Its Been Awhile

Its been awhile since I last posted anything. Many different thoughts had crossed my mind on what to write about, Lent, Easter, for example, and yet nothing has come to pass at the moment. It does not mean that I don't keep a thought on this blog. I do. I just want to post something that will make people think.

Our world is full of busy people: busy at work, busy at play, busy just trying to survive the day. We are so busy that we seldom have time for ourselves, our thoughts, our inherent creativity. Yes, believe it or not, we are all creative, the question is where we apply this creativity. Often we apply it to make our lives easier (hahahahahaha... I know a shortcut on how to...) or we apply it to avoid something (I was on my way to work when something absolutely incredible happened to me...). It has clearly many applications which we conveniently choose to ignore. Be that as it may, we could turn the creativity to something truly creative, i.e. artistic. Even if it takes just a moment in our day. How busy could we actually be.

So in many ways, I was busy... not the most creative excuse I must admit.I was busy thinking what to write next. And it is still a struggle.

Nonetheless, I am working on something that I hope will be here soon. And hopefully, it also gives everyone another perspective on living.

Education's Epiphany

I was chatting with a colleague the other day and she was bemoaning the state of education of the country. She then asked me a question: “What can we do about the education of our children?” This got me thinking. It is an important question with an interesting perspective to it.
First, I think it is good to know that we are not alone in this struggle. While traveling for work, I come across articles in newspapers abroad where their citizens bemoan the poor quality of education in their respective countries. And the questions are quite broad, ranging from “How can we get our students to ask questions in class instead of just listening to lectures?” to “Why do our students go on killing sprees?” Over the past years, woven into the various reports of newspapers here and abroad, questions on the nature, quality, direction of education are inevitably raised.
This all brings to mind something: everyone who raises the question (verbally or mentally) has some sort of “standard” to gauge against. Many times, we compare it to how we were educated and almost always, there was something “better” during our time compared to now. Does this really mean we were better educated? Who knows? How could we know? How many of us, supported by “better education” of yesteryear, feel we have achieved our life dream or life mission because of the education we received? Inevitably, our success (or lack of it which means success in a different sense) revolves around more than just the education we received. We start to speak of our life experiences and how these experiences taught us. When this point of view if taken, we begin to see that education is more than going to school, and that doing something goes a long way towards our education.
So what happens when we go to school? We sit there, listen attentively (hopefully), absorb, and then apply via a test. I sure we all feel that this is what it was like or that it was something not too far from this experience. There seemed to be so much to learn and so much we didn’t know so there seemed to be something inherently “good” about being in school. Well, lets try to take another look at this perspective.
We generally assume that we go to school to learn. And the reason we need to learn is that there is so much in the world that we don’t know and have to know. The modern world, with its ever rapidly changing technology, puts even more pressure on this need to learn. So here we are confronted with the first question: can we ever learn everything? What do you think? So let’s take another point of view: suppose we already know everything but we didn’t know that we knew it? Unlike the tabula rasa point of view, the point of view I am suggesting would mean that it is not a question of knowing (we already know) but rather discovering that we know. What do you think this would do to a classroom situation, to the teacher, to the entire learning processes? Just think: what if the challenge to education was not how much we would know, but how to know that we know? The difference in perspective makes a world of difference. From the tabula rasa perspective, our learning process is always a chasing one. We are continuously chasing information (sometimes erroneously called knowledge) because we need to know more in the modern world. From this perspective, the chance of ever “knowing” everything remains beyond our grasp. For every bit of information or knowledge we gain, there is always a “new” one created out there that now we must seek our and find and learn. But do we really learn? What we learn to do is to chase information. One day, we tire and agree that all we will ever know, is enough to get by.
On the other hand, what if we knew everything but just didn’t know it. Then we would have to chase anything. There would be no knowledge beyond our grasp because it would all be within us, the question is how to see it and get to it. In the second case, we can live with the hope that we can continuously learn and see something new because it is within us (literally and graspwise). The challenge is how to find this out for ourselves. Thus, from this perspective, education becomes not a question of knowing but a question of how to make manifest. Yes, how do we have an epiphany experience in education? How does what we know become manifest to us? The answer is within.
Education is a real challenge in the modern world. Degrees become symbols of prestige and power and gainful employment. In the process, we begin to lose sight of the importance of what true education means, learning through experience and learning from within. As the mood of the Epiphany season slowly fades into the background, and the Lenten season rapidly approaches, we could all take a moment to reflect on what it would take to be “educated” in the world today. No degree can cover that. Only what we truly know, hidden deep within us, can guide us to meet our destiny and mission in live.

