Home for the Holidays

It’s been a rough year – one way or the other.  Our world seems a different place from the world we knew, the world where we grew up.  There are no roadmaps, and it’s a bumpy ride. 

The holidays should be a comfort, but we all know better than that.  The pressure to entertain, to gift everyone under the sun and to tolerate our own relatives sometimes seems more than we can bear.  Thanksgiving is past and Christmas is hard upon us with all its anticipation and expectations. The days shorten and darkness descends on our planet, our home. It seems metaphorical, this descent of dark days before the world gets brighter. 

Our community has lost some fine folks this past year, people who were so much a part of the fabric of our world that we never really considered that they would leave us, and the holidays are rougher without them.  Some of the shine is gone.  The ancients considered the stars of the skies the eyes of those who have gone before us. We take comfort in in the night skies of December shining down upon all of us, reminders of those we love who are still a part of us and of our universe.  And that there is hope.

We are children of this universe, fragile souls on a fragile planet; we are not only stewards of that planet, but we are here to care for one another. We are all made of the same stardust: the magic of physics and religion and faith.

Be kind to one another, and to your home on earth as you pass through...we are all just passing through.