A Time For Peace

Christmas celebrates the consciousness of Christ, also known as the consciousness of illumination, awakening or enlightenment. It is a magical time of year that brings the spirit of peace, joy, connection, giving, and love; qualities of a lightness of being. The consciousness of the Christmas spirit also represents for me the teachings that this last year have brought me.

2016 has been very much focused on the art of acceptance; accepting things that happened years ago, accepting situations and people, accepting things done and said, or those things not done, accepting things about myself, accepting current situations I may not like or want, and accepting all the feelings and emotions that came with all of this. I had been intending and trying to accept certain themes in my life for some time, indeed acceptance takes the time it takes to integrate. I think it takes our time; the time we need to truly embrace it, and this to, this patience in the process is part of acceptance.

Acceptance has meant letting go of holding on to thoughts, feelings, images, situations, and beliefs that do not serve me. The power that has facilitated this process is love; when we choose to accept in the name of love; because we want peace within, and in our world, the strength of love grows like an emerging flame; at first a flicker that dares to rise and then shine a brighter light if we keep fueling our inner light with loving thoughts and actions.

In making the choice to accept, something beautiful arose out of an intention seeded years ago. I had always intended to forgive, but I just wasn't there yet, and for a long time I was not there yet. I understood that it would come through acceptance, but I had no idea how long it would take, or exactly how it would manifest. I had tried to make the choice, but it just wasn't fully happening.
Forgiveness happened when acceptance meant that the darkness in my life was embraced and accepted as part of me, my experience and my world,. It happened when I allowed my truth to arise and dominate above the beliefs, perceptions, and truths of others that I had taken on and given more power to than my own, truths that had been lost in the shadows in some recess of my mind. The conflict of inner truths brought only a sense of dis-ease and suffering, and it in these conflicts there was no peace. When, in a moment that I accepted my truth, myself, my life and my world, and took actions to support this, as if a seed sprouting and coming into bloom the moment it was touched by the light, forgiveness blazed and radiated peacefully from a place within as a natural consequence of  true acceptance, and what arose in this forgiveness was a radiance, and an expanse of being, as the past was laid to rest and the present embraced, I was set free, and in my freedom, there was peace.

I believe that the way to love, peace, freedom and happiness, for ourselves and our world, is found when we do the inner work to resolve our conflicts and make peace with who we are and how things were in the past, are in the present and may be in the future; dissolving any projected fears into the mists of faith, for one soul purpose: for love. I choose faith, because I choose love. When fear shadows faith, I suffer. When faith outshines fear, I am strong. I choose strength because I choose love. 

I believe that when we are in peace, we react less to the world and respond more from a conscious place of peace, love, freedom and happiness, if we choose this, because by walking this path, we become this.

I also recognize that it is one thing to experience this peace, freedom and love, in a moment and quite another to maintain. It is a practice for life, an art to be mastered, an art of a lifetime that brings together mindful awareness and heart-centered conscious intent. The beauty of this path is that when we fall, doubt, fear or get lost in darkness, because we are human, we have only to accept where we are, and to forgive, and the light returns. I perceive that as long as we practice this art and pursue what makes our hearts happy, we can live in love, peace, freedom and happiness.

Christmas is a time for peace, a time for acceptance, a time for love, a time for giving, a time for joy, a time for gratitude, a time for connection, and time for the consciousness of illumination, awakening and enlightenment to be remembered, embraced and integrated, so that in these few days of rest, we realign ourselves with our deeper truth about who we are and why we are here, and we carry this light with us into the new year, practicing the art of learning to live in peace, freedom, love and happiness every day.

I wish you a happy, peaceful, love and light filled Christmas

Antonia x