The Gathering Light
While shepherds watched their flocks by night, they saw a bright new shining star
Author’s Note: Hi all, just want to clear up any confusion in advance: all references to darkness (or the lack of light) in the following essay are referencing evil.
Ye Who Now Will Bless the Poor, Shall Yourselves Find Blessing
Each of us is imbued with power to extinguish darkness. Upon conception we were all given a candle of compassion and that fire burns from cradle to grave.
Whether you feed or suffocate that ember will determine your course. Should you nurture it with good works and love the strengthening flame will better guide you. Like igniting a torch in a cavern, as this inner light grows it will illuminate the gloom with increasing intensity revealing better paths to travel. Over time as the fog lifts and you are able to see farther, making progressively better choices will become natural. The opposite is also true.
If you are not regularly tending this torch, then the question I pose dear reader, is what could be more fulfilling in life than filling the stomachs of those suffering in starvation? Or passing out blankets to those who are freezing? Or building houses for those without shelter?
How is your spare time better spent than making the lives of those less fortunate, and thus the world, better? This investment will repay both principle & interest, plus compounding dividends to you and future generations. All that is needed is a little drive and focus…
Focus. We have so many distractions in our life and this never-ending avalanche of (false-light) information spilling from screens and radios all around us tends to shatter our flow of consciousness causing us to (as designed) lose sight of what actually matters. And so given this blitz we must work extra hard to tend our inner flame, lest it be reduced to a flickering spark which will dim not only our discernment but our ability to discover the best direction and follow it.
What matters?
What Matters Executive Summary
Being more like Him:
And less like him:
The Light is Gathering…
…from new friends who arrive just in the nick of time
In those who are grateful for such friends and in turn propagate their kindness…
…to those who need it the most and will do the same
The Light is Spreading…
…from the compassionate among us who recognize suffering & must mend it
Outward from those mended souls and…
…into the future as this acquired benevolence ripples & rewrites our collective destiny
The Light is Here
Inside each of us where that spark of courageous love can swell into a raging fire
From every dawn that offers a new chance to stoke that fire and enrich the future
Where even the smallest gesture of good will can tend that flame in others
Merry Christmas to All from Out Here on the Perimeter
Good King Wenceles - This Essay Is Based on This Song (Accidentally Graceful) [3:09 minutes]
Mary’s Boy Child - This Child is Astonishing (Connie Talbot) [3:23 minutes]
Belleau Wood - This is A Must Listen if You’ve Yet to Hear It (Garth Brooks) [3:30 minutes]
Little Drummer Boy - Play this One in Your Car With the Volume Up (Kenny Rogers) [3:29 minutes]
Come on Ring Those Bells (Evie) - Time Travel to Better Days [3:02 minutes]
Best Wishes to All, Farewell for Now
Ah, but first, one final item: If you’re not on this road and one day decide to take it, remember—any pain you may feel by doing so today will be the strength you feel tomorrow [3:49 minutes]
God bless you. Merry Christmas
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Beautiful post. Thank you! Didn't know anyone else out there remembered Evie. I can still remember listening to her beautiful "Come on Ring those Bells, light the Christmas tree...." over and over as a child on our old record player. Merry Christmas!