Lessons from the Nativity and a life well-lived.

What was born on that day, and every day, is the divinity inside, and birth marks the ability to eventually make choices and to do good deeds or not.

That child and its presence in each of us chooses to make peace because it sees no enemies. It only see that presence in everyone, Each one has that child within and is that child, unless it’s talked into division.

Like all children, it’s equally loved, and also different from all others, in ways that make it special, and which give it the ability to do things that no other can do, see and feel things like nobody else can and to transform the ordinary into the extra-ordinary through having that vision, those experiences, that understanding, creating meaning in the world, and sharing it with others.

The child was born with nothing and left with nothing, So do we, and the stories we write with our lives and the good works and encouragement we give to others is all that endures. Even buildings and empires crumble over time.

The child conquered the toughest foes: fear of others, fear of change, fear of reaching out to others, of being rejected or judged, of having our differences called out or ridiculed when they failed to meet someone else’s storybook expectations. Or a sense of inability to make positive change compared to others who have amassed a lot of glitter and gold, when in fact, all things humble and great started out as ideas.

When we envision a better world, we can make this world better as our legacy, even our purpose.

That divinity takes form for a reason. It wants to play out in a real world, not some Matrix or artificial world.

We can transform daily experiences into stories of kindness, generosity, compassion, and service. While they aren’t as spectacular as stories of stardom, of gaining great power and gold, they endure.

Truly great things have great causes, even when that initial cause is just a wish. The vehicle goes where it’s pointed, and no other direction. So it’s powerful, but in a real world, there’s cause and effect, so action is required. And actions generally don’t lie. They validate the wish, or not.

While we think of our actions as isolated, they have wide-ranging effects, and even our thoughts have context. We learn language. We read stories of others and derive meaning from them, and as our understanding both widens and deepens, we see connections in what now looks to be a highly connected universe, full of coincidence, serendipity and synchronicity. But that’s for another discussion.

In short: It ain’t simple. You have to look deep into your heart, not just slogans and “crawling bugs”

BUT FIRST!

Use this opportunity to find that light.

Defeating the forces of fear, drummed up aversion and hate, and of lies, exaggerations and fairy stories, is the greatest victory of all. No statues? Well, statues fall and birds poop on them.

The first step is critical. It’s a doozie, as one movie puts it.

Without clarity and truth that you can see and touch and feel, you’re going the wrong way.

There’s a light, and it’s not on radio (though radios have lit dials), nor on TV, where the knob labeled “Brightness” never seems to make the content any brighter.

Find the right light, and you’ll find the most beneficial understanding and direction, as in “purpose and meaning”, also; the right intention, as in “how can I make things better for myself and others at the same time?”instead of wasting time, energy and lives playing out stories that had brutal beginnings, middles and ends, (why are there so many of these?) and then to reject divisive words and actions.

In this world, “divide and conquer” has always worked, and done incalculable damage. It always begins with a lie. And benefits very few while harming, robbing and killing thousands or millions. And those few are discarded.

In this connected world, note that to first order, a light shines equally on all, the light we honor this time of year and day, but dig deeper into the quantum world, and note that with nobody to witness it, that light most likely doesn’t exist.

And that’s our choice.

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Pub: 19 Dec 2025 21:02 UTC

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