Beginnings and Endings

Friends,

The combination of the religious holiday season, the observance of the solstice, and the end of another calendar year, are all reasons to recognize the various beginnings and endings associated with this time of year. And although there is much to celebrate about new life and new beginnings, they also remind us of the sweep of changes in our lives that often mean some loss and sadness. 

Let’s begin with the celebration. This is the time for various family reunions, social gatherings, and holiday cards, letters and photos that allow us to share the years’ memories, current status of our precious community lives, and our plans for the future. When families gather we may listen attentively to hear the youth express their excitement for the new experiences in school and their social and extracurricular explorations in these very formative years. And the college students return home to report on how they are successfully meeting the challenges of their academics and related accomplishments during the past year. Throughout the day of shared meals and conversation the adults marvel at the growth of the young people while also reporting on their own careers and various commitments to family, work, social lives, and voluntary service. And the precious time together also allows the elders to learn how to step back from their leadership roles, observe the emergence of the new generations, and perhaps remind themselves and others of the stories and memories shared over the years together. All this, of course, is within a context of music, laughter, gift giving and scrumptious holiday meals, deserts, and rounds of traditional family cookies. I hope this scenario describes at least some of your holiday celebrations.

But perhaps because our holiday reunions often have too high expectations of warmth and joy, in addition to the cultural marketing that suggests most we are supposed to be celebrating in a joyous holiday spirit, the holidays also can be a time of poignant loneliness and perhaps grief for many. The festive celebrations may remind us of conversations no longer available with those who are not able to join us this year or who have passed on. Or we may feel the poignancy of sadness that occupy our lives with difficulties in our health, finances, or living situations. May we also be aware of those for whom this is an emotionally challenging time time as well.

So the combination of these experiences of both joyous celebration and poignant feelings of sadness often makes the holiday season complicated. If we can step back, however, and view life “from the balcony,” our holiday rituals and reunions are the very important stuff that encourages us to come alive personally, to celebrate the richness and fullness of life itself, especially in community where it is safe and supportive to share both our joys and our sorrows. And it is an opportunity to contemplate the meaning of celebrating God’s presence in our personal and historical lives though the birth of a poor child who would grow into the man who offered us a powerful ethic of love and nonviolence through the gift of the Gospel narrative. I would like to believe all of us, secular or religious, can recognize the ultimate gift we are to each other, and for life itself, and to celebrate this season as a time of deep gratitude for the familial ties and close friendships that anchor and infuse our lives with meaning.  The combination of gratitudes and celebration of each other thus defines the heart of our holiday commemorations, exemplified by our gift giving and the celebration of food and traditions together.

As we honor the beginnings and endings in our lives, the solstice grounds our sense of presence within the rhythm of the universe itself with its promise of more light and lengthening days, and it is both exciting and humbling to celebrate the awe and reverence for the Grand Mystery of the universe we observe with great wonder and appreciation. The beginning of a new year under the Gregorian calendar is far less dramatic, but allows us to literally and psychologically turn a new page in our lives. Both events extend our lives beyond the temporal and fleeting days of our everyday lives and sets a course for future.

So gather your gratitudes and hopes and celebrate the gifts and wonders of life during this seminal and transformational holiday season of our lives. The new year will likely include times of confusion and insecurity, and it is good we acknowledge anew how important we are to each other. In spite of the difficulties we may face, let us me reminded that we are also grounded by the stability of the celestial world and a faith in the enduring power of love and truth.

Peace,
Tom