Last night during our Wisdom Wednesday and Chocolate, we had a great discussion, as we always do. (See Wisdom Wednesday and Chocolate below) I brought up the topic of Christmas and what it might mean to each of us. I wasn’t surprised at the responses. Christmas means everything from regret to a feeling of indifference to an appreciation of the Spirit of the Holiday, to shifting something from the past. However, I want to go deeper and I keep asking myself: What does Christmas mean to me? Why do I look forward to it so much? Why do I like celebrating? Is it just a habit based in the past or is it truly present?

I think it is most definitely a habit based in the past. Many of us bring the traditions of our family forward and try to replicate them. Others of us, try to make our own traditions. I do a mix of both. In fact, there are parts of my past that I totally reinvent because I didn’t like them at all. But, still I ask, what is Christmas, really?

As I continue to open up to the answer to this question, I ask, why is it important to me to know? There is more to Christmas than meets the eye. I remember the story of the peace truces that have happened on Christmas Day, wars that literally stopped for a period of time. I’ve always thought that was totally ridiculous. If you are going to stop fighting for a period of time because of Christmas, then why not stop all together?

But, still I ask myself, What is Christmas? I know we are all living from our subconsciousness. It is producing what is present in our lives right now. Christmas is part of that subconscious. It is part of the Collective Consciousness. It lives within each of us, as does the other Holidays of Light that we celebrate at this time of year – Hanukkah, Kwanza, Solstice… . There is a place within each of us that needs ritual. We need something that brings us together as a human family. The Holidays do that. I think it is our longing to be one. The consciousness of Oneness lives in us, even though we do not always practice it. Perhaps Christmas calls that consciousness forward.

Whatever Christmas is or Hanukkah is that is the past, what I would like to do is make it new. I would like to focus on how it applies to today. I would like to let go of all the traditions and begin new. I would love it if we could take our life right where it is now, not holding on to some past Christmas memory and just focus on the Light, the Love, the Oneness and create a new Holiday. If I do this, Christmas will reveal itself to me in a new way.

I invite us all to delve deeply into the Season. I invite us to not just disregard it because of the memories it brings up, but to create something new for ourselves. The consciousness of love and oneness that calls for Peace truces and deep gift giving deserves attention by us individually. If we care to examine our own consciousness surrounding this time of year, I know there is a new gift for each of us that will move us forward into the present in all areas of our life.

Much love and aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Founding Director CSL Kaua`i and the Institute of Magnificence and Author of “What Do I Need to KNOW? 101 Thoughts That Changed My Life” and “This Thing Called Treatment,” both available on Amazon.

*Wisdom Wednesday and Chocolate is an evening at CSLKaua`i, every Wednesday at 6:30pm HT, where we bring a Principle of the Science of Mind and Spirit into focus for discussion and application in our lives.