Some Wisdom of the Season That I Hope Will Inspire You as Much as It Does Me

One of the greatest gifts of the holiday season is the wise words shared by others about what it means to them, and for all of us

I have to admit that I’ve been having trouble the past several weeks finding the inspiration to write about all the thoughts that percolate through my busy, busy mind. But I don’t want the holidays to pass without sharing a message about their meaning with my readers. So instead of trying to find my own words to capture the meaning of Christmas and the larger holiday season, I thought I’d instead dedicate this post to sharing the words of others that I have found inspiring and thought-provoking. I hope they do the same for you.

From author Mark Longhurst via Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations

Christmas is about peace, but not the comfortable peace of the privileged, or the sappy peace of holiday cards and church pageants, but peace as wholeness and healing of the seeds of violence. It’s also about justice, and not justice cloaked as the authoritarian abuse of power, or justice as righteous license to tear down every group but your own, but justice as compassion enacted in protection for the poor and vulnerable, which we still must believe is possible….

From Thom Hartmann’s “The Hartmann Report” Substack newsletter

During these short, dark days and long nights, let’s remember this ancient knowledge that illumination always follows darkness, and that with love and compassion we will re-light our nations and lives.

From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s “Kareem” Substack newsletter

The fact that people are willing to jam their yards with outrageous decorations, festoon their homes with energy-sucking lights, quash grudges to have a family feast, and spend too much on presents is all part of people reaching deep inside to create the world they wish they lived in all year around. It may be a carefully curated snow globe, but so what? For one month of the year, we all try to be the generous, compassionate, loving people we always wanted to be. We look for the good in others—and in ourselves.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to love humanity. We can be horrid, petty, selfish, and nasty beings. But what always gives me hope is watching people try to overcome those fetid characteristics as they strive toward goodness.

From novelist Taylor Caldwell

And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent.

From Buddhist teacher Kate Johnson

As a dedicated dharma practitioner, my beliefs have changed, but my longing for unconditional love and a fresh start for humanity have not. I still see Christmas as a time to celebrate the shared wish for a better world. It seems like we all want peace and for everyone to be safe and fed. Yet we have all contributed to a system in which these things seem impossible, and that truth is breaking our hearts.

At Christmastime, though, believers and others seem a little more willing to try to love each other, to welcome the stranger, to share what we have, and to slow down enough to appreciate our blessings. This is a kind of magic, an ordinary miracle that is absolutely worth celebrating.

From Rabbi Rafael Goldstein on the meaning of Hanukkah

At this time of year, when the sun is most hidden, the holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rays of hope and light. Often, it is through simple and unrecognized miracles that we are able to feel the warmth of hope and light.

From Maya Angelou’s poem “Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem”

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

From writer Kari Ansari, a Muslim convert

I hope my family knows that I am more attached to the account of Jesus and Mary than I ever was as a child, now that I am a practicing Muslim. It is a vital part of my faith; a faith that I share with over a billion and a half people around the world.

This is my Christmas card to my family, and all my Christian friends and neighbors: Peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

From Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American” Substack newsletter

For those struggling this holiday season, a reminder, if it helps, that Christmas marks the time when the light starts to come back.

From “All I want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you

I had the privilege of watching the Queen of Christmas, Mariah Carey, perform at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles last month. Here’s a video clip from the show of her iconic “All I Want for Christmas,” which never fails to lift my spirits and remind me of the greatest gift we can give one another during the holidays: ourselves. https://photos.app.goo.gl/6FCT858SpZm2xUYw5

Wishing you and your loved ones all the best, whatever and however you are celebrating the season.