Look to the Light

Look to the Light

(A Holiday Letter to the Moon)

Hello Luna,

     How are you? It has been some time since I’ve written. I saw you a few weeks ago, in your gorgeous full moon stage. You lit up the nighttime sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. The entire stage was yours. You shone beautifully that night. I love your light.

How are things for you? Things have been fine for me. The holiday season is upon us. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And that is just fine with me. I remember writing last year about how stressed I felt about the upcoming holiday season. Thankfully, I do not feel that way at all this year. I am ready for Christmas. It has already been a busy season.

I began the holiday season with a Thanksgiving feast with my family. I had a migraine that day, which was not fun in the last. However, my headache was finished by the time of the feast.

A couple weeks ago I went to a concert that was the perfect way to begin the holiday season; I went to see The Piano Guys. I did not know much about the group before I went to the concert. Seeing them in person, performing live, they are consummate musicians. Their skill is breathtaking to behold. Their dedication to their music reawakened my dedication for my work, for my writing.

I also decorated my home for the holidays. Because my house is for sale, I did not put up my Christmas tree. As you know, it is a huge tree, which makes my living room look much smaller. My challenge then became how to decorate my home, without my Christmas tree, and still make my home feel warm and welcoming and festive.

I found a lovely garland strand with lights which I put on my mantelpiece and some flameless candles in my fireplace. It looks quite lovely. I then put up a small Christmas tree this year, which I put on top of my entertainment center so my cats cannot attack it.

With the Christmas decorations in my home, it looks lovely. The Christmas tree was the key. It was then beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, which was a welcome feeling. I missed my Christmas tree.

Last week I made my world famous chocolate covered pretzels for my Christmas party at work. The smell of the chocolate as it melts is heavenly and completely decadent. It makes the whole house smell of chocolate. I now associate this smell with Christmas. I only experience this smell when I make my pretzels, which is only at Christmastime.

I find myself missing some of the experience of Christmas. I usually watch my Christmas movies and holiday specials leading up to Christmas. I have not been doing that this year. I have been watching Christmas movies on television, which has been wonderful. Yet I have not been watching the Christmas movies and specials in my collection. I have decided to spend this weekend watching my Christmas movie collection, specifically my Rankin/Bass Claymation DVDs and my Muppets DVDs. Then it will feel like Christmas.

The holiday season seems to be the perfect time of year to pause and reflect, to think on the year that has been. Yet this has been an awful year for many parts of the world. I saw a “Year in Review” segment on one of the morning shows this morning. It was completely depressing. It seems that the awful events of this year outweighed the good.

For me, when I think back on the year that has been, I think about the terrorist attack in Paris, the attack in the hotel in Mali. I think about the racism in the U.S., the struggles with law enforcement. I think how the U.S. has become xenophobic and Islamophobic. I think about the prevailing gun violence. There have been more mass shootings in the U.S. than there have been days in the year. I think about the refugees that have made an exodus from Syria. I heard there has not been anything similar to this mass exodus since the Second World War.

It is easy for humanity to focus on the darkness of these times, to not look for the light, to not seek out the good. But I tell you Luna, the current state the world is in, it need not be. 

I pray to God for peace, I pray for change, I pray for and end to violence, I pray to find the light. I pray this to God, and 
I pray this to the world.

Yet, I fear that may not be enough. I read an excerpt from a recent interview with the Dalai Lama, in which he spoke of these dark times in the world, of terror attacks, of gun violence. His Holiness said:

“We cannot solve this problem only through prayers…

humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it.

It is illogical. God would say, 
‘solve it yourself because you created it in the first place.’”

In these dark times, we need to remind one another look for the light, to look for the peace and goodwill of the season. There is peace in the world. There is good will. We just have to remember to look for it. I am reminded of the quote from J.K. Rowling, which was spoken by Albus Dumbledore, in the Harry Potter book series:

“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times,

if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

I look to the light, Luna. I look to your light. I look to the light of the season, to the light within us, to the good in the world, to the peace in the world. I look for the light of hope, the light of peace.

Thank you for watching over us Luna. Thank you for shining your light for us, for lighting the way in the darkness.

Merry Christmas Luna. Happy holidays.

“Super Moon” by Marco Guinter