It’s Christmas Eve and I Can’t Feel the Spirit.

The Spirit of Christmas was something I welcomed with an open heart and mind. As a child in school, Christmas was celebrated to show compassion and generosity. We were taught to find it in our hearts to understand people we saw as poor or unfortunate and the ones we envied for their wealth.

 Our charge was to locate a place of empathy and that love would spread.

Dicken’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ was our guide. Being like Scrooge at the end of the movie, was our goal.

Things have eroded my spirit—the unrelenting political arguments cause divisions within families, political parties, and friends. Then there is the obvious change in our climate and having to deal with deniers, people so afraid that they might have to alter entrenched habits that they fight viciously. The constant barrage of disagreements in every sphere of life eroded my spirit.  From flat earth to climate change, to election fraud, to spreading gossip that ruins reputations, my essence has been worn down.

I see the path ahead and I am concerned. What can one person do against this tsunami of hate?  

That’s when I buckle down and meditate. Each morning I sit to pause my active thoughts and breathe. Will that solve the problems of our world? No, not at all. But it might give me a chance to find my lost Christmas spirit.