The Holidays and their spiritual significance.

Halloween is just one week behind us....and on to Thanksgiving and the craziness of what is now referred to as "The Holidays".  But today, I'm going to make a simple observation about the spiritual significance of the holiday season.  Not in a traditional religious sense but in a very real, very tangible very day to day aspect.

Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas/Hanukkah

You may be asking, ok, Heather, but really...how could these holidays be a metaphor for our daily grind?  It's just a symbol of busy-ness and family and maybe sorrow or grief...

But truly!!!  There's so much more.

Maybe this came to me because I'm dreading the holiday season this year.  I admit it.  I'm feeling a little Scroogy.  Not a little....but quite a bit...I don't want to shop,  I don't want to celebrate, I just want to escape....but I love my kids and I don't want to dampen their spirits so I'm having a bit of a struggle.  You won't often hear me describe my struggles because I try to find the light daily...oh wait!  I'm getting ahead of myself...

I am struggling this year, because, my family is broken.  And I'm sad.  It's that simple.  I'm grieving the loss of the man I love and my children are grieving their parent's broken marriage.  It doesn't seem like a time to rejoice.  Yet that is exactly what I feel like I'm expected to do.

So I'm in this Scrooge state.  And the metaphor of life and the holidays hit me...like a giant wake up call.  We go from celebrating fear during Halloween to the celebration of gratitude at Thanksgiving leading into the celebration of Light and Love at Christmas and Hanukkah.  (I celebrate Christmas, but I love the fact that Hanukkah is literally the celebration of lights, I think it's so fitting for this analogy.)

Celebration of fear:  Halloween:  I am not one to go to horror movies.  I don't really like haunted houses, I used to but now they just gross me out.  But...I do have the tendency to watch real live ghost stories or ghost hunters during the month of October because ghosts have always fascinated me.  I'm weird, I know.  But here, we in the United States and I believe, Canada, literally are enticed by fear for a whole month.  When I stop and think about it, I wonder why.  Isn't it so easy to live in fear every single day?  How do we escape the horrors of what is literally all around us everyday?  Terrorist attacks, natural disasters, health issues, money issues...the sadness and loss is all around us and if we let it, FEAR can destroy our health and our happiness.  So how do we stop it?  First step, GRATITUDE!

Celebration of Gratitude:  Thanksgiving:  So interesting that after we relish in fright nights the next big holiday is Thanksgiving.  I don't think it's a coincidence.  We've got to release that fear and heal our hearts and the best way to start is gratitude.  I'm really focusing on keeping a gratitude journal.  Even if you think its not for you, the difference counting your blessings makes is undeniable.  I just write down 5 things I'm grateful for in a notebook from the dollar store before I go to bed.  When I focus on the abundance I do have in my life my heart lightens and the Scrooge state diminishes bit by bit.  The darkness of fear and sorrow gives way to Peace, Love and LIGHT!



Celebration of Light:  For many, including me, Christ, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, is the Light of the World.  John 8:12 "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."  To me the joy of the holidays is that.  To truly follow Christ, is to love our neighbors as ourselves and pray for our enemies.  To find peace in our hearts is to let go of fear and anger by replacing it with forgiveness and love.  We do that by focusing on the positive, on our blessings and on serving others, and as we do we will be filled with light and the more we are filled with light the more we will share that light and the brighter the world will become.


I challenge us all to start this season by focusing on our blessings, fill our hearts with gratitude.  Then go and find ways to serve, find ways to fill our hearts with love and as we do we will be filled with light and the world will be that much brighter.

This is not a seasonal thing.  This is a daily thing.  In concept it's simple.  Be Grateful. Love. Serve. Then we will fill the world with light.

Halloween pic thanks
Thanksgiving pic thanks
Christmas pic thanks