Headed East?

I intentionally didn't write a blog for Western Christmas.  I don't think I was ready for it.  I love Advent.  I am usually not ready for Western Christmas when it appears.  It is important to me to follow the liturgical calendar and remain within myself.  If it takes me more time to move through the calendar then it does.  I am not held captive by predetermined boxes through which I am to schedule everything.  Since it has been a little while, I hope that people who do read this consider what I have been reflecting upon.  Whether my friends and family live in the north, south, east, or west, we usually have little time during the winter to be able to reflect a little more on what another year in our lives will bring.

While I didn't write specifically about Western Christmas, it seems that I am ready to go from Advent to Epiphany.  But, what happened to the birth of Jesus?  Well, this year, it's the next day: Eastern Christmas.

When I think of the upcoming season of Advent, I think of claymation.  While I understand that this may not be what others think of, I learned about jazz, claymation, and Epiphany through the California Raisins.  I loved the Christmas special when I was kid and watched it with anticipation every year.  "We Three Kings" quickly became my favorite season song while the other kids were in love with Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  When people say Rudolf, I think of Chevrolets.  I'm an El Pasoan.  While this is not the wisest of holiday specials or commercials, tv has played a large role in most people's lives.  It doesn't play such a large role in my life anymore.  So, I didn't watch one holiday special this year and don't intend to which has caused me to question:  What are the wise gifts that I bring this Epiphany for the Christ child?  It's the "Little Drummer Boy" who asks this question in our lore about the nativity.  So what do I bring:

My Gold:  My creativity is the most malleable gift I have been given to give back.  Under standard conditions, just like gold, I think my creativity remains a part of my life as a practice that I have continued to have throughout the work I do and the thoughts about the future I have.

My Frankincense:  Just as frankincense is the most common incense in every major world religion, the one thing I have in common with everyone else is my humanity.  I am not a perfect human being, and it is in the places where I find myself to be human and not other than I am that I bring to give.  My gift is imperfection and difference which is common to everyone.

My Myrrh:  My gift of blood-passion, as myrrh balances the blood from birth, is a connection with nature and the natural world.  I'm from a family of farmers.  Connecting with nature empowers every other gift, large and small, that I have been given.  

Just like a heated censer, gold, frankincense, and myrrh combine to visual prayers of creativity, commonality, and connecting with nature for all of God's children.  This is the wisdom that I have found in the time I have spent reflecting on and preparing for next year.  It is only in wisdom that anyone is really ready for Christmas -- the gift of God of Himself to us with us for us.

Eastern Christmas takes place this year on January 7th, one day after Western Epiphany.  Some people may think it is just 6s and 7s.  2015 in sequence yields between west moving back to the east: "the vision of God is Christ the Lord."  A divine gift to an ailing world seeking for God is oneness with Him to which "All the People Said Amen."