Dear family,I wrote the following a few years back. I can’t think of a better way of saying it, and I hope if you’ve ever taken anything I’ve written to heart, it is this.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I love you all.
The Most Wonderful Time
By Keith Partington
Whatever you believe or don’t believe, whatever you accept or have learned to reject, humans have been marking the occasion when the days stop getting shorter, then start to get longer again, further back than the earliest recorded history. Pre-religion. Pre-philosophy. It’s a very special and charged atmosphere. People gather, celebrate and mark the passage of time. Or stay in their home or out on the streets, alone, and watch others do this.
This is the part that gets to me. This cost of entry into this celebration— family, friends and associates, not to mention wealth— that some just don’t have.
Even among those who have all we are meant to have in this life, in order to claim being “blessed”, the anxiety is there. Comparison is the death of joy.
We know better though, right?
We’ve taken up the challenge of looking deep within ourselves. This often leads to a feeling that we’re outsiders. In a way, we really are. We practice consciousness. We strive to experience presence for its own sake. Since you’ve read this far, allow me to remind you that this gives you power. With power comes responsibility.
Please take moment this season to turn toward those who are alone and extend your hand. Do what you can to remind them of their value, of the very miracle of their existence. That you are thankful for them. For all they’ve taught you, for the void they would leave if they weren’t there. That they remind you of the miracle we all experience— if we’re awake— each morning we wake up.
Hari Om Keith