by Rain Trueax
Because of the season, I got to thinking about what does Christmas mean to each of us? To me?
It has changed totally in my lifetime from when someone else determined what happened that day (family). Then, we had the years when we made the decisions. It also involved family. The photo above was our first Christmas at the farm.
I thought about it because this will be the first year, thanks to family changes and mostly the pandemic, that since 1977, we have not been at the farm. In fact, it goes farther back then that for how many years it's been since we weren't in Oregon at all (1966). It feels weird to me, but I realize some move more often than we did; so not odd at all for how Americans shift around due to jobs or family changes. We did some of that in our early married life but not at all later. Land and livestock tend to ground a person.
Christmas for us this year will be very different as we don't really have a community (thanks to the pandemic) and our family is far away. We no longer attend a church for Christmas; but if we wanted to do so, the pandemic would have taken that away. Will it change things once the vaccine is here or, along with the new experiences from the virus, that some things changed forever?
What we have done for this year is the artificial tree, which I have come to love, along with lights and ornaments. What does the day though mean for us? Maybe we have thought about it more because of the book we have been reading, Book of the Hopi, that goes into their yearly rituals. Their community, family, and religion are complicated, more so than I had remembered from earlier reading the book. They celebrate a year based on the earth and their need to plant and have rains at the right time. Rituals are very important in their lives.
One cool thing this year will be the Christmas star. It will come with the Solstice and involves two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, coming so close together that they appear as one. I don't know that it has significance spiritually, but it's been 800 years since this last happened.
So what grounds us today as a people? Religion? Political persuasion? What does Christmas mean to you at whatever point in life you are? Some people have a life that changes a lot even if they don't move. For others, it stays the same. I'd enjoy hearing what Christmas means to you today.
The planets approaching each other, the full moon, and the last lovely sunset from November. The dove posed perfectly
2 comments:
I feel grounded to the seasons of the earth and the beauty of nature. They restore me always. I am grounded by the few times I can see my children and their children. I am driving up today for an outside birthday dinner with my son and his wife. They are very reclusive now working at home, so I expect no unreasonable danger.
Christmas meaning has altered for me through the years. When I was young the significance was very much focused on the Christian meaning in a moderate non-extremist way. Sending and receiving greetings has also been important throughout the years. Once I had children of my own Christmas continued with a more primary focus on bringing them pleasure as we were not involved in traditional religious practices or involvement. Once my husband and I were alone Christmas centered on visits from our now adult children and grandchildren which continued when I became a widow. Some years I travelled to their home, others they came to mine, sometimes circumstances were such neither occurred, giving way to virtual interactions as will definitely be the case this year. So Christmas pretty much symbolizes friends family, happiness and peace, contentment for me.
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