TMI About My Holiday Preparations

The following is an excerpt with some revisions (as in names have been omitted to protect the innocent)from an e-mail I recently sent to a friend who has a great sense of humor.

"I left a note on the kitchen counter telling my husband I want a burn barrel for Christmas (and I think I may get it. I'm excited.)

We are working through some of the holiday issues. I don't celebrate Christmas within my own religion, but I do like some of the special little things that come connected to the season...(like opening the curtains and gazing at the neighbors' twinkling lights or attending a holiday musical evening at one of the local churches where friends attend...or sharing my friend's traditional plate of cookies).

We talked about this before we got married. But, after I sold the 7 ft. artificial Christmas tree that was in his (our) garage and he finally agreed it would be alright to find another home for the tree that had been the one he had given his mom when she was in a nursing home before she passed away (it's still with the designated yard sale items), he started calling me a scrooge. I gladly acquiesced to his ribbing and decorated a bit. Now we have a little table-topper tree as a centerpiece on the dining room table (my daughter had wanted that some years ago and we still have it.) And, I put up this ancient artificial tree (it must have been one of the first ones to come out in the stores) that my husband has dragged around with him in all of his moves all of his adult life. I actually like it because it's not very bushy and there is room to see the ornaments hanging. Hmmm...most of the ornaments went in the yard sale, too! What to do? Well, we still had some lights and a few ornaments, the ones that didn't sell and a couple of especially beautiful ones that I had held back, not knowing if they held any special sentimental value for my husband. In addition, I got out these crocheted potholders that are some kind of family tradition in his "clan" and hung them on the tree.

My daughter said it's the ugliest tree she has ever seen. I think it's beautiful and have been lighting it for morning prayer and meditation time. That's something I'm needing to be more regular with, so the pretty lights are an encouragement to me. (I finally found the music I like to play in the mornings that I had put in a special place where I wouldn't lose it-which, of course, I did-in all the moving about and rearranging.)

We haven't gotten very far in making plans for the holidays,..."

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Ye are the Stars

"O friends! Be not careless of the virtues
with which ye have been endowed, neither
be neglectful of your high destiny. Suffer not
your labors to be wasted through the vain
imaginations which certain hearts have
devised. Ye are the stars of the heaven of
understanding, the breeze that stirreth at the
break of day, the soft-flowing waters upon
which must depend the very life of all men,
the letters inscribed upon His sacred scroll."

~ Baha'u'llah
Gleanings from the Writings
of Baha'u'llah
p. 196

Meditation

video from amessageinabottle.ca

To the Planters of Trees

video from amessageinabottle.ca

Just for Today

Just for today I will believe in myself. I will listen to my inner guide, the voice of my spirit. I will feel my feelings and know that I am a loved child of God. I will unconditionally accept myself for who I am today. I will know that my life experiences, including what seem to be mistakes, can lead toward my unique purpose in this world. I will trust myself to stay centered and to turn the mirror of my heart toward the Divine Light. For today, my outward life will manifest my inner nobility. Baha'u'llah, the Lord of the Age, is my protector and my guide. The power of the universe flows through me and is the continuous source of my renewal.

A Short Affirmation

Today I am re-created in the image of God. I am sustained by the love of God, which is within me.









image from http//www.outsider-artists.net

Out My Kitchen Window

I love the color of daffodils. But, this is not daffodil season. This is not spring, the season of renewal. Yet, in every season is the season of renewal. Not only is the promise of harvest revealed in the planting, but the potential of planting is revealed in the harvest. I find the color of daffodils in the stray kernels and broken ears of corn that hide among the dry stalks in the harvested field outside my kitchen window.

This morning I don't see the color; I remember the color, the hue of hard kernels found on the slightly frozen but still mushy soil underfoot when I walked the perimeter of this little farm in the lingering gray of the past few overcast mornings. Each morning a light layer of melting snow still held hard-edged footprints of moving deer. Today the temperature is lower, the sky is clear blue and most of the ground is frozen. There is another thin layer of snow, this time sparkling. A flock of crows has settled onto the field and along the mostly bare tree line. Snow covers the field like a crocheted sweater, revealing a tweed under-layer. The remembered color of corn and the remembered color of daffodils mixes in my mind, so the scene of stark branches and snippets of crow silhouettes becomes a symbol of renewal. The seeds of autumn are the seeds of spring. My mind reaches for the chartreuse of spring, but it is stopped. This is late autumn and winter is ahead. O, God, let me remember this moment.