When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life. Eckart Tolle
You might be thinking as I was, “what’s a little drama?” Well, I’ve come to an understanding that drama can become addictive and causes way to much unnecessary stress and may even lead to illness and dis-ease. With that in mind and stepping into a willingness to be more attuned to higher frequencies, my affect on the environment and surroundings, I can’t say that I always live into the wisdom of accepting life for what it presents. But I can affirm that reducing drama enhances the power of living as gift. That said, there is a caveat that is rooted in how much interior work I’ve done consistently. And even then, I’ve not succeeded in giving my will completely over to the Divine, all of the time, which says to me that the journey is ongoing.
And maybe that is why I find Christmas so gratifying and the symbols inherent to the season: light, birth, joy, peace, community, and sharing— so meaningful. Christmas is a time of remembering. Perhaps for that reason alone I can say that I really love Christmas and find in it the recognition of our own giftedness. I marvel at how people are transformed during this season. They are more generous, spontaneous, and kinder. At least that is what used to happen before it got so consumer-driven. But you can still find pockets of the former lingering in those attempting to hold to truth.
As for me I’ve become more aware of the divinity in everything around me this time of year. The last leaves falling from trees, the colder temperatures, the change in our garments from shorts and t-shirts to wool mittens, head coverings, and heavy boots. Even our attire speaks of groundedness, earthiness, and an attitude of retaining inner warmth. In remembering the birth of Jesus, I am also acknowledging my own incarnation in this world, shining the light that is in me outward.
Situated just a few days after the shortest day of the year, Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is a reckoning of the coming new season, but also the eventual progression to more light and brighter days and our breaths are caught. As Margaret Atwood says:
This is the solstice, the still point / Of the sun, its cusp and midnight, / The year’s threshold / And unlocking, where the past / Lets go of and becomes the future; / The place of caught breath, the door / Of a vanished house left ajar.
As I grow into (s)age-hood and delight in finer things like the sound of school children playing, the twinkle of stars, the first snow, languishing an extra hour in bed, or even savoring every bite of a banana and almond butter sandwich while sipping a cup of lemon-ginger tea; I recognize every moment to be a gift and I am filled with gratitude.
Winter and the changes it requires to navigate heartily through the season with joy and light in a precious experience. Wearing colorful wool socks and mittens, as if to carry the season of autumn with me, make me smile and yet hold in the just enough warmth to filter out a cold wind.
My best barometer of how I’m doing with the “acceptance” of living my giftedness of Christmas all year long is when I realize that I have spent fewer days worrying over the bold (often cruel) intrusions into my life. When I move about in a tranquil and sustained state of merely being and feeling whole: appreciated, filled with grace, and loved that is truly a gift for myself and others with whom I interact.
What’s really truth-bearing is that the tranquil state has less to do with outer situations, but with a gathering of inner resonance. That concept of a higher frequency of the watcher of myself—and everything else—being; is regenerative in itself. I’ve done this enough to speak honestly about this state, although words do not give full value to the experience.
Let me try. If we accept life as gift, then we do this willingly. We don’t put restrictions on what it looks like or how our gift is wrapped. We don’t say, “oh, I don’t like it” referring to the proportion, shape, or certain particularities of the gift. We don’t compare our gift to the diversity of other gifts floating around in the environment. We don’t survey it and weigh in whether or not we want to keep it—we do, accept it; our life. Having done that, we hold it dear in a tender posture of a hand on our heart. We care for and love our life. We accept the gift of life in all its uniqueness, specificity, grandeur, and beauty that is uniquely expressed by each of us. And we remind ourselves, in an unvoiced acknowledgement of mercy and gentleness that it must be given away.
In a masterful video by Sustainable Human, “The Goal Of Life Is Not To Survive It” Charles Eisenstein makes the case for us taking responsibility for the world we really want to live in, to imagine it. It’s in our hands to envision a different kind of world, a more beautiful, harmonious, peaceful world. By seeing ourselves as contributors to the planet we can affect change and precipitate within ourselves a shift in consciousness, with the goal to be gift-givers, co-creators with all of life.
The Goal of Life Is Not To Survive It
It’s the work of a master craftsperson to stay with the task; mold it, refine it in the fire of life’s experiences, and make our lives an instrument worthy of the grace, we’ve already received. It’s the dutiful work of patience and humility, of joy and love.
We are incredibly gifted beyond our wildest dreams! Now more than ever is the time to live into that presence and impart that gift beyond ways we could ever imagine.
With that in mind perhaps we become bearers of good news and a beacon of hope as imagined in “Christmas Bells” in the words of Henry Wordsworth Longfellow:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day / Their old, familiar carols play, / And wild and sweet /The words repeat / Of peace on earth, good-will to men!