Christmas Eve, Tolerance, Love and Peace
As the daylight expands after the Winter Solstice so does the mind in reflection of a year in closing. It’s been a year of personal changes and transformations and I’m reminded we reach any certain age with nothing less that the tolerance of the people that love us and with the peace we are able to make with our struggles in life.
John and I moved this year from apartment living to condo living, I’ve changed jobs and made significant progress from a neck, arm and shoulder injury from a fall nearly two years ago. I joined a new gym, have a new book of poetry I’m working on and I’m looking forward to writing new music.
The year has also been deeply rooted in politics. So many of us have become more involved than ever in the grassroots efforts that require our participation at this time. I think that’s a good thing.
I’ve met new like-minded friends and through them and with the diversification of my reading and news sources, have learned more than I ever thought I needed —but that too is a good thing.
I’m reminded of the multitude of voices from my past who brought bits of wisdom and advice into my circle of influence. The many acquaintances, strangers, one-time chance meetings, planned meetings, and synchronicities that offered just the right words at the right time adding clarity and depth to my perception.
These moments change our perspectives and that changes our lives. They are the real-life experiences our stories are made of and it’s the telling of our story that our adaptability and resilience becomes apparent and useful to one another.
It is perhaps the simplicities from our stories that spark the flames of compassion in us. Maybe some of the voices from my past will also speak to you, maybe not, but they are offered to you in gratitude both for the names I never knew and the faces familiar, lost and loved. One or two of my own life philosophies are included.
“Choose your possessions well”
“Sky’s the limit”
“Change is the one thing we can always count on”
“Never give up”
“You are safe, you are loved, you are enough, and you matter”
“What we learn today will deepen tomorrow”
“We are part of love, not separate from it”
“You are the hope”
“Look for the part of yourself in each other”
“With love, all things are possible”
“Count your blessings, deny not others theirs”
So let us share together in closing out this very busy year, a gratitude—an acknowledgment that each of us has been alone at one time or another, sometimes in dire need, for health or wellbeing, for an open door or for a shoulder to rest upon —and did not by chance, by fate, or by luck someone hear our call?
Life is intelligent that way. I believe that’s the lesson this Christmas, that tolerance, love and peace are our truest forms of nature.
Wishing you all the love in the world.
Namaste, Richard