Spirit Matters    

December: Finding Our Way

My husband and I recently stayed nine places in 14 days in New Mexico, a flurry of packing and unpacking. One night I woke up and realized I hadn’t put my headlamp by our bed and couldn’t remember where the bathroom was. I used my cellphone on dim to find my way through the dark, silently admiring the spaciousness of this hacienda, but once through the door, I was shocked to find I was actually home!

As a child in Alaska, I was used to long nights. One winter morning in Skagway, when I was four, my family and I watched the sun barely rise behind towering snow-crested mountain peaks, before sinking down again.

In Palmer, when my 2^nd grade teacher took me to a storeroom where an easel and paints waited – the ecstasy of painting the rosy sunset on snow seen through the window! Cozy nights, my family played board games or watched TV, my sister and I wearing Mouseketeer hats, belting out M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E…

My father, a Presbyterian minister, served in Alaska 1952-60. Kind and dedicated, he cracked jokes and played his violin for congregations.  My mother created a warm home, music, and beautiful clothes for us, as well as hosted visitors such as the Sherrills, writers/editors for Guideposts magazine. My sister and I often played outside, even in the dark, if no moose or dog packs were around!

On Christmas Eve in Palmer, when everyone’s candles illuminated the amber logs of our “Church of a Thousand Trees,” my child soul was lifted high by beauty and holiness.

Our luminous Christmas Eve at Seattle Unity is still a high point.  Singing “Light Your Candle” and “Silent Night” reconnects me to home again, the Light within, and our loving community. The sacred wings of Spirit move, restoring a sense of peace in our sanctuary and our world.

Yet, we need the dark of night for rest. In 2018 my sister and I returned to Palmer near summer solstice. How amazing the long days – our host watering her garden at 11:30 PM! But how exhausting. Blackout shades mandatory!  I vowed I’d always give thanks for the dark nights we enjoy in Seattle.

Never-the-less, light is needed more than ever. Our world and nation struggle through heart-wrenching times. We know our thoughts affect perception and action, and how entrenched these can get. Yet, we also know we’re called to be candles, headlamps, or even cell phones to help light the way through confusion so distracting we forget we’re home.

Jesus was born into a Jewish nation oppressed by Romans, requiring tribute to an Emperor not of their choosing. Revolution simmered, and yearning for a Messiah to overthrow chains of dictatorship. In spite of constrictions, Jesus grew to become a great teacher, magnetizing crowds with his miracles, healing, and message of the Kingdom of Heaven.  But he wasn’t the political leader or conventional teacher some people wanted and he was crucified.

Yet his spirit and teachings were unquenchable: Don’t hide your light under a bushel, use your talents, love your neighbor and God, plant and nourish your seeds that they might grow, stand steadfast in your faith that you might move mountains, be the light of the world!  Almost tropes today, but world-changing!

Tragically, humans turned revelation into persecution, rigidity, and harm. The antithesis of the Love which was the crux of Jesus’s teaching.

But the light of Love cannot be stopped. In our northern hemisphere we celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Solstice, Kwanzaa during the dark of the year to remember the return of the Sun or Son and the ever-burning light within ourselves, each other, and beyond.

 

Arctic Night, Lights Across the Sky

We are curved together,

body to body, cell to cell,

arm over another.

The world is the bed for the cold night,

one cat curled in the bend of a knee,

dog at the feet,

my hand in yours, we are embraced

in animal presence, warmth,

the sea outside sounding

winter waves, one arriving after another

from the mystery far out

where in the depths of the sea

are other beings

that create their own light,

this world all one heartbeat.

–

Linda Hogan (Chickasaw)

 

The days will grow longer. Resting in darkness gives us strength to carry our light forward. We belong here, home on Earth and in Spirit with each other. Even when we forget where we are, in the dark, the steady lamp of Love illuminates our path. We are finding our way.

-Marcia Rutan

 

 

Music:

Festival of Light                     Kathi and Milenko Matanovic, Findhorn, Scotland

May the Light of Love            David Roth

A Change is Gonna Come      Sam Cooke

 

 

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