[excerpt from Confessions of a Mystic Soccer Mom, copyright © 2012]
“Every child comes with a message that
God is not yet discouraged.”
~Rabindranath Tagore
Advent, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah,
Winter Solstice, and Christmas. Holidays. Holy-days.
They mark the time, heralding that a sacred season is upon us again.
But does not every turn of
the earth as it spins around old Sol signify the unshakable faithfulness of the
Beloved? Is not every moment imbued with the holy?
Indeed. Yet, daily chores and
routines can so easily lull us into a spiritual hibernation. We forget who we
are and why we are here and we sleep through our so-called waking hours. Thus
in collective wisdom, special days and seasons have been set aside to help us
wake back up to Reality.
Every season is sacred.
Every day is holy.
Every moment is
extraordinary.
Remembering this throughout
the year takes a great deal of practice and a lot of mindfulness. I calculated
the possibilities. If every moment that we stay in the “now” lasts about a
second, there are 86,400 “nows” in every day, and more than 31 million “nows” in
every year! I confess it’s no wonder to me now, why I so often fall off the
“stay in the present moment” bandwagon.
But during this tumultuous
time of deep change in the world and the accompanying surface uncertainties, it
is even more important to strive to live in this continual state of awareness.
Doing so may require even more effort on our parts, but living in the
ever-present moment reaps its own hearty rewards. Have you ever experienced a
high from gazing intently at the vibrant, red hues of a poinsettia flower? Or
the incredible bliss from saturating yourself in the flavor of the orange juice
you are drinking?
This is just a taste of the
paradise available every moment of every day. All it takes is focus.
Concentrate on an experience with all of your attention and with one or more or
all of your senses. When you totally focus on an event, or a person, place, or
thing, you become one with it in the moment. This is sacred Oneness—the root of
all joy—and the key to staying awake to Reality. I set the intention during the
winter holdiays that every time I see a twinkling of light, whether by candle
fire, electric fire power, or star fire, I will reawaken to the now and to who
I am. Mindfulness is one of the best roads to take on the way home to bliss,
whether on a “holy-day” or an “ordinary day.”
But there is yet another
stanza in the carol I am singing this year.
Every season is holy.
Every day is divine.
Every moment is magical…and…
During the Christian holiday
season, the expectation and birth of the Christ child are celebrated. In one
scriptural story, Anna, a prophetess, and Simeon, a man guided by Spirit, see
the infant Jesus in the temple when Mary and Joseph have brought him there for
the first time. Anna begins praising God and Simeon declares, “Here he is, the
one we have been waiting for…a light…this child is destined…”
One person has asked, “What
if Anna and Simeon were led by Spirit to praise God and announce these words
with every new child’s first appearance at the temple?”
Hmm. Interesting question.
When I was very pregnant with
my daughter and my son was nearing three years old, we traveled back to our
homeland of Seattle for the 1995 holidays—not on a donkey, thank God, but via
the airways from New Jersey. (Now that I think about it, I’m not sure how much
better that flight was than a donkey ride. For five long hours, my husband, my
toddler, and my pregnant self, were stuck on a plane in the throes of a
spectacularly virulent stomach virus we had all contracted just before getting
on board. Ugly doesn’t begin to describe it. The only holy moment I can recall
during that inflight flu fête was when I realized I no longer feared, as I
usually did, plummeting to earth in a fiery plume. In fact, I confess, I
desired it.)
Anyway, on Christmas Eve that
year we attended a play in Seattle that depicted the traditional nativity story
with a modern twist. The angels, the shepherds, the wise men, and even Herod
appeared in their scenes to each sing a popular Disney song or show tune with
the words adapted for the scene. For example, when the wise men appeared, they
started singing, “Oh, We Just Can’t Wait to See the King,” sung to one of the
tunes from The Lion King movie.
Likewise when Herod appeared, he began singing, “I Did It My Way.” It was quite
clever and humorous and my son, an avid soaker-upper of all things Disney, was
entranced.
A few weeks later, back in
New Jersey, my daughter was born and within a couple of days we were sent home
from the hospital happy and well. One afternoon soon afterward, my son snuggled
close to me while I was resting on our living room sofa. He looked up at me
with a furrowed brow of concerned contemplation and asked me quizzically,
“Mommy, when are the wise men going to come to our house?”
In his enlightened sensibility,
informed by the Christmas Eve play, the wise men were supposed to arrive after
every new baby’s birth. What if that did happen in our world? What if wise
women and men announced the birth of every child as divine promise and arrived
soon afterward, bestowing each new soul born with gifts and symbols of the
spiritual presence inherent within? What if this were a holiday ritual for all
children to help them remember who they are? Would our world heal?
For is not every child
sacred? Is not every baby a divine spark made manifest? Does not every birth
herald the promise of renewed Holy presence and purpose among us? Is not every
infant another face of God?
Every season is sacred.
Every night is divine.
Every moment is miraculous.
Every child is holy.
Look into an
infant’s eyes this season and see the light of the Beloved shining through
them. Be a wise
woman or man and offer spiritual gifts and words of blessing to
little children and grown-ups, too, who
have yet to meet the Divine Child
within. And let the twinkling of lights in the night reawaken you to
the now
and remind you who you are.
Blissful Holidays to one and all!
Questions
for Reflection: How will
you celebrate the sacredness of a holy season in a new way this year? How can
you celebrate the Child Within throughout the year?
