T'is The Season To Be Jolly.

T'is the season to be jolly. Right. With ALL of the shopping, ALL of the expected and unexpected social obligations, balancing time, versus money, making appearances, where the inner mantra is about having patience, remembering to forgive, all the while our stress levels are increased ten-fold. Don't forget about traffic jams, items going out of stock while trying fulfill someone's Christmas wish-list.. wrapping, preparing extra meals / airports, travel, weather, accommodations on so on. We are whipped into a highly charged emotional frenzy of pleasing others, doing the extra-ordinary while primed for feeling and being satisfied all hinging on a specific date, the historical sacred climax of Spiritual Purity. WHERE-DID-WE-GO-WRONG?!

Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or just non-specific Spiritual, we somehow are incorporated with the commercialization of Christmas. The lights, the decorations, the retail hurricane of material goods being bought, sold and then returned with the Fellini-like warped Christmas back-drop music extending our sensibilities into a twilight-zone'ish irony in pleasing others. Jesus Christ! For crying out loud, how did we get SO lost?

Ironically, this is what we as a collective mind agree to each year.There are those of us who manage to erect and then uphold energy boundaries around this hectic pulse, such as being direct and conscious of how we distribute our time and energy. Those of us who see this time of year as the opportunity work to define their Spiritual Identity more succinctly, we are then enabled to make choices that keep life in balance and level. As my favorite dog trainer, Caesar Milan says, "We must have Rules, Boundaries & Limitations if we are going to be able to function as a healthy pack together with our animals."   The same can be adapted to how we related to one another as humans. When there are established and agreed upon 'Rules, Boundaries, and Limitations' this allows us to balance this extra push on how our times is distributed and influenced.

Rules define where we are in agreement about sharing, where we can have respect and tolerance for each other, boundaries so that the past remains the past, and gives breadth to being present with one another, as well to recognize limitations that enables love to transcend beyond our habitual tendencies to be dismissive or even neglectful. Seeing and recognizing limitations invokes humility, allows compassion to rise within ourselves so as to see where we can extend Love instead of buying yet one more thing on someone's gift-list in an attempt to please another.

This time is meant to be a spiritual climax of realization through going within and to honor yourself as spirit so that you are able to see and recognize others as spirits in unity towards a greater good shared with the world on a heart-felt collective awareness. The Day of Christmas or through celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukka, Ashura, Bodhi Day.. all point towards a specific intention to go within, reflect and orient oneself towards a higher vision of humanity and our relationship to all things LIVING.

At the time where the spiritual epiphany comes forth through revelation by recognizing Gods gift to Humanity, we chose the darkest time of the year to go within so that we can see the Light as it shines through us. We connect with the self that is truly Spirit. Through this intimate reconnection, we are then able to see all that we are and our blessings.  Through parable, through contemplation, through metaphor we expand our sense of self to a greater sense of wholeness or perhaps, holiness. For an instant we are able to feel the energy of our God-connection as it is so sacred.

My theory about Christmas, the many versions of Christ's birth, life and rise and fall are stories designed to invoke higher spiritual values. It is a story about when 'the energy of forgiveness' descended to humanity on earth. The story of Christ, the story of how Christ was born under less than hospitable conditions tells us about the will of the human soul and how we can endure and then commandeer when one upholds their commitment towards a greater good, wherein the vision of humanity is redressed and realigned to a Higher Purpose. Thus, we are dignified with a collective agreement about Higher Meaning while living life while surrounded by the mundane.

How are you going to celebrate your Sacred Connection to the God of your heart? How are you going to heal and release the past unto the past so that more of you can 'be here now?' To be present is to be one, to consciously choose to be at one with your 'Self' is the deeper meaning of an authentic relationship with the Love of God. The Love of God is your gift meant for you to give to your 'self,' That is to orient your sensibilities so as to transcend the limitations of the ego-self that would trap you in material bondage.

Breathe, call a time out from all of the hectic demands on your time. Meditate, relax, pray, do the things that are self-affirming to you as spirit, so that you as Spirit can enjoy that intimate connection with the God of your heart and then experience the glory of transcendence. 

May your holidays be filled with mirth, joy, peace and accordance.

Love & Light, 

Jackie