Be the Light of the World

Tis the season!

A time of sharing and celebrating the birth of Christ. I grew up in a Catholic household and yet through the years I have found my way inward to create a peaceful time through the holiday season. It is beyond the dogma of religion. It is a season to share our hearts with our families, friends and community. It is another day to remember that peace abides within a grateful heart and sometimes our longing is just a breath away. We can choose to drop into this moment of a holiday season and just breathe in this precious life that we have and get out of the way so that we can be used to bring some light into the world.

It's not always the happiest days when we think of the loved ones that have transitioned or live far away and are not here to sit at our table on Christmas day. Life has brought opportunities to help me to shift into what is the gift that is most natural to give. I love to give in the spirit of self -expression. To share food, conversation, appreciation or just listening to those that are placed before me. We can hold the hand of the one that sits beside us and just be love. Why isn't it always that easy? Why do we ever for an instant stop ourselves from expressing who we truly are? Why is life so hard sometimes and we wait for someone to give us permission to just let go and let God? 

  

I walk down the beach on this glorious day, the sun is shining in the brilliant blue sky as I reach down and pick up a shell. I look at it as if it were a gift from the heavens. I gaze up at the sky and I speak out loud to my spirit loved ones. I speak to them as if they were walking beside me and then I listen with a silent and open heart. Sometimes I just hear myself talking. Today, the waves of energy flow up and down my spine and tears roll down my face as a sweet energy fills my heart. It is such a mystery as I watch the sun setting and the brilliant sky lights up in every shade of orange. This masterpiece created by this divine force begins to speak a language heard only within my heart. I am filled with love once again.

  

Nature is my teacher and reminder of who I truly can be. I have wept before the sunrise and sunset so many times. I have raged and screamed my hurt and pain a thousand times when I have forgotten to breathe or disconnected from my source. The world has brought me face to face with myself and humbly I bow to nature as the earth grounds me into what is real. I let go so that I can sit at the smorgasbord of this table of life. It is filled with so much food and I can taste the nectar that nourishes my heart. I walk back home.

The season is preparing me to empty so that I can be filled with more peace. I enter my front door and begin to take out the boxes that are stored in the laundry room.

  

This ritual I have as I take out the Christmas ornaments, one by one, brings memories through many years of my life. My heart feels it all and breath by breath I am humbled by the presence of spirit that gives to me through these moments where my story continues to unfold. Right here in my living room as Christmas music plays, I wrap my tree with the strands of lights of every color. Then I turn on the switch and the darkened room is filled with light. I open myself with the awe that filled me for the first time when I was a child. This incredible feeling of wonder as if I was just born.

  

These lights are twinkling before me. I sit on the couch and breathe it all in. I can be the light in the world and so can you. We can be used as an instrument for peace to touch the world through our living.

I savor the gift of presence as I open each day as if it were a present!

Happy Holidays to all!

All my love,

Frannie

The True Spirit of Christmas: The Gift That Costs Nothing

Today I gently allow spirit to awaken me as I open my eyes to daylight. Everything around me seems crazy and all that I can think of is the worst. The season of holiday cheer is close and yet the moment here is all consuming as I relapse into fear. All I can do is breathe and let go as the Holy Spirit fills me up. It is all here, held in the presence. I turn more deeply inward and upward I gaze into the mind that holds no judgment. It is all sacred and holy as I put everything on the altar upon my heart and pray. All the suffering that has occurred because I forgot that everything is part of this experience called life and the presence can hold it all. There is nowhere to go but inside to this stillness where all is and allow the healing to begin. Why do we forget that God is right here waiting for us to return and feel the love that is unconditional?

Peace begins to rise up through the cracks where I sit and witness it all. I am letting go again and again until the fullness of being here is rooted and grounded in my being. I hear the sounds of people singing Christmas carols outside my window. I let the music touch me as I remember being a child, sitting in wonder as I looked around the living room watching my mother decorate our tree as she put the tinsel strand by strand on every branch. It was a sight to see when she was finished. The lights were shimmering and every ornament was perfectly hung. She was an artist and as she focused on the task at hand, our home was filled once again with the spirit of Christmas. My mother gave to us in the spirit of self- expression. In that moment, it was the peace that I felt as my mother let go of all the challenges and anguish that was taking her away from her heart.

Our truest self is completely free and not crippled by our past deeds or even concerned with building itself up through wealth or fame. I feel we have everything in our own power to get in touch with our magnificent self and bring it to light. This is the being that lives and expresses through us right now and this is who God intends us to be. Through love and compassion we do get closer to the genuine star that shines within.

This is the true meaning of Christmas as peace abides within the moment where only love can be shared. In God all things are possible as you let go of the idea that you are separate from your creator.

This is our song to sing as we reach inside and listen to the music of the angels. They rejoice in our freedom to be fully here without the burden of the ego mind that wants to control and keep us in the thoughts of limitation and lack. Oh how many times I have journeyed away from the truth that I am worthy of this beautiful place within where love abides. How difficult my life is when I think I can control what is around me? How sweet it is to return to the comfort of my own open heart where each of us are joined with the same love that created us.

Peace only comes when we align ourselves with our relationship with God, the Universe, Spirit, or Higher Power. This sacred and holy place is where we dwell in Oneness as we decorate our Christmas trees and light up our homes with the ornaments. We bring ourselves inward and breathe into our hearts as we remember what is important. We free ourselves by releasing the past that imprisons us and our brothers and sisters. We let go of the thoughts that keep us guilty or others in guilt. We begin again in joy and celebration as we create a new year that awakens us all into the spirit of love where we see all of our relations as holy. Here in our hearts we are free to give the greatest gift of acceptance, which is unconditional love and share the food that has fed us.

Love is the light that shines through your heart. You become the star that shines into the darkness as you illuminate from the inside and share this love with all that are present. You unwrap the moment as presence fills you up and love is given freely through your receiving. This is the gift that costs nothing. Our lives are gifts from God and what we do with it is up to us.

Today is the day to remember how precious this life is and all who come to share with us during this holiday season.

At this time of celebration throughout our world, we join our hearts with one another as devoted celebrants of diverse ceremonies and celebrations.

Merry Christmas and Blessed and Happy Holidays to All!

All my love,

Frannie