Something To Think About

At a time when the commercial Christmas has a tendency to swamp the sacredness of the season, we ask and are being asked, “What do you want this year?” There are certainly things that we would quite like, things that we hope will be given to us, but these are not the same as our wants.

True wants are not small things satisfied by prettily wrapped parcels; they are the immense needs of inner space that can be overwhelmed by all our little wants and yearnings. To consider our real needs – the things we lack in our lives – is often too frightening, opening up an abyss of need that calls our very existence into question.

Our real wants eat holes in us; never resting, never loving, never greeting, never finding, never seeking, never ever being satisfied deep down. These ravenous wants define our treasures so truly. They create a Christmas list that no store could supply; time to stop and really enjoy, in a space of quietness and contentment, all the things we were put on earth to do.

Space to give and receive love reciprocally. The grace to seek and find our spiritual joy. Freedom from the tyranny and burden of other’s expectations, of what others think. Acceptance of ourselves as we truly are. The list could go on and on once we begin to set down our true needs.

From: The Winter Solstice