It’s a beautiful Christmas morning – the frozen pond is covered with snow. There’s a light dusting of fresh snow perfectly distributed on the boughs of the pines that encircle the pond. The geese and ducks cluster around the dock where the water enters the pond from the mountains above us. There’s flowing water there – a small pond within the larger one where the water birds take turns swimming. In the morning light the birds are black against the world we’re all inhabiting this morning.
I hear people in the lower part of the house getting ready to tend the farm animals early this morning in order to be on time for an orgy of Christmas presents this year – mainly for the children – both toddlers and teenagers. I’ve been thinking this morning about the message of peace for this holiday season. I’ve been thinking about my own feelings of isolation and fear and wonder how many of us feel the same. We artists traditionally pick up whatever tools we have to express these feelings. But peace is such an elusive quest, isn’t it? The world around us is in constant war – both now and in the past and war is an awful affair. My country is in the middle of war after war and new threats come everyday from people who want to kill – kill innocent people and themselves, which shocks all of us and keeps us always alert and in fear. Somehow the days of war must end and somehow the war within ourselves must end.
This morning as so many of us prepare to give gifts to each other and wish each other well, I pray for peace and know that when we refuse to partake in war, it will be over. Participants keep it going, whole industries support it – it’s a way of being for human beings, but it is an archaic way and we can and must end that barbaric holdover of conquest and pain.
Let’s enjoy this day. Let us feel love and kindness toward each other, let us see the beauty in the day and the beauty in ourselves and know our planet is a most wondrous place.
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