safety. Often times heartfelt joy rings to our hearts as we partake of these 'various sensual seasonal delights'. These rituals open the heart-chakra and allow us to feel and express the innocence and beauty of being again a child of the universe.
Each occasion we create to feel the vibrations of Christmas helps raise the consciousness of the planet and return it to balance. For every person creating joy, there is one less person in pain.
These are the ways to experience this emanating shift toward light that occurs during this season. But there is one more thing you can do to amplify this experience a thousandfold; and that is to enter the season of Christmas with the intention of being a personal messenger of light and love, and celebrate in the name of service to Divine Consciousness.
Nothing transforms the 'ordinary into the extraordinary' more directly than the intention to do whatever you are doing with the desire to serve a Higher Power.
When we celebrate the season with such an intention and desire, we not only experience Christmas . . . we actually become Christmas; a cause célèbre of its rebirth of the soul and the bringer of light. 'There, but for the Grace of God, Go I', which speaks to all of us about the true meaning of Christmas: to empathize, to put ourselves in someone else's situation, to have humanity for our fellow human beings. It speaks to loving gratitude, and our inner humility and love for each other.
~ A Blessed Christmas to All ~
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Footnote 1: No one can fathom (get their head around) the tragic killings of innocent children in Newtown, but the sad fact is that as long as our country is awash with weapons without sane gun laws these kind of killings will lamentably go on. This is a time when we must believe, have faith if you will; in the words of Lincoln, "when we as a nation are again touched, as surely we will be, by the better angels of our nature," we will emerge from this darkness, which currently envelops us to a higher purpose and greater good. It will hopefully be, and till then we must keep praying that it will be so, that the light from the heavens above will once again shine down brightly upon us—when we are again touched by our better angels.
As a child I recall Mr. Rogers (Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood) always saying, "Look For the Helpers"; look for our better angels! It is worth noting that were it not for the heroic intervention of a number of the teachers and staff many of the children who are alive would not be. They escaped harm because of the loving intervention of their devoted protectors during those moments of stark terror. While a Christmas gift for some—sadly, not for all.
'Mister Rogers and Newtown' - a Washington Post commentary published December 17, 2012. Obviously, I'm not the only one who remembers the stories about the caregivers—or as Mr. Rogers put it, "The Helpers"; it's worth reading and I hope you'll thoughtfully take the time. The Sandy Hook elementary schoolteachers & staff are deserving of our thanks and especially our prayers for those who gave their lives for the children.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Footnote 2: The bright star shown in the photo shining a reflective light down upon the earth below, a wishing star if you will, is in fact the original wishing star that I extracted from the Walt Disney film 'Pinocchio'. The art work in that film is incomparable; Disney's animation artists, and they were indeed artists, are exceptional in every aspect. I hope the light from that star, as I lovingly placed it into this winter scene, lights your heart as well and all those still wanting to believe that dreams do come true. It's true if you believe—I do!
"Look, look; the wishing star
Star light, Star bright
First star I see tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I make tonight"
http://www.youtube.com/...