Life Spirit of unfathomable depths and unapproachable heights, we gather on this blustery day of least light in winter darkness. Through mystery, through moments both mundane and mesmerizing, might this life spirit come closest to us; and through awe and the deepest human aching, might we come closest to this spirit and all that is essential. Now we can celebrate this wintry solstice day for what it is – the marking of a new era, a time we begin to tilt back toward the sun. For spring and warmth, light and resurrection always follow darkness and hibernation, this nose-running, heat-conserving hunkering down in full swing. Would we, like our ancestors, like the bonfires of hope to dispel the darkness; raise a glass of hot cider to toast the moon, the darkness, the warmth of heat and hope in the midst of mirth, melancholy and waiting.

We celebrate the new and perpetual birth of hope, of love, of peace, of rising intellect that celebrates genius in us all. We honor this tendency to live with both audacity and humility – these dancing patterns and partners of our best humanity. May our timidity and fears translate not into creeds that confine; might our audacity and pride be reduced not to exclusion and arrogance. But rather might we humbly dwell in the celebration of our uniqueness and innate giftedness.

We are situated in the best and worst of times – perhaps as it always is. We look for everything, yet look to simplify and let go; we experience the wondrous having and the awful losing in this season of celebration and struggle. We recognize and even honor the sighs, the aches, glories and triumphs, the defeats and the interminable in-betweens. And we recollect all the experiences of our fellow beings – those loved and lost, those in our midst, those faraway. All dramas, all pains, pleasures felt in this human family. We abide in unity and connection with each other, committing again to tender and daring compassion, persistent patience and open minds and arms to those we meet.

We affirm the birth of genius, the circuitry of intellect, the brilliance of brains even through the sifting sands of knowledge, for we know that age-old abiding wisdom persists in the visions of the young and the dreams of the old. Let it be. In our short lives, in the snapshots of our journey, would we now separate the essential from the trivial and move into this day seeing and anticipating new birth in this season when the world is a bit gentler. And, like Jesus and other saints, messiahs and teachers, see ourselves as Advent lights, as angels, as encouragement - as new birth for a world in need and in wait. Amen.

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