Christmas Speaking Loudly During Pandemic — Day 19 of Simplicity
By: Mike Rusert
Tags: Pandemic, Christmas, Spirituality, Healing, Advent

Day Nineteen — Gratitude — 25 Days of Simplicity

More than any other time of year, it’s Christmastime that I find myself drawn to the stories of my Judeo-Christian tradition. These are stories I grew up hearing, even inhabiting in a very literal way during those Sunday School Christmas pageants (btw — If I find those chubby-cheeked pictures of me as a sixth grade Quirinius, I’ll be sure to share.). The Christmas stories bring me a sense of deep comfort and connection.



And this year, they speak to me, maybe even more than ever.



They’re speaking because the Christmas stories are wilderness stories. And we are in a wilderness right now.



For Mary and Joseph and other Jews, the wilderness looked like an ever-increasing distance between haves and have nots. It looked like corrupt politicians. Religious and other institutions more focused on the shallow comfort of insiders than of transformation. And the constant extraction, exploitation and threat of execution at the hands of Empire.



So. Basically. Right now.



Just add a global pandemic on top.



It’s in the midst of this turbulence and danger that we hear stories of humans, like you and me, seeking safety, stability, needing care, longing for a sense of purpose and connection.



Vulnerable ones. Needing the enough that comes through community.



Wealthy ones. Needing the liberation from the disease of too much and the isolation and meaninglessness it brings. Needing to re-member that enough comes only through community.



All of us, needing the care and connection to something greater than ourselves. Needing Love.



And into this Void, a Breath is breathed. A Word is spoken.

It comes from the mouth of pregnant, teenage, Middle-eastern woman named Mary.

Her word is, “Yes.”



It is consent to the cure. For love to be born within.



For imagination and connectedness.

For good food and clean water.

For the gifts of the vulnerable to be recognized and celebrated.

And for the rich living the dream that is really the nightmare to wake up.

To get free of the stuff they’ve been buried under

— alone –

and to see and be truly seen again.



I find myself in both stories — the vulnerable and the wealthy.

More so, the wealthy, as I consider the comforts and

the privilege I’ve known and continue to experience.

How in some backwards way they’ve left my spirit impoverished.



Whether you identify with one more than the other, we are, in need, all the same.



I find myself longing for a deeper connection.

Maybe you feel it, too.

For a real sense of community.

With other humans, with the earth, creatures and water.

With the starry and wonder-filled cosmos.



As we navigate this threefold pandemic

of material greed and climate collapse,

racism and white-body supremacy,

and of the coronavirus,

I long to be rooted in something deep and powerful.

I long for life-giving spiritual connection.



Love. Creative love. Healing love. Yes! Be born in me.



There is another voice from the Christmas stories speaking loudly now.

It’s the voice of John the Baptist.

The wildman. Upstream, by the river.

Calling me. Calling us.



Repent.

Turn around.

Turn it around.

Turn your lives around.



Follow those who are making a way in this wilderness.



John looks like the Anishinaabe Water Protectors in Northern Minnesota.

The ones risking life to remind us Water is Life.



John looks like the young black woman caretaker at George Floyd’s Memorial Square — the woman who

graciously meets white-bodied folx like me and shares her poem,

reminding us of the dignity of these bodies.



John sounds like that voice within you, within me.

The voice that unsettles but also promises true comfort.

True healing and connection.



This is my truest desire. To follow this voice. These voices.

The ones that are making a way.



This is my truest desire. That through listening,

spiritual practice and honesty

in trusting community,

room would be prepared in my body

and the courage be found to say “Yes” to Love’s birth in me.



Thank you for being my community of practice and care.

Thank you for being ones with whom I can entrust the full and honest me.

Thank you for inspiring and healing me as you share the full and honest you.



As 2020 comes to a close, and as we look to 2021,

let’s continue to dream and prepare room in our bodies.

Let’s discern wisely and say YES! to what the emerging future will birth in our lives.



And may it all be healing, creative, beautiful Love.



Peace and breath