Embracing Simplicity in a Season of Excess

The holiday season brings on a time that, in our culture, has come to be filled with excess....excess of food, excess of gifts, the need to decorate in such a way that it impresses, the need to have the picture postcard life, or at least the appearance of it. Celebrating abundance is a wonderful exercise, when we are in a place to really understand what abundance truly is. Often, to feel abundance in our souls, we must have loss and emptiness to allow a greater blessing to be showered upon us...very often, a blessing that we could never see in the fog of illusions that we pile upon ourselves.

This past year has been a time of sorting out for me...walking away from comfort zones, from some material possessions, and from much that is familiar to me in such a way that I could be emptied and filled with something greater. The willingness to lose, risk, or walk away was an attempt at demonstrating faith, as it it came to me in no less than a calling that was far greater than myself. There have been moments along the way when I have had to surrender, to verbally tell God and the angels to lead the way to help me fulfill my purpose, affirming that I would follow in surrender, even when I was apprehensive about what might be asked. It has not been easy, yet each step told me that I was on the right path, no matter how hard it was.

The latest such surrender came with the passing of my beloved yellow Labrador retriever, Katie, who developed sudden massive tumors that caused a quick demise. Katie was 14, so I knew it was coming at some point, but putting her down two days before Thanksgiving was not an easy task. It left me empty to the extent that I have just today been able to write about it, and I do so with tears streaming down my face. There have been moments when I feel that I have surrendered too much in this last year or so, in this quest to follow odd curiousities, to take on topics that I would rather not take on, to develop gifts that I had not asked for but felt compelled to develop. I have felt resistance in some form from many of those around me. Yet, in the surrender has come so much joy and a sense of knowing that tells me that the efforts are worth the difficulties.

Jesus talked about surrender when he suggested that giving away all that we have to the poor would make us richer in our souls. Yet we have turned his birth into a time of excess and materialism to such an extent that it is sometimes nauseating. I do not count myself out of that mix, as I know that I have wandered through many Christmas seasons more concerned about getting the decorations up and the gifts purchased than about stopping to understand his real message. Jesus taught that surrender - not to him, but like him - was the true way to abundance and joy - the true way to our soul - and our only path the our Higher Self and to God. Even churches use this celebrated time of Jesus birth for their own agenda, rather than portraying his true message that our path to God (or the universal energy of pure love) is already within us as individuals, if we just go within, surrender, and allow it. It does not require joining anything, does not require following a subscribed set of rules or agenda, does not require any more of us than the willingness to let go of all we know or all that we have been taught and ask for God or Holy Spirit to fill us with truth - to connect us to our true selves and our true purpose.

There is a saying that nature abhors a vacuum. Surrender creates the emptiness - the vacuum - which allows the miracles, the flow of abundance, and the joy to fill our souls. It is not for those who have little true faith, but it is there for any of us willing to look deeper, willing to understand that there may be far more in store for us than our simple minds have been trained to expect. Many times we speak of faith but then are reluctant to ever demonstrate it in any meaningful way. In the spirit of the season, step back and examine your own excesses and just how much you would be willing to surrender to be filled with the ultimate power of the Universe - to be filled with God energy. Make an attempt to live in true faith as Jesus did, and perhaps you will find miracles beyond your greatest imagination.