It's Advent Again

Christmas is fast approaching. And, approaching even faster, is Advent. Advent is a convenient little festival. It happens just before Christmas to remind us that… Christmas is approaching. In a “Christmas mad” country like ours, where the Christmas countdown begins in September, it is almost unnecessary to have a formal reminder of its approach. Yet Advent comes, and often goes, buried beneath the glitz and glamour of Christmas. It is easy to think, therefore, why even bother with Advent.
For many of us, Advent is a festival that heralds the coming of Christmas; or perhaps, a better way, to put is, it heralds the coming of the Christ. It is a reminder that we need to prepare for this coming of Christ. But how does one prepare, especially in a modern world that occupies all our time? Do we set aside more time for prayer, for going to mass, for meditation, for doing good deeds? More importantly, how does one prepare inside?
Let us imagine that our very bodies were dark caves. Our external appearance would be like the surrounding mountains (and for some of us on the heavy side, we do look like rounded hills). Hidden beneath our external appearance lies a cavity, a cave. Like all caves, this is a dark, damp place, possibly with flowing rivers and calcium based formations. It is full of life, yet not readily visible to the naked eye. The part of our body that faces the external world, lives continuously in the steady rhythm of sunlight and moonlight. Our hidden selves, that part which lies within us, lives constantly in the dark. Such is our physical design.
Let us now extend this imagination. Let us imagine that Christ is to be born in this cave within us, this darker region of our beings. When we are dirty, we take a bath, yet this only cleanses our external being. How do we cleanse and prepare our inner regions to take in the Christ? With this picture, as simple as it may sound, we begin to develop an idea of how difficult it must be to prepare for the coming of the Christ. We cannot simply “wash” our inner beings with soap and water much as we do our external beings. To cleanse our inner beings would require a transformation of our lifestyle. Ask any doctor. If you are overweight with fatty deposits clogging the arteries, the permanent solution is to change your eating habits. This requires a change in lifestyle. Thus, by extending this analogy, we see to that prepare our inner beings for the Christ, we must begin by revisiting our lifestyles. How does our lifestyle clean or sully our inner being.
Whenever confronted with a challenge as difficult as this, we look for models; others who may inspire us on how to do it. For Advent, the preparation of the coming of the Christ, there is such a model: Mary. Mary was approached by an archangel and told that she had a task. What ensued was a conversation between Mary and the archangel. Like a diligent “patient” Mary sought to understand what was happening, why her, what is she to do? The archangel, like a good doctor, gave the information he was capable of giving. Mary reflected on what she heard; then, she made a decision. Yes, she would do the task given. Not only did she mean she was ready to do it; she also meant she had prepared to do it.
Most of us never look at the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary in this light. We always see it as the wonderful event that it is. Perhaps by looking at it in a different light, it may relate directly to our preparation. Mary got all the necessary information she needed from the archangel; she thought about it; she assessed herself in a way to determine her readiness. She believed she had prepared and, as a result, accepted the task. She literally prepared a space within her for the Christ child to come. She had “cleaned” her inner being in preparation. We will never know if Mary had a healthy lifestyle, was vegetarian and exercised regularly. What we do accept is that Mary had a certain purity, clarity of soul, clean inner being that allowed her to be the bearer of the Christ child. And what a difference it made for the world.
As we prepare during Advent for the coming of Christ, let us look into our lifestyles, lifestyles that clog our inner beings with “fatty deposits”, “sugar”, “tar”, etc. that prevent us from having the clean space in our selves to receive the Christ. In a way, as we continue in our present ways, without a thought to how we live our lives, without preparing our inner selves for His coming, we are no better than the innkeepers who turned away Mary and Joseph by saying there was no room.
Advent is the time to prepare. It is difficult because it affects that which we desire most, our lifestyles. Yet, such changes are possible with tremendous results, more compassion, more love, and a cleaner, healthier world.

