As I sit here on Cyber Monday night, thinking that while I have made headway on gifts for the grandchildren and having the feeling of being a bit ‘ahead of the game’ so to speak, I start to think about where I have come from to this point I am at now in my life.
The collective residents of the United States have just celebrated Thanksgiving, the dining ritual that has come to mark not only the remembrance of a group of people who crossed the Atlantic to search for a place to Believe without persecution, but in more modern times, the hallmark of the Christmas shopping season.This also reminds me that this too, is the Season of Lack.
All last week, as visions of roasted turkey and pies flashed across our television sets, countless competing advetisements bombarded our screens and e-mail addresses. They even snuck in a moment of glory in competetion with one another and that green bean casserole ad. Savvy shoppers scoped, planned and strategized their routes within the city, urged on by relatives and friends, on who was going to be where to get in line to be one of the first ones to get that one. No wonder the Winter Holidays have become so commericalized. Being caught up in this can be quite troubling for some, as many of our brothers and sisters have had monumental changes occur in their lives in the past few years. But experiencing Lack is not always a negative thing; it can spring forth new ideas for growth and movement. It is a human event that everyone should go through at least once in their lives.
This time of the year takes me back to quite a few years ago, when I was a not-so young mother raising her kids on her own. We had no cable and television reception was nil without it. We were friends with the video rental shop owner, who would let me slide when I brought movies back late. For a time, we were without a washer, a dryer and a car, all items needed when living in a semi-rural area of the country. But the loss of these things did not condemn us to dirty clothes and walking, rather it gave us imspiration to do things a “little bit different”. Washing and drying clothes became an event that amazed us as wet jeans would dry stiff hanging outside in 16 degree weather, but had to be hung over heater vents come evening and ironed in the morning to make sure they were dry.
I remember being invited over for holiday dinners after our spiritual worship, truly knowing that the comaraderie ad sharing of the feast prepared was the Spirit of the Season. On one bright but frigid December day, I received a knock at the door, only to find two angels dressed as realtors who ‘knew’ of me and had the back of two Bronco-type vehicles full of gifts and food. They never told me how they learned about my struggles, but I sat down that year and wrote the most heartfelt and tear stained letter of thanks that I ever created. I was comforted in the knowledge that this was my ‘reward’ for all my efforts of paying it forward. It was now my turn to Receive. That was the spiritual lesson I had to learn.
Experiencing the human condition of Lack did not make me give up. Rather, it spurred me to try harder, work smarter and be vigilant on all aspects of Life. It taught me to not be Judgemental and to be more Appreciative. It also taught my littlest one to conjure up a neighbor to drive down the road we were walking when we were returning from the store, carrying our provisions in six bags, two for each of us. We were 95% successful in each of our shopping expeditions in manifesting a friend with a car. I even scratched my head at the side job of cleaning a house in the toney part of town that was already so clean you could eat off the floors, yet a check magically appeared on the kitchen cooking island every two weeks for one days work of scrubbing the waterstains off glass shower doors. Somehow I knew it as Spirit watching over me and mine.
As the years have progressed since that time, I have been blessed with Abundance. I have everything I need and I am apreciative of it. As we get closer to the day when many in the world believe that one very special One was born, take a moment to learn to give and share in anothers human experience of Lack. This gesture can be as simple as buying coffee for that early morning traveler with his pack, or taking lunch from home and donating to the shelter who feeds those out of work. Be heartfelt in recognizing their plight, as easy as the roll of the dice or a simple twist of Fate, you may be There.
