Every season has its time. This, the month of December, is what many religions call the season for miracles. You could say that each holiday celebrated during this time of year, has its conception tied to some sort of miracle.
In my journey upon this Earth, I have encountered people from all walks of life, various religions, and different times of life. I have seen, if not participated in, the assortment of holidays being celebrated at this time. This gives me pause to step back and see how alike we all are in our different ways.
Usually during this time of year, I can step out on my front deck any time of the day or night and feel this peace that transcends all else. It lives in the air. It breathes life into otherwise lifeless people who walk around in a zombie-like state the rest of the year. It envelops people and communities giving them the power to rise up and see beauty in things where once they saw, if they saw anything, ugliness and ill repute.
I do not feel it this year.
On November 8, 2016, election day in the United States, I woke up with a premonition. I had flashes from the movie Back To The Future II. My head was wondering if ole Doc Brown and Marty could pop into the past and prevent Biff from ruling the world. I thought no more of the outcome of the election for the next several weeks. In fact, I, in all earnest, thought nothing of it till I woke with another vision this morning. My thoughts, my heart, has been with the people of Appalachia during this time of blazing infernos throughout the Smokies in East Tennessee. This has been my weight and every day I have shed tears for our loss. Yesterday, was the first day I did not weep due to the fires, which still burn in parts of the mountains.
There has been much fear in areas of East Tennessee and western North and South Carolina due to the fires, which started October 31, 2016. This has deadened me to the fears in the United States and Great Britain. The fears that are felt due to Mr. Trump winning the US Presidential Election and the fallout from BitExit are real. I in no way desire to trivialize these fears or cause anyone to feel they are diminished by what has been happening locally in the mountains.
The problem isn’t that the fear is imagined. The issue is that people are allowing the fear to rule their lives. There are many who would disagree with me on this, but I feel it in the air and see the affects of it all around me.
Fear, especially when allowed to control our lives, leads to hatred. Hatred leads to death. Not just the physical lives that are lost, but also a death with regard to beliefs, ideals, traditions. A terrorist or bully, to be successful, does not actually need to cause physical harm. You just have to believe that the threat is real and cower allowing that fear to control you. This is how they win.
Yes, there is a real threat poised to take control of the highest office in the land. Yes, it is possible that the worst thing 
Britain could have done was to leave the European Union. We cannot, however, allow these actions to paralyze the world in horror. To equate what is happening to music, we have everyone in the orchestra playing their own instrument to their own sheet of music. Some cannot play worth a lick, but that’s okay, they never could and do not need to. Each person in the orchestra has a different sheet of music, a different song, if you will. The timing is different on each piece. The notes are a jumble. Some can’t even read music. When the instruments are played, actual instruments or voices, what we have is a wretched, terrifying noise.
Harmonious peace is possible regardless of where you live, your beliefs, your tradition or anything else that gives the appearance of separation between us. I have felt it and seen it over the years. My vision upon waking this morning was what I described in the last paragraph. It was more in the form of the scenes near the end of the children’s holiday show, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Instead of the residents of Whoville standing in a circle lifting their voices in unison, they were all doing their own thing and singing their own way. The sound rose up in utter chaos.
Look into your hearts. Find the music and words of peace. Raise them and watch as it spreads to all those around you until it settles the tumultuous air and brings in peace with specks of world harmony singing out above the commotion and the fear that is endangering the world far more than ever in our recent history. No matter what you celebrate this time of year, I encourage you to rent, purchase, play and watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Learn the lesson it teaches and lift your voice with theirs in harmony for all to hear.
Yes, these are turbulent times and we may not know, not that we ever knew before, what the future holds. But we can look at the big picture and allow the fear to dissolve leaving us refreshed and renewed. Able to see things as they are and not be part of what could kill us. Be part of the cure. Lift your voice and sing along…
“Welcome, welcome fahoo ramus
Welcome, welcome dahoo damus…….”From How The Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss. Words and music by Theodor S. Geisel and Albert Hague.
Unfrankfully Yours, 