It is Christmas Eve and our idea of Christmas is taking shape. Today, I’m off to see my shaman in the morning, another step forward in my spiritual life. We will start our Christmas this afternoon. We are planning a Christmas day of ease. I’ll call my daughter, my sister. We are spending our day with our animals. We have bones and treats for the dogs, apples and carrots for the donkeys, worms for the chickens. I got some things for Maria, she got some things for me. They are all under our small and feisty little tree.

Christmas is complex, especially when you are not a Christian, but I have no trouble honoring the birth of Jesus Christ and thinking about him. If all Christians – if all people – were like him, what a glorious world this would be. And that is the promise of it, I think, that that idea, that spirit, which is so powerful, can ultimately prevail in our violent and disconnected world. I sense a reflective mood around me, an awakening.

Everywhere, people I know are asking themselves – what do we wish to be? How do we want to live? What really matters in our short and confused lives? I like the idea of an animal Christmas, because my animals are teachers, they challenge me to be better, more open, more loving, more accepting. The more challenging things are, the greater my growing center of calm and peace. I am very excited about Christmas. With Maria, my love, a quiet and meaningful day in or new home.

I’ll check in later, after the shaman. Soul retrieval is a powerful idea, putting back the broken and lost pieces oneself, the parts of Christ’s life, perhaps, that so many have lost touch with.  I am open to it.