November 17, 2024
It has taken considerable thought and reflection to know what to write this month. I’ve been sitting with a mesh bag of prickly pears and nuts to crack open. I remember how my dad loved going through a bowl of nuts with a nutcracker and digging out the flesh. It was a family tradition at this time of year, but one I have not kept. I enjoy the nuts more without having to work for them (though I make exception for pistachios since they are already cracked open).
The analogy of nuts is twofold. For starters, have we gone completely NUTS? It sure feels that way. It’s The Emperor Has No Clothes all over again. “Since Hans Christian Andersen wrote his fairy tale in 1837, the expression has been commonplace to expose the willful ignorance of a people unwilling or unable to acknowledge the obvious. Andersen’s story shows the vanity of a fictitious Emperor who believes that his subjects accept anything he decrees, even to disbelieve what they can plainly see (“America Has No Clothes”, by John Tierney, Professor Emeritus at The Institute of World Politics in Washington D.C.).
Secondly, nuts come in hard shells, like hard times that carry something really good inside, if we are willing to crack them open. Right now my bag is full of the hard and prickly and it’s in my lap. I see it, I feel it, I know I have to deal with it; but I’m not ready to start cracking. I’d rather toss the bag into a dark closet until I know what to do about it.
Thankfully, we are moving into the season of comfort and joy. This is how I’ve been taking each day so far – finding comfort and asking for joy. These can only survive in the present moment, for as soon as my mind takes me to the dreaded future, they slip away. Comfort is found in talking with friends, taking a walk through the neighborhood, reading my favorite authors, listening to music, and sitting on the couch with a fleece blanket and a cup of coffee. In these now moments of comfort, I notice the presence of beauty and joy. I realize no one and nothing can take these away.
Thanksgiving will bring comfort and joy as our family gathers and celebrates the good stuff that has come out of the year’s hard nuts. There has been considerable change and challenge in each of our lives, along with lessons and loss. We need nourishment for our bodies and souls. We need to focus on celebration, gratitude, and grace. As we hold each other, we experience the Everlasting Arms and remember that we belong to something greater than anything we can see around us.
Anne Lamott writes, “I often just say to God, ‘Hi. Help me feel You in this with me.’ I am learning to listen for fragments of truth from any wisdom tradition that are usually found in stories and… for whispers that I am not alone in this” (Dusk Night Dawn).
When we feel a loss of power and control, we need to ground ourselves in the Now and focus on what we can control. Here we connect to our power. We can choose to work on cracking these hard things open, which will bring us something new to savor and to share.
Darkness can be so soothing when you know it won’t last forever; you can slip into shadow as a refuge, especially when the light has been pitiless. Spiritual wisdom has it that light is the truth, but there are many kinds of beauty in darkness, like the silver-golden glitter in the internal dark when we close our eyes, and at twilight, and at dawn (Anne Lamott, Dusk Night Dawn).
Grace & Gratitude,
ej
Elisa J. Juarez
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