Right now is a working day of celebration for lots of Christians in the Western Earth – Christmas Day culminates months of arranging, providing gifts, fasting – into a festive day of celebrating light coming into the world. The Council of Excursions in 567 Advertisement proclaimed the twelve days from Xmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive time, contrasted with the planning of Arrival.
This is a time viewed as a thin veil potentially between the spiritual and earthly planes, and a time to divine interior knowledge and listening as we glance ahead to the yr forward. In just the darkness of wintertime, a bit of light is emerging if only we care to discover it. Energetically, we are wrapping up the 12 months and searching ahead to what will provide us and humanity ideal. This practical experience of Christmastide is to analyze the depths of our own soul.
These days is about Gentle in its several kinds. My favourite is the commencing of the Book of John, “In the commencing was the Phrase, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the commencing with God. 3 All issues have been built through him, and with no him was not any detail manufactured that was built. 4 In him was everyday living,[a] and the daily life was the light of guys. 5 The gentle shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (ESV version). I also get pleasure from the lovely version of this passage in The Message translation.
Each and every night time through the 12 Holy Evenings I am journaling. My questions for tonight to myself are:
How am I (are we) a light-weight to other folks?
How am I (are we) a light in the darkness?
How will I (will we) dangle on to light-weight in a tenacious way by way of the ups and downs of the calendar year? This, to me, is the intertwining of a far more anthroposophical glance into the Holy Nights on this day as we glance at this Holy Evening representing the thirty day period of January and with that the planetary influences we see in January.
How do I (will we) become self self-assured, realistic in our targets for the year and maintain conference these aims in a affected individual way?
On this observe of targets, I selected a word for 2023, “BOLD”. Then I took this phrase and thought of techniques I would like to reside my life far more boldly than prior to. This came down to locations of own overall health, family members and relationships, faith, get the job done and finances, our farm. This manufactured it less complicated to see a eyesight in every location and how to split down these ideals into scaled-down and not mind-boggling ambitions.
You could ask why there is not a homeschool goal listed? This is only for the reason that homeschooling is to me an extension of the overall health of our loved ones and the health of our relationships. So homeschooling is in those classes.
The very last thing about this working day is that maybe this is a working day of local community, family, joy, relaxation, laughter – how will this engage in out in the yr? How can we consist of much more of these qualities in our year to appear?
Wondering and pondering with you,
Carrie