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Today is one of the most celebrated day around the world. According to history.com:
Christmas as we know it today is a Victorian invention of the 1860s. Probably the most celebrated holiday in the world, our modern Christmas is a product of hundreds of years of both secular and religious traditions from around the globe.
Pew Research states that Christmas is celebrated by nine in ten Americans and 96% Christians. This is not a surprise. What may be a surprise to many is that 81% of those who are not Christian celebrate Christmas as a cultural holiday. Although some may not like the trend of a religious celebration being viewed as secular, there is a beautiful thing that may be happening here.
What many can agree on is that a celebration of a gift of love to the world through the innocence of a child may go deeper than a specific belief and provide healing to all. Furthermore, the selfless giving based on the spirit of a saint (“Santa Claus”) on the same night, is an exercise in the powerful medicine of gratitude.
I am not going to be Pollyanna about the fact that holidays can be triggers and times of sadness for some, and I wrote about that in this blog and discussed some remedies for this. However, on this day, I hope your heart will open along with your mind as we explore what I believe really is the true meaning of Christmas for me… Love.
Regardless of belief or faith, any religious holiday is a time of reflection and devotion. What they have in common is a unification of a community. What Christmas can bring, with its popularity, regardless of how we got it so secularly accepted, is an opportunity to pause and allow the spirit of love to act like medicine coursing through our veins.
Yes, love is medicine. And, yes, I stand before you and say, I do believe in the spirit of Santa Clause. I’ve seen both the emotion and the selfless humanity reflected throughout the year, in so many different individuals.
As humankind continues to fight and declare war on the body and each other, I propose we may all be arguing for the wrong method of attaining health. Rather than aiming to move away from fear (of a diagnosis, of getting hurt, or losing our identity), we could be moving toward love. In fact, there’s evidence that love may in fact be what allows for survival…more on that later. Love exerts such a powerful effect on the body, some can become “addicted” to it!
I don’t proclaim to be a sociologist or a politician, nor do I have authority on how best to address the world’s disagreements and societal divisions.
What I can talk about is science and biology. After all, trying to explain the mysteries of the universe and the human body is a language of love to me. Using the mind to find the solution to problems of the body, through this language of love, is the spirit that called many healers and doctors to practice their medicine.
Click here to read the continuation and find examples on the “Medicine of Love.”
Happy Love Day Everyone!
Thanks Pixabay.
