As human beings we live in/with/as paradox. We are spiritual energetic beings incarnated on Earth in material bodies. We can have peak experiences; on a snowboard running over fresh powder, having diner with a loved one, in meditation or service or ceremony. Then we come home and get the flue, or the battery in our car dies on a cold morning when we are late for work, or some old emotional crud shows up for tea.
This season is the “darkest” of the year (where I live in the northern hemisphere), but it is full of stars and is a time for festivals of light. It is a time to celebrate the coming of light in the dark, the return of the Sun, the birth of the Christ child, the burning of the Hanukkah lamp, the flow of love in the human heart.
The paradox is only apparent. Spirit comes into matter as light, as energy, as love. The depth of matter, in the heart of the atoms, is the power that fuels the light of the stars. The light of love shines in our hearts from the inside out, and is inexhaustible. We are both matter and spirit and yet all is one. In Chinese lore Man exists between Heaven and Earth, weaving them together to create the ten thousand things.
When you welcome the light into the world, remember that you are also welcoming your own spirit, your own soul. Breath deep and relax, to make space so that you can be aware of how you too are a vessel for spirit to weave into matter, to co-create life and love here on Earth.
In this season of light take a moment to ask yourself how you bring light into your world? do you like to cook, to dance, to play sports, or write a poem. Is it in your smile or a kind word, receiving or giving a massage, or talking to the birds. We all have our unique lights to shine, for ourselves and others. Thank you for taking a moment or more to shine yours a bit brighter.
It is a time to light the lamps of our hearts, or perhaps to uncover them, as they are always lit, so that they may shine forth for ourselves and for others.
May your holidays be full of hope and joy, Alan
(© 12/2008)
