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Reindeer and Christmas trees are two of the most recognizable symbols of the Yuletide season,
but future generations may never get to see either of them.
New research has revealed that both are at risk of being wiped out, as a result of climate change.
Arctic reindeer are becoming smaller and lighter due to the impact of climate change on their food supplies.
But is the Christmas Spirit itself being starved? Are we becoming a country of Scrooges?
We cross out Christ in the windows of our stores with Xmas;
We decree it illegal to show Nativity Scenes in front of the Courthouse,
whose sculpture of the Ten Commandments over its doors have also been taken down;
TV's bombard us with commercials of people only being made happy with the acquisition of more and more things.
And we wonder why we feel cold and alone as we wander this culture of frozen hearts and grasping hands.
Do you long for that childlike innocence you had so very long ago?
Or does your sense of your childhood seem as far removed and cold as the withered, dead leaves of your past?
Search the corridors of your heart and find a memory of a time as a child when you felt loved and safe.
Reach out for a smell that lives in that moment:
Perhaps it is the scent of vanilla your mother is pouring into the preparation of your favorite Christmas treat.
Perhaps it the tingle of the cold morning grass beneath your bare feet as you play with your puppy as it runs beside you.
Love can have a feel like the tickling of your mother's hair about your cheeks as she hugs the pain of your scuffed knee away ...
Love is the sense of being made to feel grown up, though a child, as when your mother included you in adult things.
The Christmas Spirit lives within you still.
But like a fire that dies to cold embers if it is not constantly fed,
the Christmas Spirit must be refreshed with such memories ... and more ...
It must be fed with acts of kindness to strangers, and even more importantly,
to those close about us who we have stopped seeing as feeling, hurting souls
as we dwell on past hurts and slights.
Love is a perfume that lingers upon the fingers of those who give it to others.
Happy Christmas, Everyone, from me and Midnight
They can continue to take Christ out of Christmas, but I'll never forget the reason for the season.
ReplyDeleteMe either. :-)
DeleteActually, the "X" in "Xmas" is just an abbreviation, not a deliberate attempt to take "Christ" out of Christmas. It's a practice that goes back hundreds of years. "The 'X' comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, which in English is 'Christ'." (from Wikipedia) I'm a Christian, and "Xmas" doesn't offend me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not bothered by the removal of Nativity Scenes and the Ten Commandments from town halls, federal buildings, etc., because I believe in the separation of church and state, and that we should not have nor even imply that there's a national religion, even my own. I actually wish there was less talk about religion among politicians. It's disgraceful what awful, bigoted behavior some of them use their Christianity to excuse.
Having said that, I totally agree that we who celebrate the holiday often lack the true spirit behind it. I know many for whom it's all about giving and receiving... especially receiving!
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Roland.
I would feel disrespectful if I removed "Buddha" from a holiday called Buddhamas. And I would bet hard cash money that none of the merchants using Xmas had even heard of Χριστός.
DeleteLike you, I wish there was less talk about God ... and more living by them as if God actually was watching them!
Merriest of Christmases, David!
I would be an atheist but I can't relinquish the spiritual aspect of life. My leanings are paganish, but I never could join an actual organised religion of any kind. I have zero objection to people with genuine religious beliefs, in fact they are people I learn from and welcome into my life. Zealous behaviour is something else, (if you invoke God, you should sit an interview with Him, I reckon) and my repulsion to bigotry is equalled by my repulsion to materialism (not working myself to death to pay for future landfill). So I'm happy to share a Merry Christmas with all of you, or Xmas if you know your greek letters (or just find it easier to spell).
ReplyDeleteMy best Christmas memory is when my son was 18 months old and managed to escape me and his clothes (in an english, unheated church!) to run up the aisle and hug his sister who was an angel in the nativity play.
Pharisees existed 2000 years ago, and their bigoted descendents live on today sadly.
DeleteLove your favorite Christmas memory. My mother's was when I was young singing Silent Night and stopped in the middle of the song and threw a kiss at her from the stage. :-)
That's my favourite hymn, the only thing that could make it better would be an intermission for blowing kisses :-) What a lovely son :-)
DeleteHi Roland - we need to help others and treat all as equals and respect others' ideas unless outlandish, stupid or plain rude and unnecessary ...
ReplyDeleteWonderful to read you stopped and blew that special kiss to your mother from the stage - kids ... a delight.
Cheers as the season comes yuletiding along - hope all well down your way .. Hilary
Cheers to you, too, Hilary, this Christmas Season. Every time Mother would hear "Silent Night" she would tear up and I would know why. :-)
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