Happy Holidays!
December 2011
By Heather Eilering
Happy Holidays to my Santosha Family! An interesting tidbit for you. Ever since I passed the invisible line into adulthood my favorite holiday has shifted from Christmas to Thanksgiving.
I appreciate the pure intention behind Thanksgiving that is indicated in it’s very name -Thanks-Giving. Spending time with family, offering gratitude to those I love, those who have challenged me, and even to those I may not like who offer me the greatest opportunity for growth.
Christmas, although beautiful in Spirit became a holiday of getting cards out on time, purchasing presents for loved one’s, rush rush rush and spend spend spend, and the pure essence of the holiday began to hide behind the commercial and personal egoic attitude towards it.
So for many years I appreciated ThanksGiving more than Christmas. Recently I have rediscovered the Light behind the Christmas Holiday, and if you are Jewish or Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist, or something I have not mentioned, this Light is the same for all of us. When you take the religious dogma away, Christmas is about the birth of Light and Hope into this world. Christmas demonstrates to us that Miracles are possible and that Love is strong enough to reach through the limited boundaries that our minds have created to see a whole new way of living in the spirit of constant giving.
When you use the spiritual discipline that you have been practicing, the Light automatically begins to have birth inside you. And wherever you go you carry that Light with. Please understand that what is important here is the Light which represents unconditional Love and limitless Freedom. The more the carrier of the Light begins to associate them self as the Light as opposed to a separate individual the greater the gift of Light to the world.
Christmas can happen any moment but December 25th represents a day when one human came into this world solely to serve. True Seva (selfless service), is practiced when one releases one’s own egoic individual needs in order to serve others. Can you take one opportunity this holiday, this week, this day, this moment to practice Seva? Each true heart given moment of practice helps the Light grow stronger in your own eyes and offers the rest of the world that vision!
In Loving Service,
-Heather