An Inconvenient Truth

My daughter’s class went to watch An Inconvenient Truth, a movie by Al Gore on global warming. There was a panel who, my daughter and her classmates thought, would entertain questions and have discussion. Her classmates, she said, had prepared 18 questions to put forth. The chance never materialized. I asked her about the movie. She said it was sad and very depressing.
There are many things about global warming that she did not understand. She had grasped the basic principle of warmth not being sufficiently reflected back to outer space and as a result, it creates heat. I asked her what was their first question. She said, their first question was, “Will man evolve?” If you are a die-hard supporter of the theory of evolution, then the answer would be yes. The challenge of this point of view is that it was such a random event (mutating genes and the like), that how would you know whether you would survive or not. On the other hand, if you are a strong supporter genetically modified organisms, then of course, our evolution has been well under way for some time as the food we eat is genetically modified and this in turn will modify us. What made her feel uncomfortable is the first inconvenient truth: the world that results from global warming is the world she and her children will live in.
That human beings cause global warming is not a mystery. In fact, global warming happened even long before we came along. It was a necessary ingredient for the primordial soup that some scientists believe is the source of life. On the other hand, for those who take the standpoint of divine intervention in the earth’s creation, global warming also was necessary at the start. God’s warmth, a picture of His love, flooded the earth and created the space for man to live and grow. So one may say that global warming is not necessarily a bad thing. It was, at a time, essential for life to come into being on earth.
Today, however, it appears that global warming is killing off life. Numerous studies will readily show how the world’s temperature is rising and that species of flora and fauna are dying off. But is this not consistent with the theory of evolution that only the fittest survive? In a world conceived in this fashion, then the world should be full of “fittest” and so new “unfit” flora and fauna would have to arise. Here arises another inconvenient, although obvious, truth: in a world that is changing, death is part and parcel of that change.
My daughter asked, “What can we do?” Yes, what can we do? Can we stop change? Can we stop global warming? Can we prevent death? Can we make the future look brighter instead of bleaker? What can we do?
Scores of people will flock to the idea that we must preserve and conserve the environment. But won’t preservation and conservation prevent change? Well, we could always say that is healthy change and there is unhealthy change. How would we know the difference? I am overweight and have hypertension. This is an unhealthy change to my body as most doctors will readily say. Can any good come from this unhealthy change? One answer is no; I am stuck with this condition for the rest of my life and I will have to take scores of drugs to delay or mitigate the inevitable – death. It’s interesting because to the best of my knowledge, at some point in time, I too will die. Then it becomes described as an untimely death. I’m not entirely sure what a timely death is. In any case, this is one possible point of view. On the other hand, the opposite answer of yes is also possible. My condition has made me reflect on my like, my lifestyle, my habits – both good and bad. It had created in me a greater awareness of who I am, where I came from and where I am going. It makes me more awake to the experiences of my body (as every little ache and pain is now given the closest attention) and it forces me to confront my fears. I believe, that this is a good thing that has resulted from my unhealthy condition. Perhaps, therefore, we come to a third inconvenient truth: our understanding or relation with the environment must transform. A new point of view is needed, one that will create balance. While it is true that our models for this balance were what the environment used to be, it is also true that we cannot restore the environment. To do so would not only mean replanting and reviving extinct species, it would also mean reducing global population by unimaginable numbers. Of course humanity, in its very limited way, tries to do this through wars, famines, self-induced epidemics, and general inhumanity to other human beings. And perhaps, were are not reducing population fast enough because the global population continues to grow – a natural consequence of being the “fittest” species. Yes, a new point of view needs to be revealed.
Will humanity evolve? This was my daughter’s first question. When we look at our physical bodies, so puny next to other animals and yet so pliant and flexible to change, the answer could be very easily – no. However, other facets of humanity still need to grow and develop and evolve. Our sense of feeling and compassion still needs to evolve. Our sense of empathy still needs to evolve. Our sense of thinking, even, still needs to evolve. And for these to evolve, perhaps, what the humanity needs is the right wake up call or challenge: wars, famines, epidemics, a dying world.
The world is alive and we are part of it, not because we can stand on it pretend to rule. We are physically part of the world. The very strata of silica that makes up the soil of the earth also makes up the composition of our skin. Our very beings are embodiments of the world. We have our own rivers, oceans, flora and fauna. Each of us is so alike and yet so different. Humanity on earth is a literal galaxy of worlds. Therein, perhaps, lies the new perspective of our relationship with the earth and the environment: developing a healthy relationship to ourselves and other human beings.

