Walking The Talk During The Holidays

The holiday season always has a way of getting me down. Although I understand it, it still happens. I also know I am not alone in experiencing this feeling.

At least now I know what to do. One thing is to do what I’m doing right this minute – namely, talking about it. That always seems to help – some.

The season – the bells, the tinsel, the Salvation Army’s Red Bucket, the television ads featuring Norman Rockwell families having a perfectly joyous holiday meal perfectly prepared – always reminds me of my perfectly dysfunctional relationship with my family. It reminds me of my role as the “black sheep.” All those powerful images also tell me I still have residual expectations that I believed I had worked through.

So, I get down during the season and then get down on myself for getting down.

The second thing I do, in addition to talking the talk, is to remember to walk the talk. Inevitably, I’ve relaxed my diligence in doing my morning meditations. I’ve become slack in doing my daily readings. Sure enough my internal serenity, which relies on the health of my spiritual awareness, begins to wane and the seasonal doldrums enter without much resistance.

I’ve begun to reaffirm my spiritual connection to my Self. I’ve begun to re-establish my routines of quiet times, readings, meditations, and listening to the quiet whispers of (what I refer to as) my Holy Spirit. Duh! Miracle of Miracles! My spirits begin to lift. This is all so simple and straightforward – but it always seems to be the last thing I think about doing.

I am now looking forward to Christmas – the celebration of the birth of a baby boy who lived in constant contact with his Holy Spirit in the eternal Now. He talked the talk and walked the walk – living in a state of constant Holy Encounter where miracles are commonplace. We, of course, misread, misunderstood and misinterpreted Him. We began to institutionalize the remembrance of His sayings, parables, and homilies. We made a religion out of his life, words, and works. He only wanted us to do what He did.

Some of that I had glimpsed and wrote about in my book – How the Bible became the Bible before I experienced all this. Some of that I have subsequently learned in A Course in Miracles (ACIM). Mostly, however, I am so grateful for experiencing a Holy Encounter in Alcoholics Anonymous that transformed me. I am eternally grateful for experiencing His life, teachings and message of acceptance. Having experienced it before having time to convert my experience into dogma or ritual, the universal reality of the Truth of His life and message resonated profoundly in me.

I’m grateful this Christmas for His birth, and because of it, for my rebirth.

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

I wish each of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, or Happy Holidays.

Love, Don

#2 December 2014

Copyright, 2014