Thought For The Month – December 2017

The Gifts Of The Child

(By: Vince DiPasquale)

Welcome to the month of December, the month of the child. Let’s take time to meditate this month on the simplicity of our inner child. At the moment of our birth we were pure of spirit and connected to the Source of all life. Things were not important, just the beautiful energy of love. God gave all of us at birth all that we need for our life’s journey. As we go on the journey we are introduced to different forms of dysfunctionality. We become part of our human world. We are being taught a great lesson. We need to experience ugliness so that we can discover beauty. We are being taught the secret of life. Balance involves the meeting of the negative and positive. All experiences are lessons to be learned. There are no coincidences. All things happen each moment so that we can learn the great lesson of openness and gratitude. Each day that we awaken we have been given the gift of life. Let’s look at it in the spirit of gratitude. Let’s learn to look at yesterday as the happening, tomorrow as the unknown, and today as the present. If we choose to live in the present we are living in the spirit of life. Each day we have a choice between the spirit and the ego. The ego tries to figure out life and the spirit allows us to live life. Each day lived in the spirit of openness, allows our hearts and minds to be opened to the lessons of the day. To live in the spirit is to live in the now. If we live in the spirit, life becomes a celebration. Each day should be lived in honesty, openness, and the willingness to change and grow.

Yesterday is history yet it is our greatest teacher. If we are willing to face our history, accept it, and learn the lessons of life from it, we will experience the love energy of the child. Tomorrow is the unknown so why waste time on it. When it comes, it will take care of itself in spite of us.

Today is real and it needs to be lived to the fullest with the zest of a child. Children don’t worry about the same things that adults worry about. Children live in the moment, they are spontaneous. They look at life as fun and they know how to laugh at life. The source of all life has provided us with our needs. Let’s learn to stop worrying, analyzing, and trying to figure out life. Life is a gift to be lived each day and to learn these simple lessons: To give is to receive”; “Unless we are open to falling down, we will never know how to get up”; “The ego restricts our growth, the spirit frees us to live life”; “A little child shall lead them”; “Life is a series of mysteries to be discovered”; “Laughter at life allows us to live, trying to figure out life creates stress”; and as St. Paul said, “The letter of the law destroys, the spirit frees”.

As we prepare to celebrate the holidays in all of our different traditions, let’s take the time to honor our spirit. The real gift of this holiday season is each and every one of us. Each day that our spirit is in this world is a chance for each of us to continue on the journey of rediscovering the little child inside of us. The holiday symbols are all geared to the child: “Light is the symbol of life”; “Gifts are the precious parts of us to be shared”; “Birth of the child hopefully will take place within us each day as we are reborn each day”; “Abundance is for all of us if we look at it through gratitude and openness”.

As we approach the New Year just make a resolution to live each day as your last, work hard, play hard, pray hard but above all, don’t be afraid each day to laugh at life. Laughter is the spirit of all life.

Have a blessed and joyful holiday season filled with love and peace. May the Source of life be with us all.