I get Tricycle's Daily Dharma emails every day.  I am so often blown away by how consistently relevant and helpful these daily tidbits are.  I would encourage you, if you are interested to go to their website and sign up.  www.tricycle.com  I found today's piece particularly helpful.  Enjoy!

The Daily Dharma

December 4, 2007  

Our Path to Practice

It is essential that our understanding be translated into practice, not with an idealistic vision that we suddenly will become totally loving and compassionate, but with a willingness to be just who we are and to start from there. Then our practice is grounded in the reality of our experience, rather than based on some expectation of how we should be. But we must begin. We work with the precepts as guidelines for harmonizing our actions with the world; we live with contentment and simplicity that does not exploit other people or the planet; we work with restraint in the mind, seeing that it's possible to say no to certain conditioned impulses, or to expand when we feel bound by inhibitions and fear; we reflect on karma and the direction of our lives, where it is leading and what is being developed; we cultivate generosity and love, compassion and service. All of this together becomes our path of practice.

- Joseph Goldstein, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

Christmas is right around the corner...and so with it comes a barrage of cultural messages.  Everything from buy, buy, buy,  to well the direct opposite of buy, buy, buy.  Generally we think of the first message as evil consumerism, and us "enlightened" folk tend to think that is just awful, knowing that you cannot buy happiness with more stuff.  And there is a big chunk of me that totally agrees with this.  Holidays and consumption are totally out of control and less really can be more.

And then a couple days ago i found myself gazing at this little 2 foot fake white christmas tree, all lit up, that i had decorated. I am telling you it is a thing of beauty.  It has just the perfect amount of sparkle, not too much so it looks gaudy, but just enough to look festive.  And these perfect little white lights. It has the most adorable little colored ornaments that coordinate just so with my living room, and to top it off a nice little glittery ornament on top of the word peace.  I don't generally do christmas decorations, but i may be a changed woman, I am telling you i must have sat there gazing at this little tree for at least 15 minutes.  I was so completely filled with joy.

And then today, as i was sloshing through the snow and sludge, i looked down at the boots i was wearing.  They are just heeled boots that i have had for a few years now. I think they are quite stylish and cute, but nothing out of the ordinary.  But i am telling you those boots make me feel amazing.  I walk differently when i wear them.  I hold myself differently, i feel so complete, powerful, and put together when i have those boots on.  So looking at my boots as i got out of the car today sloshing through the snow, i was just overwhelmed with loving my boots.

So between the boots and the tree, i must confess...I think things really can make you happy. I am telling you i felt pure joy from having both of those items.  (ok, some of you may want to disupte the "pure joy" but i am telling you it felt pretty damn pure to me!)

I think our problem comes in when we try to hold onto happiness or joy, expecting to feel that way all the time.  I could have a dozen christmas trees or 2 dozen pairs of boots, and i really don't think i would be that much happier (ok, the idea of 2 dozen new pairs of boots really is making me question my own theory here) but for real, happiness is fleeting.

I don't even believe that we are supposed to be in a continually state of happiness, and our drive towards that is what gets us into trouble.

I can feel so alive when i am distraught, or grieving, or vulnerable even.  How do we get to a place of appreciating all emotions, rather than just looking for quick fixes (i.e. shopping) to attempt to get to a place of "positive" emotions such as happiness.

So maybe (and i would love feedback or debate on this issue) but just maybe we don't need to fight consumerism, we need to fight the happiness machine, that makes us think we should be happy all the time.  When we know our motives for our consuming, it is much easier to control and can lead to a much deeper issue.

So shop when you must shop, buy when you need to buy, of course doing so in a thoughtful aware way, taking care of the planet, feeding clothing and housing those who need assistance, and do so with the acceptance of the ebbs and flows of our emotional life.

May you love and accept all of your emotions this holiday season!

This was read tonight in our Christmas Eve service.  I found it quite moving.

It came to pass that two women, like women before them and women after them, two women, Elizabeth and Mary, were each with child. Full and round like the moon, full of sustenance, full of life, the old woman and the young woman prepared to give birth, and to bless the world.

Rev. Victoria Safford took her baby to visit a very old neighbor who was dying. It was the neighbor’s birthday and a small group of friends were gathering around her bedside to have a piece of cake and a glass of sherry. When Victoria needed to cut the cake she laid her baby down on the bed, right up on the pillow - and there was a sudden hush in the room, for they were caught off guard, beholding.

“It was a startling sight… Two people side by side… Neither one could walk, neither one could speak, not in language you could understand, both utterly dependent on the rest of us bustling around, masquerading as immortals.

They were dancers on the very edge of things… closer to the threshold, the edge of the great mystery, than any of us had been for a long time or would be for a while. Living, breathing, smiling they were, but each with one foot and who knows how much consciousness firmly planted on the other side, whatever that is, wherever that is, the starry darkness from whence we come and whither we will go, in time. Fresh from birth, nigh unto death, bright-eyed, they were bookends there, mirrors of each other. Radiant.”

If you are curious about the rest of the service, you can check out the bulletin. 

Just a note, we are a progressive community and we change the words to familiar hymn tunes to match our theology, but in past years the feedback is, don't mess with Christmas.  So you will notice some traditional Christmas music, which does not match our theology.