The Two Faces of Math

One of the greatest anxieties of parents, particularly in the current times is how well will my kids will do in math. Of course we worry about the other subjects too, but math in particular seems to attract special attention. It is not unusual that many an entrance exam or preparatory exam to university only tests two subjects: language and math.
With language we don’t seem as concerned. We figure, I suppose, that eventually and because we use it daily, our children will develop a proficiency in language that will allow them to survive. Some may develop an extraordinary proficiency that will turn them into authors. Unfortunately, we don’t view math in the same light. Math seems to have something “extra” that requires special effort to prepare for in order to effectively overcome. And, there are realms of math that are totally unapproachable, as far as the average person is concerned.
So why is it that we have such a relationship with math? Most of us, I am sure, have some horror story from math class. And, rightfully perhaps, we all want our children to do better than we did. All this, however, does not reveal to us what is this hidden “something” in math that makes us have such a relationship with it.
I think it is important, first of all, to understand that math has two different qualities. The first, the one we are most conscious about and concerned about is what you may call a mechanical quality. The mechanical quality is the reason why we drill in math; for example, 2+2=4 all the time. There is no shortcut. Effectively we have to remember this. The most common mechanical drill in math is the multiplication table. We need to remember this table in order to do multiplication. There is no shortcut. Hours of math exercises are we traveled through the various grades in school made this quite clear to us. Either we learned and memorized or we didn’t. The fact that this is a mechanical skill does not mean we have to spend hours hunkered down in a chair memorizing. It can also be achieved through wonderful games with younger children where they do certain movements or activities in relation to learning these drills. Eventually, it forms part of their memory and they simply have to recall it to use. Whatever the case may be, this is the quality of math that we are most familiar with and have, perhaps, the greatest expectations.
There is, however, another quality of math that we are less conscious about although we encounter it just as frequently as the mechanical quality. This is what I call the spiritual quality of math. Math was the quality to become. What could this possibly mean? If I asked anyone to show me the number 1 in the world, they will find that this is impossible. Try it. Find the number 1 in the world used as a noun and not an adjective and you will find that this is impossible to do (or at least my friends and I have not been successful). The reason is more obvious that it looks… the number 1 does not exist in the world. It only exists in our minds, as a concept streaming from a time before our birth. We cannot effectively show what 1 looks like on earth. However, we all understand what it is. As in the equation above, 2+2=4, effectively does not exist in the physical world; however, it is true nonetheless as we experience it in our minds or hearts or wherever. It has a potential that can be unlocked. It is spiritual in the sense that it is not physically manifest in the world.
Herein lies the challenge of appreciating and understanding math. In our anxiety to ensure that our children are “good in math” we tend to confuse the two qualities of math. In other words, the rules that apply in the mechanical side of math do not apply to the spiritual side of math and vice versa. This is a tough one to grasp. A child who drills and drills in math improves their memory but not necessarily their understanding; whereas a child who works purely on understanding math does not necessarily develop the skill to do equations quickly. The two are separate. One exists as a skill, the other exists as a picture in our heads. As parents, when we complain that “our child can’t do math” what are we really complaining about? Are we complaining that the child’s mechanical skill I math needs improvement or the other way around? Could it not also be possible that the real challenge in developing any proficiency in math is linking the two, the mechanical with the spiritual while each retains their rules? Drilling does not build understanding. It builds habits and mechanical skill. Conceptualizing does not build a mechanical skill. Math requires both.
The burden on the teachers is tremendous. They must guide the children through an experience that will allow them to learn to bridge the two qualities of math. How can this be done? There is a simple way to link the two: a word problem.
Word problems are stories loaded with numbers. All word problems could easily begin with “Once upon a time…”and end with “…and they lived happily ever after.” In fact fairy tales, like those compiled by the brother Grimm are loaded with numbers. A great way to appreciate a word problem is literally to treat it like a story, which it is. The quest in the story is how to make everyone live happily ever after. People live happily ever after because there is a balance, a harmony in the kingdom, the land, between the prince and the princess. That harmony is what math is all about. It even has its own symbol “=” to indicate this harmony. The final line in any word problem includes the “=” sign. Word problems are very useful because they help us build a picture in our heads where the numbers live and yet it has a practical application because in the end, there must be an answer. When looked at this way, we come to realize that making a good word problem maybe a bit of a challenge. Nonsensical word problems are just that much more difficult to resolve. In stories, the good prince always defeats the dragon to win the princess. Thus word problems should have a similar quality.
The objective of the word problem is for the child to develop an understanding of the relationship between the spiritual quality of math and the mechanical quality. In this way, the child begins to develop the bridge between the two. It is a great pity that when we grew up, solving word problems remained mechanical, i.e. we extracted the numbers and fit them into equations, totally ignoring the story. Who knows how many great stories we might have missed. As a result, word problems have degraded into statements so that the numbers can be easily extracted. They ceased being stories. They became mechanical exercises.
If we look at math in this way, we also begin to understand that there is a time and place for everything. I will use a 12-year system as an example (I grew up in one so I am most familiar with it). In the first four years (grades 1-4) math is in its formative state. This means that during these years, it is good for the child to learn the qualities of numbers (this includes the four basic operations and fractions). The four basic operations and fractions work because of the quality of numbers: they can be broken apart and put together again. The first four years in grade school is all about learning these qualities. If we don’t come to grips with the qualities of numbers, we will not be able to do any more math.
The middle years, grades 5-8, are about building bridges. This is where children encounter genuine word problems for the first time. They begin to see that numbers and math have intrinsic qualities that produce wonderful combinations. However, there is also more. To be able to bridge to the more spiritual quality of math, they will have to learn to build bridges. Thus word problems become a great learning step during the middle years. Geometry is introduced and geometry is great material for word problem or stories. All of geometry, which means to measure the earth, is spiritual in the sense that it is not visible in the physical world. We see expressions of geometric shapes; but as we learn about geometry, we also learn that these geometric shapes are pure imagination.
These middle years are then followed by upper school (grades 9-12). Here math enters a highly spiritual realm, algebra, trigonometry, calculus among others. Understanding these subjects requires a good foundation in the mechanical qualities of math and a good imagination, hence the spiritual qualities of math. Otherwise, there is no possible way to actually grasp the significance of a=bc or even the idea of an irrational number. To do higher math, an imagination cultivated on stories such as fairy tales and word problems, is essential.
As we look back on how we learned math, and try to reflect on the less memorable moments, perhaps we can see how our teachers then muddled up the various qualities of math and numbers. We hope, as we raise our children now, that a different way of looking a math may make it enjoyable and wonderful. Just like a good story.

