The sun sets on another day in the vast San Luis Valley.
Santa is the outgrowth of the natural child in humanity’s mind that bears good tidings. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Sacred Passageways – December, 2011)
First a Confession: I love Santa! And, I BELIEVE! After all, there's a certain canine who consistently brings good tidings to my life.
Just who is the jolly fellow that we remember this time of year? Most every culture, religious or not, has such a sacred icon. Yet in the hustle, bustle and hyper-commercialism of this season, one can lose sight of just what Santa Claus represents. That is to our detriment individually and collectively.
One of my personal early season rituals as I bring out the lights and a small, festive tree that’s travelled with me for 10 years is to bring out Gregge Tiffen’s writings about the season. I like to start with Santa as I did as a child sitting on his lap early in the season. Today, I do so as a point of reflection and a reminder of what the jolly ol’ soul represents. And that provides just the reminder I need to nourish my own inner Santa.
Through Gregge’s mystical eyes, Santa represents faith. Not faith in things or people outside of us, but faith within. And, in these times, that faith needs nourishment more than ever. We need to nurture and nourish our innate ability to know what is right for us moment to moment, choice to choice and to trust that what is, simply is and is unfolding as it should.
… when you have the willingness to accept who you are, you become aware of an internal flame that burns with a fire that is unquenchable. It’s your acceptance that dispels fears and inadequacies. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Sacred Passageways – December, 2011)
As I have written before, we live in a world that at every turn gives us choices to pull us away from who we truly are. The world fears our power, and it invites us to put our faith in systems, institutions and even other people.
Turn down those invitations of the world that are not true to who YOU are. RSVP to yourself. Take time during this season and beyond to recognize that YOU as a point in an infinite and benevolent Universe need only have faith in you and that Universe of which you are an integral part.
To whatever it might mean to you, in reality or symbolically, give yourself a period of time as a gift to yourself in which your faith is renewed. This gift is not faith in others or in the world around you but in yourself as the continuum of good operating in your life at all times under all circumstances. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Sacred Passageways – December, 2011)
This is the greatest gift of all.
It’s the faith that you are what you are that brings about miracles. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Sacred Passageways – December, 2011)
Spending time in nature’s beauty, singing, quiet time by the fire, laughing, and putting on a fun hat are some of the ways I renew my inner Santa. What about you?
Blanca Peak shows off her winter finery on a crisp sunny date in the Sangres.