In helping to prepare for a big holiday gathering out here at (what we are now calling) "Wild Wish", I decided to take on decorating the main room of Eric's family's log house. As I sifted through boxes of family decorations and keepsakes, it was a challenge trying to figure out just how and where to start. I've only really decorated my own place with my own stuff. There were all kinds of fun and interesting adornments, each with its own history and tale of how it came to be. The tree wasn't even up yet (to be cut down right on the property!), so I was really starting from scratch.
As I looked around the spacious room with logged walls and big windows, all I could really think of was... Christmas lights! So, without a real plan, I just grabbed some lights and started framing the windows with them. Instant festivity and magic! With the lights up, a certain ambience filled the room and I suddenly broke into a flow of inspired creativity. Before I knew it, the whole room was decorated, sparkling with the magic of Christmas.
It got me to thinking about the power of lighting... and of light in general, both physically and metaphysically. Here in these shorter, darker days, we become acutely aware of light... mostly the absence of it. ;-) I do believe it's better to accept a certain amount of seasonal darkness rather than fight it... to allow ourselves to truly experience it and the gifts it may bring. Facing and embracing the darkness can bring us more fully into the light, for sure. That said, I am for the most part a "light seeker". I look for the light in situations. I strive to shine my light. It is in the light that I find the magic and sparkle in life. I learn from the darkness (the things I may still need to heal), but I don't live there. At least not anymore.
Perhaps that is my connection with the dragonfly! (see earlier blog, "Dragonfly out in the Sun"). The dragonfly dances into the light and reflects light the same way we need to reflect ours. Amidst darkness, light is always there somewhere. We can struggle between the two... or we can dance with them.
The relevant and simplified meaning of Christmas (to me) is celebrating the birth of "the light". We carry the Christ light within us and deliver it out into the world. When I see those lights framing the beautiful windows in the log house... or twinkling on the tree... I feel the light inside of me. A beautiful, symbolic reminder. How do you remember the light inside of you so that you may radiate it out into the world?
As I looked around the spacious room with logged walls and big windows, all I could really think of was... Christmas lights! So, without a real plan, I just grabbed some lights and started framing the windows with them. Instant festivity and magic! With the lights up, a certain ambience filled the room and I suddenly broke into a flow of inspired creativity. Before I knew it, the whole room was decorated, sparkling with the magic of Christmas.
It got me to thinking about the power of lighting... and of light in general, both physically and metaphysically. Here in these shorter, darker days, we become acutely aware of light... mostly the absence of it. ;-) I do believe it's better to accept a certain amount of seasonal darkness rather than fight it... to allow ourselves to truly experience it and the gifts it may bring. Facing and embracing the darkness can bring us more fully into the light, for sure. That said, I am for the most part a "light seeker". I look for the light in situations. I strive to shine my light. It is in the light that I find the magic and sparkle in life. I learn from the darkness (the things I may still need to heal), but I don't live there. At least not anymore.
Perhaps that is my connection with the dragonfly! (see earlier blog, "Dragonfly out in the Sun"). The dragonfly dances into the light and reflects light the same way we need to reflect ours. Amidst darkness, light is always there somewhere. We can struggle between the two... or we can dance with them.
The relevant and simplified meaning of Christmas (to me) is celebrating the birth of "the light". We carry the Christ light within us and deliver it out into the world. When I see those lights framing the beautiful windows in the log house... or twinkling on the tree... I feel the light inside of me. A beautiful, symbolic reminder. How do you remember the light inside of you so that you may radiate it out into the world?
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