Light of the cosmos

Descending fire enlivens me
It quickens deep within
To bring to light the deeds of thought
With feeling in between
The mighty struggle then ensues
Between the darkeness of the mind
And the light within the heart
That evermore the earth resounds
With humanity's cry, so sharp
"Awake" we shout from deep within
"To Christ's eternal presence"
"Awake" we cry from hearts on fire
"To light that streams within"
Our spirit awakes, our heart enlightened
To see the radiant light
For now, our heart, should see so clear
The vision from up high.
As wisdom streams down to earth
And we await prepared
Our beings must stand every ready
To change and greet the world
Michael he comes; for Christ to live
Within us all, so see
Best to stand with open heart
Through open mind to see.

Light of the cosmos
Light of my eye
Light through my eye
Enlighten my heart
To see
The imagery
Of the cosmos.

21.ix.06

Sun in Me

Radiant sun
Rays in earth
Inhabits the deep
That warmth may glow
From within to without
That heart may be
The radiant Sun
In me.

18.ix.06

Evening Prayer

As darkness draws near each night
My thoughts take shape and form
In memories of the day gone past
Embraced in the sun's dying glow
As I prepare to meet my angel
With embers of these thoughts
May warm enfold our coming reunion
Through Christ whom we all hold.

30.iv.06

Morning Prayer

Light of the sun that shapes my dreams
That I may see the present clearly
The past I leave as night slips by
The future fears remain a dim thought
And in the light of sun I see
My present life, and Christ in me.


30.iv.06

How May I Know the Future

Secrets once were kept
From humanity's browsing gaze
To protect us all from harm

Then Christ He came to us
To mae it all quite clear
Humanity must see and do
The bling can see, and the lam can walk
Together with the Christ
As love on earth reborn
Openness of sight.

Purposeful deeds are wrought
A Trinity on earth is born
So communities may form

The Four Elements

The four elements
fir water whind earth
_______________________________________

whind it blos
water it flos
earth it gros
fir it flams

All four elements do not rime
All four elements come behind.

