This time of year I often go through my home and find things I can give away.  Since we tend to accumulate more stuff at Christmastime, it seems timely to clean out the old to make room for the new.  Fortunately, as my children are now mostly grown, we have less need to accumulate more stuff.  However, it still feels necessary to give away whatever is no longer needed or useful.  This outer activity seems to reflect what I’m also feeling inwardly.  There is an inner need to examine what no longer serves us, what we’ve outgrown, and what may be holding us back spiritually.  As I go through my physical stuff, I often recall the usefulness or enjoyment the item once brought even as I now feel ready to let it go.   My inner process is no different.  Before I choose to let go of some quality or behavior, I often reflect on how I perceive it once served me.  We have not accumulated our inner qualities randomly.  Rather, at some point, they were deemed useful, even necessary.  But, like our physical stuff, we outgrow certain traits and behaviors.  Their usefulness diminishes.  These qualities can almost feel like old friends; they may have been with us for many years and have seen us through difficult times.  Perhaps it is our sarcastic nature that helped hold people at bay, our pride that is quick to bolster our confidence, or our judgmental nature that assures us of being right.  There is a reason we chose each of these qualities and a need we’ve had to maintain them.  But perhaps we are ready now to let something go.   Each quality needing to be transmuted has a story.  Listen to its story, be open to what it has to teach you, and in love release it into the transforming Light of God.

(thoughts and reflections by Andrea Chinn-Parillo)

Perhaps this post will be reminiscent of neighbors who put up Christmas lights too early or stores that promote Christmas shopping well before we’ve finished our Thanksgiving feast.  However, this year I cannot quit thinking about my inner preparations for Christmas.

As Advent approaches, we begin examining our lives in an effort to distill that which we are being called to refine, that which we could offer as our gift to Christ this Christmas Eve.   When I was young, I saw this exercise as a chore.  What was I going to give up this year?  I felt like a child being asked to give up a favorite toy.  This was not something I looked forward to doing.  Age brings a different perspective.  Rather than a chore, it now feels like an incredible opportunity.  We have the opportunity to draw closer to that which we desire to become.  This is what Christ is calling us to do.  Who will you be a year from now?  What will you refine; what will you transform?  It is up to you whether this time next year finds you unchanged or deepened, widened, and more opened spiritually.  Flower reminds us, “Time is very precious because it contains the essence out of which all things emerge.”  What will you do in the coming year to emerge transformed?

(thoughts and reflections by Andrea Chinn-Parillo)

Jonathan Wiltshire shared  William Jennings Bryan's insights about the power of the watermelon seed in his recent talk.  “This tiny little seed has the power of creating a fruit that is 200,000 times its weight. It draws whatever nutrients it needs from the dirt and sun and colors a unique spherical, almost psychedelic rind by smearing various tones of green, and then creates a white rind inside and within that a crunchy, juicy succulent red center, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of yet another fruit that’s 200,000 times its weight. If an itsey, bitsey teeney, weeney seed can draw that much power from a handful of dirt, imagine what we can do.”

As Advent approaches, we may be considering what gift we will give the Lord Emmanuel this Christmas Eve.  What will we offer up to Him as an expression of our love and devotion?  Imagine your gift as a seed you will plant in the garden of your becoming.  What nutrients will you draw upon to see its potential realized?

(thoughts and reflections by Andrea Chinn-Parillo)