I believe in Santa -

This is the time of year when visions of sugarplums dance in my head.  New energy stirs in my stomach and my heart as I hear hammers pounding and bells twinkling at the North Pole.  Do bells twinkle you might ask?  Yes, they do at the North Pole.  It has something to do with the light and glistening of snow like glass.

And now I could go into fear around global warming and the ice caps melting and Santa’s home sinking into mush with no place for reindeer, snowmen, or bears, and yet, I have to take a break from that sometimes and believe in magic, and “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” and Tinkerbell, and maybe if we all believe, it can all be a little bit true, and we can figure out how to keep our planet diverse with forests, jungles, and ice caps that hug the earth at both ends.

It is odd because Santa may be an old tale or new, but it doesn’t seem to matter to me.  Like Francis P. Church, the author of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”, I believe, believe in the sharing of gifts, all our gifts.  It is like the dark is a blanket in which to better receive ourselves, a picnic blanket laid out in the dark and we sit there in the forest of ourselves and feast.

It is the magical time of year when trees glisten, and stars are clear spears opening our hearts to joy, enchantment and belief in so much more.

I saw the movie Atonement last night, and the part on Dunkirk is brutal.  How can we not figure out another way?  I read a quote yesterday saying the only thing that is going to save us is care, and I think that care begins with each one of us, care for ourselves, care for those we love, and care that reaches out and touches others in the world.  It is like Tonglen meditation where we pray first for ourselves, then, those we love, and then, those we find a little more difficult, and then, as a final challenge, we pray for Bush.

Let this be a day of care for each of us, a day where we believe, and maybe in that belief, we will do something a little bit differently, and that will be the tipping point that says we are all in this together, one lifeboat, one sleigh.   Santa represents all of us together, flying over the entire globe in one night, dropping presents and receiving grace.