by Amanda Lazo

Priests

Priestly being we,
Christ's life do we uphold, then
Bridges we can build

Michaelmas

It’s September. For us, this first of the “-ber” months signals the beginning of what must be the world’s longest Christmas celebration. It’s on everyone’s minds that the year is ending and Christmas is fast approaching. In no time at all, Christmas countdowns will begin… that is, if they have not already begun.
Interestingly, this month also is a good milestone for the beginning of the Christian festivals of the year. In many ways, these festivals mark the Christian calendar and guide us all through the year in terms of our reflection on our relationship with the Christ. The festivals follow the life of Christ on earth, from birth to death to resurrection. And September, actually marks, the beginning of this cycle. On the 29th of September is a particular festival that often passes us by. It is the feast of the archangel Michael. One could say, it is a Michaelmas day.
Michael is quite a special archangel. Firstly, his name, “in the countenance of God” (or its variants), already speaks of a reflective quality of this archangel. Although he is not as well known as Gabriel of the annunciation fame, Michael had a particular task. In older times, humanity understood this; modernity has removed us from understanding the task of Michael.
If we recall the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, there is a special angel, described as a flaming sword, that guards the tree of life, the second of the two trees that Adam and Eve were not to eat from. Along with the cherubim who guarded the entrance to Eden, this flaming sword guarded the tree of life. This flaming sword, is Michael. Thus it is not unusual that Michael is depicted often (on alcoholic beverages of all things), as an angel with a sword drawn rising above a serpent. Michael, therefore, guards the tree of life from fallen humanity.
So what does this have to do with the coming Christmas season? Well, in my limited logic, it would appear that without the fall of man, Christ may never have incarnated. I could be wrong but lets assume, for the sake of this conversation, that my logic is correct. Man’s redemption depended on a renewed relationship with God, this time through His Son Jesus Christ. This would not have been necessary if Adam and Eve had followed the rules to begin with then who know what direction the development of humanity would have taken. But events were otherwise. Thus humanity fell from grace with a thud. However, redemption was promised. Somehow, humanity will be able to rise again through a renewed relationship with God, return to his original, non-earthly existence. For humanity to do this, however, God was to extend a helping hand. His Son, was to descend to earth, and suffer as man, so that this relationship could be renewed. So far was our fall from Eden that we could no longer rise to meet God, so God came to earth to meet us.
While we may accept that Christ’s death and resurrection brought us new life, we still would have to contend with Michael, who guards the tree of life. Thus, as we ascend through our spiritual path back to the garden of Eden, so to speak, we will have, at some time, to contend with Michael. How will Michael know that we may approach the tree of life? Now that’s a tough question. I suppose Michael will know. But what about us? How can we prepare to approach the tree of life and face Michael. That’s the real question I suppose. For this, I think, we need to look into Michael’s name, “in the countenance of God” he is in reflection, a reflection, of God. Perhaps, then, if we reflect God back to Michael, we could approach the tree of life. But how is this possible, for us to reflect God back? Then I must ask myself, does Christ live in me. Christ came to earth to renew our relationship with the heavenly beings of the highest order. He came and through His death and resurrection, He has come to dwell in us. The burden is now on us to recognize that He dwells within us. Then maybe, we may approach the tree of life and then maybe, Michael will see Christ, the Son of God reflected back to him. Then maybe, he will recognize us for who we are and allow us to approach the tree of life. Maybe.
Michael, therefore, marks the beginning of the yearly journey we all make to meet the Christ. He reminds us of our fall from grace, our expulsion from heaven, our need to renew our relationship with God through Christ. In another sense, he also marks the beginning of Christ’s descent to earth, a long and arduous journey for an infinite being to make culminating into a “squeezing into” the rather limited, finite human body of Jesus. In a particular way, then, it is interesting that Michaelmas, the festival of the archangel Michael, takes place during the first of the “-ber” months, which signal the beginning of the commercial activity we call Christmas.
The 29th of September is a Friday. In fact, for many of us, it will be a payday Friday, a night to go out and be with our friends. We rejoice in the end of another month, the receipt of another paycheck. Others among us will be less fortunate, simply rejoicing in having survived another day, in pain, hunger, loneliness, sickness. All of us are part of humanity. All of us have Christ dwelling within. All of us have a choice… to listen to the serpents that call around us or to listen to the Christ within that whispers lovingly. It does not take much to take five minutes in the day to remember that Michael awaits at the tree of life and that the path to the tree of life lies within us. And yet, five minutes is a lifetime for us, when our daily routine calls, our friends, our beer, our desires. Michael awaits patiently. He has defeated the serpent many times. He awaits patiently to meet each and everyone of us, reflecting the glow and love of Christ within.
It is early to prepare for Christmas. It doesn’t hurt to prepare properly to meet Christ. It is never too early to prepare. Michael reminds us of that, too.