Happy Christmas 2008

Since I was a kid I always loved saying Merry Christmas!!! To everybody, specially on Christmas eve. I felt like emulating old pictures like It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. I must admit I always loved “Nochebuena” or Christmas Eve best because I could sense the magical tone everyone acquired during the festivities. My paternal grandmother, whose family hailed from Catalonia in Spain, always prepared a gigantic nativity scene she brought from Tarragona. It included over one hundred porcelain figurines. She decorated a corner of her living room with corrugated brown paper painted with metallic tones of green, blue and red. There was a shining star, as big as an apple on the top of a blue wallpaper filled with stars. It also included the tall figures of the three Persian Kings on camels. Each king had its own entourage of servants and a squire. There was the donkey and the ox resting peacefully. Baby Jesus had a beautiful and delicate countenance. I stood there in awe of all the details in the scene. Somehow I understood the sacredness of the occasion. It was not the kind of mirth or joy that you felt during your birthday or when summer vacation started. It was a different kind of joy altogether. It was a joy veiled in deep mystery. Christmas was shimmering lights against a background of shadows, a flickering candle too fragile to handle yet so warm and welcoming. It has been said that Christmas, like the ancient celebration of the winter solstice, is the triumph of light over darkness. I do believe we humans, regardless of faith, come from a great energy source that manifest itself fully in our experience of love. We are a community of lovers so to speak. The birth of Jesus is an offering of love and hope. The season, the human season, call for community and connection with each other. Love is the most wonderful mystery there is. It dissolves the pain and the suffering that comes from the toil and hardness of life in this planet. To love is to heal, to be set anew by the great Spirit, to have a second chance, to give a second chance to others. This Christmas I will dare myself to stop being cynical about the state of affairs in the world. I have a world inside me that need healing and nourishing. It is time to shine our little light and rekindle the human heart. I wish you all a beautiful Christmas filled with mystery and love.