Holidays

As a child Christmas was my favorite time of year. Seeing the houses in the neighborhood decorated, helping my parents decorate our house. Watching my father hang the lights on the outside of the house, my father always insisted on getting the largest tree he could find and singing carols as we added all the decorations to the tree. As a teen, when I got my first job at a Hallmark Store in Lenox Mall, I had a love/hate relationship with Christmas. Because going to work I had to deal with last minute shoppers who were pissed off we didn’t have the exact card they wanted, even though we had had the Christmas cards out for two months prior. It was then that I vowed to do my shopping early in the year, so that by the time December rolls around all I have to do is get stocking stuffers. After three years and six months in that particular environment and almost ten years in retail in general, I became very bitter about the over commercialization of the Holidays. This feels to me to be the ultimate example of American greed, overindulgence and unruly children that the rest of the world dislikes us for. But that is a topic for another day.

I remember when I was a child raised in a Pentecostal household; it was drilled into my head that Christmas is not about how many presents are under the tree, but about the birth of Jesus Christ. Although I could never understand what a pine tree had to do with the birth of a baby, but I didn’t really question it. I knew not to expect a mountain of gifts because it may not always be possible. (This was also the time of year I was taught the value of a dollar.) Of course my parents tried to spoil me whenever they could. So naturally when I would wake up Christmas morning I would find, what seemed my little eyes, a ton of presents and an overflowing stocking. As I got older and harder to shop for, the prizes (as my in-laws like to call them) were fewer but still pretty awesome, and I was happy to have gotten anything at all.

The last Christmas I spent with my parents before they split was in 2004. I was a sophomore in college and the economy was taking its turn south. The prosperity my father had experienced as a contractor in the previous years was dwindling fast. It had been a really rough year and at the time I didn’t know how hard my parents were struggling to make ends meet. I remember talking to my parents on the pay phone in the breezeway, and hearing the hesitation in my mother’s voice when she was telling me about the money situation. How they were having a hard time getting the rest of my tuition for the up-coming semester. I knew they felt terrible about it. So, I told them not to worry, the college had been there for 120 years and wasn’t going anywhere. I could always go back to school, and that Christmas was just another day. I don’t need a shower of gifts to know that they love me. There was a pause on the other line; I could hear the shock in my mother’s voice. She could not believe that I could have said that. To be perfectly honest, once I was old enough to understand the commercialization of Christmas I didn’t want to buy into it anymore. I would much rather hang out with The Krampus then with Santa Claus.

Since then, I have had the honor of spending Christmas with my friends, roommates and their families. This has really revived my holiday spirit, seeing how kind and willing they are to welcome me into their homes and family traditions is a truly heartwarming experience. I have been doing some searching over the years, trying to find where my spiritual heart lies. Yuletide / Winter Solstice is a time to fill the house with warming scents of cinnamon and ginger, as bake cookies, breads and pies, to share with family and friends. Of course there may still be a prize or two under the tree! whichever one you celebrate, I hope everyone has a fantastic Holiday Season!

Video Blog #11: Terra Mysterium's Winter Gala

Terra Mysterium presents a series of behind-the-scenes videos exploring who we are and our creative process.

This week, our company presents our 2011 Winter Gala benefit: a special Yuletide performance of our Snow Queen version of "Betwixt & Between: A Journey into Faery."  Meet your hosts, the Fae, share in the Faery Feast, and share in our community.

Have any questions you'd like answered in a future video? Leave them in comments. We hope you enjoy the video!

The Inner Harvest

It’s just after Samhain, but not yet Yule; the leaves are all but gone from the trees, their life force moving down into the earth and inward into themselves. Down and inward to sleep, heal and rejuvenate, the trees in their perfect way herald the beginnings of Dream Time.

Contemplative and introspective, this in-between time at the end of Harvest is one of readying and reflection. In the quiet and stillness that comes after the feasting; in the moment after taking stock and stocking up, preparing for the coming cold and dark of winter, lies an opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been the past year – and what we have now as a result. Provisioned with this priceless knowledge, we begin to playfully visualize possibilities for our future.

We take the time to look truthfully at what remains of the season’s harvest; what is actually there must take us into – and sustain us through – our Dream Time. Questions arise that might prove uncomfortable, but are nonetheless realistic: is what we’ve harvested enough to get us through? Are its final seeds strong and plentiful, that we may place our trust in them to grow, when planted, into what we hope they will be? We must be honest with ourselves in our assessments; always remembering that it is our own judgment – and not those of others – that will prove the most reliable. It is a private time; rewarding in its teaching and renewing in its promise.

At the end of this season we, in time with the trees, go inward to perform our Inner Harvest. We take the joys, trials and memories of the past year and wrap them lovingly, comfortingly around us as we anticipate the possibility found in our dreams, sparked by the inspiration of starlit crystal night skies. We find faith in what we’ve gathered, and hope in our Dream Time.