I am reflecting on the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas – two huge holidays with lots of family connections. For me, Thanksgiving was always at my Grandmother’s house, and I experienced it as a time of gratitude for all that had come before. What are your Thanksgiving memories?
My father died on Nov. 9, 2001 and my Mother died a month and a few weeks later on Christmas eve, Dec. 24, 2001. I wonder if I ever adequately expressed my thanksgiving for the gift of life which they gave me. My younger brother, Richard, died on Feb. 14, 2012 – death by suicide. I am grateful too for his life.
And then there is Hannukah – Christmas – New Year – which in my mind is to not look backward like Thanksgiving, but to move forward into the new and the unknown. Behold, something new is coming to us, calling us to look forward, to be conscious of our life and the new ways that it is unfolding even when we are in our 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s – even 100s!!! This is fresh, new, exciting. Creation continues. Even in our death something new is coming.
Creation continues as God, the absolute, the course, the ground of our being, is always with and within us – The Eternal Now. Yes, this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is quite mysterious and sacred. Makes me think of this great prayer by Dag Hammarskjold:
For everything that has been – Thank you!
For everything that will be – Yes!
I invite you to ponder your experiences with Thanksgiving and Christmas and your family connections. Consider all that you are grateful for – beginning with your birth and going forward into the New Year 2015. Ponder all the new life that may be breaking forth within you in these holy days coming up and in the new year.
Like Mary, can we be open, receptive, ready to welcome the new life that is coming to each one of us? Where will we shout our “YES” to life? You might ponder your mission in life now … how can you love and serve others? Where will you hurl the moral ounces of your being?
“When we come to know our inner God, which is our true Self, we will know that the divine is in everybody.”
-Howard Murphet
With you in awakening to who God is in us and to who we are in God.
We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be
