Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

– Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I am enjoying the community of Christmas this year. Christmas in the Western world, like God, is not something, but, it seems, everything. Christmas has a long list of traditions during the dark winter near Solstice. Santa Claus, family and winter festivals. Lights and decorated trees. Retail. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth didn’t make it into Matthew or Luke until decades later. The birth narratives have their problems with historical accuracy and Christology and, on the literalists side, too many would like to claim pieces of the season for their own and criticize the rest of it. We can choose to respond to our egos and be rigid, or smile and enjoy the birth, however it happened.

I choose the mystery over anger. As the poem says, “I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.” I enjoy Hark, the Herald Angels Sing and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Proclamation of the birth of a poor peasant boy who captured the imagination of millions and silliness are not mutually exclusive.

I am very much encouraged by the Light, regardless of what were early attempts to cherish this Birth story a long time ago.

Blessings!