Christmas is a Season

Christmas is a season. A season come quietly and unnoticed. A season then shows signs of coming. Small at first, these signs grow and build and draw us closer to its presence and meaning. The antithesis of this understanding was "Black Friday", the designated first Christmas shopping day after Thanksgiving. This "first day",  instead, came in as an explosion of buying frenzy at the start of the bell of midnight. Too sadly,  it ended with pepper spray and police brigades by sunrise. Wow, what a way to start any holiday that is celebrative, meaningful, loving or giving. My dog behaves better than this no matter what is put in front of her. Isn't there a better way for us to behave, think and feel? Is this what has become of the "True Meaning of Christmas"?

For many of us what is "true" is defined by each of us in our own way, ultimately. It doesn't matter if I follow you or a profit or my own heart. The truth is only perceived by what I can comprehend and accept as true.  Anyway, storming WalMart for cheap electronics must have defined the "true meaning" for so many of these over zealous people for products, while providing them with one of our most elemental American experiences: buying power. Who am I to say that they "don't get it"?

What is true for me? I really don't know, to tell you the truth! What I can tell you is that the days become shorter and the nights become longer each day as we come closer and closer to the winter solstice. I can tell you that the forests now appear barren and the stone walls along the fields can be seen again. The evidence of global warming has given us an usually warm "long and late fall" but, despite this, winter is still coming. I have found that the increasing darkness makes us look inward, reflect, but also anticipate while we wait for light to return. For me, the Christmas Season is about waiting and watching. I don't believe that we must believe in objects and beings to help us understand what is true. However, is there any one common truth left for us to share? Is there anything that can make us find unity with each other, or with other living things or with this planet? Right now, it seems like achieving a purchase at WalMart is one popular wow moment. It definitely is not mine.  The wow moment is what we all must seek.

The Christmas Season, for me, evokes my desire to experience true meaning. Though, when I raise my eyes to the top of a tree and see the giant GosHawk or catch the shy presence of our resisdent Piliated Woodpecker, or take a walk in between the empty garden beds to pick the hardy parsley, I find true meaning - i.e. that wow moment. Through, spring, summer and fall, I can find true meaning. Through, the planting, weeding, watering and  harvesting, there is found meaning in the dirt and compost that gave me that tomato. Through, the giving of time, effort and help to others in need, creates true meaning. The Christmas Season allows me to organize all those moments into one story of what is the true meaning of my human existance.

A long time ago when my oldest children were young, I wrote a little children's song that summed it all up quite nicely. It goes like this:

I hold a stone in my hand, I hold a stone in my hand,
I hold a stone in my hand, crystalline formed though made from sand.
It is crystalline formed though made from sand.

I hold a plant in my hand, I hold a plant in my hand,
I hold a plant in my hand, green is the earth, the gift of the plants.
Yes, green is the earth, the gift of the plants.

I hold an animal in my hand, I hold an animal in my hand,
I hold an animal in my hand, but why do they run, but to greet the sun.
But, why do they run, but to greet the sun!

I hold a star in my hand, I hold a star in my hand,
I hold a star in my hand, with hand, and heart and mind I stand.
With hand, and heart and mind I stand.

Enjoy the Season.

Just as I finished this blog, a large buck wandered into our yard and over to the apple tree behind the garden. We tried to get a better picture but he was quite shy, picking his head up with every slight sound while making a stance to flee. The rain blurred our windows and stepping outside would have chased him away. I know deer and apple trees are not friends but he seemed only interested in the old apples that I had collected and dumped outside of the fenced garden near the brush pile.

Peace.