Join the Holiday Revolution!

Meta-Musing
Join the Holiday Revolution!

Blessings to You!

It's "that time" again. In fact in less than two months the "major holiday season" will be in our "rear view mirror," leaving behind precious moments and/or a degree of stress and relief.

I have enjoyed 66 holiday seasons in my lifetime so far. I am looking forward to many more. I pray that the holidays in my future and yours, just may be even more wonderful than you or I, can imagine. In the years since my first holiday season, holidays...ALL OF THEM have experienced an insidious covert revolution. A revolution most of us were not even aware of.

Times that were once set aside as a precious spiritual celebrations, or community observances have been hijacked by the false gods of commercialism, greed and co-dependence. One thing about being my age, and understanding Spiritual Principles such as the Law of Attraction and Law of Mind Action, is that I (and others who have been on the planet for at least 50 years) have not only awareness but also experience.
I realize that I just may be "preaching to the choir" for many of you now reading this. Yet even those of us who have been blessed with meaningful holidays are often sucked into the lies and errors that prevent us from experiencing a fuller, more meaningful holiday...whatever that holiday may be!

Psalm 98

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;

break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,

with the lyre and the sound of melody!

With trumpets and the sound of the horn

make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!

Unity Wisdom

"We have the historical side of Christmas and the symbolical side," he writes. "Both are worthy of our attention; but the great lesson will come through the understanding of the real ... inner meaning of all these outer interpretations."
Charles Fillmore
co-founder of Unity

Universal Wisdom

Traditions enrich each holiday with the memory of all the holidays that have gone before. Each year that a mother pulls the same recipe out of the card file and invites the children to help her with the baking, each year the same relatives or family friends gather...sing the same songs...enacted these (family) rituals...The experience becomes a rich mixture of overtones."

"Unplug The Christmas Machine"

This year I would like to invite you to join a new holiday revolution. The word "revolution" from it's Latin roots means "turn, to roll back." A modern definition says "a sudden, complete or marked change in something."

Over the past few generations, our holidays have turned from a focus on a specific thing; to honor, celebrate or pay homage to people, events, etc.; to memorialize fallen heroes, events, etc. to a focus on self-interests and sales.

Seriously, what do sales have to do with honoring our Presidents, those who serve our country, or Memorial observances for those who paid the ultimate price for the rights or freedom we enjoy? What do sales have to do with thanking a benevolent Creator for the abundance we have already received, or honoring our spiritual or religious holy days?

I invite you to join me in shifting our focus back to the original meaning of our holidays. You may wonder, "Does it really matter?" And I reply "YES!" Instead of wasting our personal and financial resources...time, energy, money...on meaningless trivial pursuits, we can enrich our lives and families with deeper meaning.

Holidays are the perfect time to turn our attention from the mundane affairs of this world, to being inspired by the people, events and holy days we celebrate. The thoughts we hold in mind of peace, joy, honor, respect, etc. will multiply in our lives, bringing forth more experiences of peace, joy, honor, respect, etc.

The merchandising holiday season is already well underway, with Christmas items on shelves weeks before Halloween. Yet so many other holidays are overlooked or under appreciated.

In the past two months alone, there have been many holidays, including Rosh Hashanah; the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur; the Jewish Day of Atonement, United Nations Day, Columbus Day, All-Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Whether a holiday, or holy day is from our tradition or not, we can all be enriched by what is celebrated.

Advent, which will begin on November 27th this year, marks the start of the Christian year. I am taking this opportunity to really observe each holiday on the calendar by learning about its' meaning and sharing it with others.

Holidays and traditions are like building blocks of the foundation of a meaningful life. They are important to each of us; individually and collectively. They are like threads in the colorful tapestry we weave together as a world community.

We can start with Veteran's Day, wearing red shirts to honor our servicemen and women. While I may disagree with the concept and reality of war, it IS a current part of our reality, and I honor those who are willing to risk all for what we hold dear and believe.

While Red Shirt Day is any and every Friday, if you don't normally observe this I certainly invite you to on Veteran's day to truly "get in the spirit" of the holiday. For more information, click this link: Red Shirt Friday. For more information on Veteran's Day click on this link: Veteran's Day.

I am looking forard to the coming holidays, and again invite you to join me in a Holiday Revolution!

RevAli

We hope you have enjoyed this week's "Meta-Musing." We pray your holidays will be more blessed in what we have shared. If you are in the Middlesex/New London county area, know that we would welcome you at our classes, services and events.

Sincerely,

Rev. Alicia Leslie

Spirit of Unity Church