"Christmas Eyes"
Good morning….
Today it’s Dec. 9….
Welcome to the Christmas season – we’re in it now. I’m always late for things….and I feel even I’VE finally accepted, CHRISTMAS IS HERE!! Yesterday afternoon I took the kids to Southdale to see SANTA. We couldn’t find a parking spot, let alone Santa. (We’ll go back later in the week…)
I’d like to share w/ you some thoughts I’ve had the last couple weeks – and it has something to do w/ this season but it has more to do with “MAGIC” and “JOY” than anything else. And because Christmas helps with our ability to SEE this other world I’d like to talk about… if I had to title this talk, I’d call it “Christmas Eyes.”
You see… I believe in “MAGIC”.
I believe in the BEST kind of magic, the REAL kind. I believe there’s a whole OTHER reality behind the one most of us are usually are accustomed to, a reality of pure magic, pure joy, a world of pure bliss and beauty. BUT, we need special “eyes” to see it – and these are those “Christmas Eyes”. And this is the tricky part because these Christmas Eyes aren’t like putting on a pair of glasses.
Christmas Eyes…
You know, there IS something about this season that helps us with these eyes. We’ve created this special season of lights & tradition & presents to better SEE this reality of joy and light. For me, every year I watch IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and somehow, every year, I start associating myself with George Bailey and his quest for happiness. The movie works for me – it earns its title as I sniffle and tear-up throughout the movie.
However, just as the season can ENHANCE our joy, it can also MASK it. The glitter, the wrapping, the buying, the bustling…. And the expectation of “OKAY, THIS IS THE SEASON… IF YOU DON’T FEEL HAPPY NOW YOU NEVER WILL!!”. WE LOSE OUR CHRISTMAS EYES. The SHUTTERS close in on the window that leads out to our larger world of blissful joy. Our room shrinks, becomes a CLOSET.
But the REAL world, outside our shuttered room or closet… is a reality of indescribable beauty, the source of all our “JOY”, “MAGIC”, and where I believe the “SPIRIT” is ever-present. SOMETIMES it embodies us, sometimes not. When NOT, it’s always just outside – I could say it’s KNOCKING, but more like a gentle warm breeze, it’s softly WHISTLING, beckoning us to COME OUT.
I think of this more joyous, more magical, this spiritual reality as ALWAYS before me, surrounding me, always available… if only I LET it. Not a Christmas thing, it’s an EVERPRESENT EVERYWHERE THING. Kind of like “LIGHT” – and how IT’S all around, all the time.
For me there’s IRONY and COMFORT in this “heaven” always just before me. Irony in that what we so DESIRE – this world of pure magic & joy – is ALWAYS RIGHT THERE… right in front of us… yet we often can’t see it. We need our CHISTMAS EYES..
But then for those of us who can’t always find their Christmas Eyes… there’s COMFORT in the ever-present nearness of Joy. Have you ever taken a plane ride after about a week of overcast weather? All of a sudden the plane gets above the clouds and that sudden BLAST of LIGHT just SHOCKS the living BEEGEEBEES out of you?!!! Then you smile inside and realize that it had been SUNNY ALL THE TIME – just above the clouds -- YOU just COULDN’T SEE IT… Like this, and being one whose shutter is too often closed, it’s comforting to know my greatest joy is ALWAYS nearby.
CHILDREN, I believe, tap into this world more than adults. WE CAN LEARN FROM THEM. My opinion is that they can see this world more readily than us. I also think the ELDERLY – SOME, not all – over the years, are blessed to have gained back this KEEN perception. With CHRISTMAS EYES sparkling, some seem to embody this world of joy & magic. That’s just my own sense.
It’s always just before you… this magic.
THIS CHURCH is a good metaphor of this for me. Jenny and I live just across the street on Harriet Ave.. For three years we were visiting other churches, trying to find our spiritual home… when all along, it was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET!
… 3 YEARS…
It’s always just before you.
For me, on a day-to-day basis, it’s kind of elusive. But every so often, somehow – by some act of Me or God, the shutter is opened and light comes streaming in. All of a sudden, it swirls inside me and there will be this other-worldly clarity…. Sometimes fleeting, sometimes it will stay the entire day (… those are good days!).
Sometimes it can get even CRAZY. One day, while driving north toward town on Lyndale, something came over me and all of a sudden … I swear… I didn’t see people but rather saw these SHINING SPIRITS. These shining spirits were being whizzed around in these metal boxes and most all of them were yelling…. WHEEEEE!! It was something out of Dr. Zeuss.
Less unusual than this, something just grips me – often – when I see my children sleeping at night. Or when Griffin or Riley crawls in our bed at night… and those mornings. Waking up next to this little bony warm body, steady breathing & peaceful face silhouetted by the predawn light and silence… a MORNING GLORY of indescribable beauty.
But what’s even MORE WONDERFUL… this is only just a GLIMPSE of this magical world of JOY, MAGIC, and AWE that’s ALWAYS THERE. There’s a UNIVERSE of everything WONDERFUL… and it’s THERE FOR US… IT’S RIGHT HERE, BEFORE US NOW!!!!
And for this Christmas season…. Let’s USE our Christmas Eyes, and remember these Eyes are good ALL YEAR ROUND. May we not OVERLOOK the magic of this season. Don’t give into the BANALITY that Christmas BUSY-NESS brings. Don’t be a servant to the season, LET IT SERVE YOU.
Give yourself PAUSE… REFLECT…. TAKE NOTICE. Look for the REAL magic behind everything you see. Have tea with your daughter. Play cards with a child. Call an old friend. Look into the eyes of the one serving you coffee and give her a twinkle, she’ll twinkle back. Notice a snowflake again. And as for presents – it’s OKAY if there aren’t as many presents under that tree… really, it’s OKAY…