What would a conscious Christmas look like?  It would look like the Christ - loving others, caring about others without second agendas, no attempt to impress, patient, and caring.  It would not be limited to a day, evening, or night.  It would not be a special event.  It would be a life-long endeavor, focusing the power of goodness, compassion, and Divinity onto to every interaction and experience.  It would be willful, not mindlessly habitual.  It would demand commitment and an elevated perception.  It would be the experiences of love, wisdom, and compassion brought into the matter of your life.

Gary and I lived in a small mountain town during the first eight years of our spiritual partnership. I learned many things about myself during those years. One of them was that even people who consider themselves to be spiritual cannot discern when they are being controlled by fear-based parts their personalities until they have the ability to know whether their intentions are coming from love or from fear.

I remember one Christmas eve we were with the spiritual people in our chosen extended family at a lovely potluck dinner.  The musicians among us were playing beautiful music and we were all singing together and enjoying ourselves.  Gary and I noticed something that no one was talking about, and we realized that we had observed it previously.  The things that were most important for us to talk about - and often obvious to all of us - were pushed under the rug, for example, someone acting without integrity in relationship to money. 

We both felt this would be a good time - a Christmas gathering - to talk about some of these things from an impersonal (multi-sensory) and loving perspective rather than the fear-based personal perspectives of parts of our personalities that judge and create separation. However, when Gary began to speak about one of the things that everyone at the gathering already knew but would not talk about, most of the people there reacted.  Some objected to bringing attention to these things, especially at Christmas.  One fled to a loft for the remainder of the evening. All except one wanted Gary to stop talking.  He said, "This is the first time we have been real!"

This was my first experience of my extended chosen family reacting, and I realized with a jolt that we were usually in unspoken agreement not to speak about the very things that we most needed to speak about in order to share love and create harmony instead of the pretend love and harmony that happened when we refused to experience, much less talk about, frightened parts of our personalities that silently judge and become distant instead of acknowledging and discussing emotionally difficult things.

This was a painful experience for me, but it showed me how much courage it takes to create authentic power, to create with loving parts of my personality when frightened parts of my personality are active. 

Remembering that Christmas evening has helped me many times since when I knew my intention was loving and that I needed to act with integrity no matter what reactions that might cause.  That special evening showed me what a conscious Christmas feels like and how different it is from an unconscious Christmas.

I wish you many loving and conscious Christmases.