Oh Holy Night, the Stars are Brightly Shining
There is great magic in a starry night. As a kid, we used to lay on the hood of my mom's car on a summer's night, staring at the stars, looking for constellations and trying to be the first to call out Orion or the Big or Little Dipper. I remember Friday nights spent at my cousins' house, doing the same thing. We'd cram onto the hood of my Uncle's car, several of us, while the remaining ones who hadn't gotten there first leaned against the car, gazing at the night sky. It was magical, almost Holy, as we dreamed about other worlds, and giggled at the closeness of each other, squirming and trying not to slide off of the hood.
The beauty of growing older, for me anyway, is the acknowledgement and respect I have developed for other religions, other beliefs and other lifestyles. Whatever your belief system is, and how you came to believe, it deserves respect without someone trying to shove their own beliefs down your throat.
In the end, we may or may not be judged. For me, I believe that I will graduate to a new life based on what I've learned in this one. Or I will be destined to return - here - to get to the proper level of learning and understanding before I can move on. As far as I know, I've always been and always will be. It is my firm belief that I will never cease to exist in some form. What pushes me forward and keeps me going is knowing that I am taking what I've learned in this life, preparing myself for what is to come, and trying to be better every single day as I cultivate a path for my future.
Who or what is my savior or saving grace may not be yours, but I respect yours and hope that you respect mine.
It seems that we are all pining for something more, something better, some kind of improvement. We feel guilt at times for the errors of our ways and sometimes we attempt, at various stages in our lives, to rectify who we are and/or what we've done. Christianity believes that if we accept Christ into our hearts, we are forgiven for all. Judaism believes that we must lead a good life, a life of accomplishment and atonement, that actions truly do speak louder than words. Buddhism believes that we should lead a moral life, be aware of our actions and consequences, and strive to develop wisdom and understanding. These religions are similar in many ways. Christians will say that the main difference is that no other religion named a King/Savior and called him God. I get that. Regardless, we can worship a God as we see him/her or we can worship Gods as we see them/those. For me, I choose to live as moral a life as possible and to love love love. Love is everything (at least for me).
Whether we find our worth in any of these religions or in some other form of religion or belief system, it is our own personal journey. I've been on a journey for many years, having been raised Catholic and having embraced all that Christianity provides. Now, as a grandmother, my journey has led me to believe in and respect many different things. It has been freeing for me in so many ways - even in alleviating occasions of guilt, depression, sadness, loneliness. I believe that I am surrounded by life unseen and believe that my life is intertwined with that unseen "plane." My parents are part of it and many others are a part of it.
Rather than go on about this now, I'll save it for another day, another post and simply say that I do believe it is important to search for and, hopefully, find our place in this world/life while we are here. Contributing to the good of others and the good of ourselves (in an unselfish way) is huge in this journey.
Without hope, we have nothing. "Hope inspires the good to reveal itself," said Emily Dickinson. Sometimes all we have to hold onto is hope and hope keeps us from becoming weary or growing jaded. We all have hopes and some are realized sooner rather than later. Some are never realized, at least not in our lifetime, but I have faith that all of my hopes will eventually be realized, whether here on this Earth or somewhere in time where I will continue to exist (Heaven? Nirvana? Mars?). There is great thrill when our hopes are realized; it is then that our faiths and greatest joys are revealed. Hold onto hope. It is a fabulous intangible that is way up there with love.
If you've ever seen the movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey," you know that the music that is played near the end of the movie is exhilarating, hopeful, maybe a bit frightening. But this is the kind of sound I believe happens in the heavens at the point when a desire is about to be realized. When the fruition of a hope is about to be born, that music plays loudly as the angels swirl and clang their cymbals and a new dawn breaks, a glorious morn. Our hearts revel in the feeling of a hope realized, and what a feeling it is!
Yes, that's what I'm talking about! When prayer or desires are answered, there are times when I just fall onto my knees in gratitude and we can hear/feel that song (whatever it is for you and me) playing in my/our hearts. It is absolute beauty, and the breathtaking moment of a gift received in the form of answered prayer, pining or hope is spectacular.
Divinity. Night Divine. Christ. God. Faith. Hope. Joy. Love. Prayers Answered. It's all part of what makes us human. God is Love. Love is God. We hold God, love, hope, joy, faith in our hearts. Our hearts are the core of who we are. The soul strives for more - for better; and that soul lives in each of us, perhaps as an entity all its own, and this is where our conscience or lack thereof manifests. As Walter M. Miller said, "You don't have a soul...you are a soul."
Let your soul live divinely. Allow it to soar and search. Allow it to find what its source of "divine" is and, in doing so, complete itself as we near the end of our journey here and prepare ourselves for the next step.
