Pondering the Season and a Prayer

Christmas is not my holiday, yet it's hard to escape if you live in the U.S. I was thinking back to my first Christmas in New Mexico -- at least the first where I actually lived here. Wrote something that's been on my mind since then -- 1995. Found it yesterday on the Winter Solstice. Even ten years later, it still hold up:

O, how I long for more perfect world, but that exists only on another plane, sometimes called The Next World. As always, I try to be ever-prepared for that World, the Next Reality.

Being on The Path changes perception. Not just my perception of myself and my perception of God, but my perception of Reality in general, of the world. As the world is not just the planet, I am not just my body but a synthesis of forces, ranging from intellect to racial or global memory and consciousness. All together this is my soul, my most precious possession, yet not mine -- on loan to me for a short time, entrusted so to speak. I must care for it, protect it, keep it pure. There can be no pride in ownership of this soul The trust is to return it to the Oneness, back to the conscious primordial soup, as pure as I can, so as not to pollute the soup as a whole.

Are there some souls so black that they pollute the soup permanently? Or some so pure that they can save it? The twelve (or thirty-six) righteous men of Hebrew/Hasidic lore, the Twelve Apostles, the twelve Christians afflicted with stigmata at all times -- does it take only twelve souls to keep the whole planet from collapse?

Maybe it takes only one. That may be the real story of Christmas. The consciousness of one soul played out on a global scale. Mother Mary, Isa or Jesus as the Christ, St. Theresa, Mother Theresa, Muhammad vs. Hitler, Reza Shah Pahlavi, Saddam Hussein, Pinochet, Osama bin Laden. And where does this microcosm leave the rest of us? Striving to be one of the twelve? Or just entrusted, individually, quietly to keep the soul with which we've been entrusted pure. Interesting to ponder.

An Artist's Prayer:

I trust in Allah, the Great Creator, the Oneness within the Universe and the Messengers, Saints and Angels He has sent to guide us. I seek guidance on the straight path and His help in doing the Work. Please send a Presence to guide me towards Purity and Beauty. Let me recognize the Presence, remember my Dreams, and create Beauty in Thy Name. Pour water to make my Path easy and guide me back to the Oneness. Provide abundance as I grow to make Growth possible. Strengthen my faith and give me Hope, Charity and Wisdom. But most of all, give me Beauty and Inspiration to create Inspired Beauty.

I place my soul in Your hands, now and in the Reality to come. Let it be pure. Amen.