Sunday Message

Gifts...

Giving

If the sun were asked why it is giving light, if it could speak to us, it would answer that it is its nature to do so.  Be like the sun.  This is the purpose of life..."       -Papa Ramdas

Tis the season...for making lists and checking them twice.  Gift giving has become a hallmark of Christmas.  Whether an unpretentious stocking stuffer or a dazzling selection from the 2006 Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book, giving a gift is a highly symbolic deed.  With that in mind, I offer this obvious, but important thought to take shopping with you this Christmas:

The more conscious awareness and mindful intent you bring to your gift giving, the more meaningful is the gift.

Sometimes when I observe the massive commercialism and hard-sell marketing aspects of Christmas, I sigh, and think of the story about Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers and the dove sellers in the temple.  It isn't pretty, is it?  All this buying and selling in the House of God.  Yet at the same time, the essential energy and act of giving and receiving at Christmas time is so beautiful, and "shopping" in the market at times does have its place in the exchange.  That paradox, though difficult to spiritually reconcile at times, ultimately serves to stretch my soul into a greater understanding and experience of acceptance and love without condition.  It is what it is.  I don't have to criticize it, fix it, or change it.  I can, however, be sure that I am not unconsciously swept up in it.

You know who helps me do that?

The Little Drummer Boy.

That apocryphal song, written in 1958, is beloved and endures because it pretty much cuts to the chase.  Though it, too, has often been commercialized, the splendor and purity of the message in that song is a tremendous gift to humankind.  Humility.  Simplicity.  Recognizing and sharing the gift of your being with no strings attached.  Doing your best.  Clearly, the lyrics and music are inspired; they are a shining gift given to us all through the heart and mind of the composer and the voices of all who play and sing it.  Once again, even in the midst of the sometimes crass and frantic Christmas marketplace, Spirit moves through art.

The Little Drummer Boy.  The gift of music.

The more conscious awareness and mindful intent you bring to your gift giving, the more meaningful is the gift.

Today, in the Spirit of the Little Drummer Boy, and with only 21 shopping days left before Christmas, I remind you, there is no greater gift than the gift of your being.  Sure, the wrapping is nice, but it's what's inside you that counts.  Your breath, your life, your presence, your talent(s), whatever they may be.  YOU are the essential gift from which all other gifts flow.

Such a humbling and empowering awareness.

Next Sunday (December 10th) there will be a Vision gathering at 10:00 AM at the Greenbrier Community Center in Woodinville.  Mike Pryor will be sharing the gift of his inspiring music and lyrics with us.  If you can be there, I'd love to see you. 

I'll play my best for you.

Pa rum pum pum pum.

The Gift I Came To Bring [Lyrics]