“We are made for goodness. We are made for love.
We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness.
We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know.
We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome:
black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, educated, not educated, male, female,
gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to this family, this human family.”
Tutu Rise in Glory.
When I was a child the 8th of December marked a special feast day, but more importantly it was a day off school! It marks a very significant date in the Roman Catholic church calendar. The feast days were great because it meant a day off! The day that all the people who lived down the country came to Dublin to shop. Long before we had shopping centres on the outskirts of the city. A very special day indeed one of preparation for the big celebration of Christmas that was coming.
However, Christmas can be challenging for some people, and not all sweetness and light. The anxiety about not having enough. Not having enough money, enough to buy the children presents, not enough to provide food over Christmas. All low vibrational emotions, fear, anger, desperation, shame even. But while in the ideal world, we all should be equal, sadly we are not and that is a fact.
The good news is we can change our perspective about it, which in turn will change our thinking and then change our feelings so we can reframe the whole situation and turn it into a more pleasant event. We can have Christmas our way, so that means anything that suits you. Tradition has changed because people have changed. But our freedom to choose has not.
What will it take for the world to see that what is missing today is love? The wars taking place, the friction between nations, the greed for power, the destruction and the trauma, and the effect it has on innocent children? What is it all for? Are we destroying the very thing that we were created for? If so, what a pity that is!
But really how many times have we heard the word ‘love’ used with all sorts of strange connotations, especially about Christmas? All you need is love, that one was a trendy statement when I was a teenager, but the truth and value in that is priceless! If only we could see that it is the truth, we are all made from love and for love. The human in us sometimes takes us away from love. It sometimes makes us unforgiving, judgemental, assuming and all the low vibrational emotions going!
So let us gently come back to the meaning of Christmas, to love, sharing, and togetherness. For today let us focus on love. What can we do for ourselves that brings our focus to love? Helping the family members we love, the work we love to do, the people we love to chat with, and the simple little actions of kindness that we can do, to increase the awareness of love and to show love.
Love truly is all we need.