{"id":4257,"date":"2015-12-02T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2015-11-30T08:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T12:00:43","slug":"4257","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=4257","title":{"rendered":"Light As A Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"category-name\">\n<div id=\"category-inner\">\n<h1 class=\"category-title\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Light as a Choice<\/h1>\n<p class=\"description\" style=\"text-align: center;\">Originally Posted Dec 4th, 2012 on <a href=\"http:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/\">Mary Sharatt&#8217;s<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0Blog<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content\" class=\"clearfix\">\n<div id=\"left-area\">\n<div class=\"entry post clearfix\">\n<div class=\"post-thumbnail\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"post-thumb alignleft lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/interfaith-advent-Candle-186x186.jpg\" alt=\"Light as a Choice\" width=\"186\" height=\"186\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 186px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 186\/186;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"post-thumb alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/interfaith-advent-Candle-186x186.jpg\" alt=\"Light as a Choice\" width=\"186\" height=\"186\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The planet does not need more successful people. The planet<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">desperately needs more peacemakers,<\/p>\n<p>healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nHis Holiness, the Dalai Lama<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We get to choose whether or not to be light bringers. In every moment, whatever actions we take,<\/p>\n<p>we can bring light or darkness. Of course, it is often easier to focus on ourselves, our petty problems,<\/p>\n<p>our losses, our defeats.<\/p>\n<p>The shadows are distracting to the point that we think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all there is. But light makes shadow,<\/p>\n<p>even if the Source is unseen.<\/p>\n<p>The Light that came into the world on the birth of Christ has always been with us, and will always be.<\/p>\n<p>Like the green, verdant, ever-living Viriditas that Hildegard von Bingen wrote of, this light fills the world.<\/p>\n<p>We carry it in our hearts, whatever our faith or lack thereof. We are a part of this river of light that is<\/p>\n<p>moving through the world, whether we know it or not.\u00c2\u00a0In every moment of every day, we can choose<\/p>\n<p>to bring light to a situation, or not. In the quote above,<\/p>\n<p>I think His Holiness is asking us to think of our daily lives, and how we can do better in each moment.<\/p>\n<p>It is an imperfect world, and we are imperfect, but that does not change our responsibility,<\/p>\n<p>to ourselves or to each other.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In order to express this light in our lives, however, we must find it.<\/p>\n<p>Every tradition has it own path into this river of light. Prayer, meditation,<\/p>\n<p>a walk in a green wood,<\/p>\n<p>facing the ocean, the desert, the sky. Any or all of these might work,<\/p>\n<p>or they might not.<\/p>\n<p>Only you can discover your own path into the light that lives within you.<\/p>\n<p>Even to look is an act of faith.<\/p>\n<p>Even to look is to begin to find it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Our breath is the simplest way to open ourselves to<\/p>\n<p>the possibility that this light exists,<\/p>\n<p>that it is not a fairy tale told by fools to quiet the masses.<\/p>\n<p>Our breath is an ever-moving<\/p>\n<p>river, a mirror of that divine grace that lives within us all. You might choose to sit, to let<\/p>\n<p>everything else go, and to follow it.<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/interfaith-advent-Stream.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/interfaith-advent-Stream-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" border=\"0\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 400px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 400\/267;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/marysharratt.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/interfaith-advent-Stream-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" border=\"0\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This perhaps is the hardest thing for us to do in this modern world, to simply sit and<\/p>\n<p>follow our breath wherever it leads. But know that this task was hard for every man and<\/p>\n<p>woman who did it before you. You are not alone in this. You are a link in a chain of seekers<\/p>\n<p>that leads from the beginning of time, to now, and onward into a unknown future that<\/p>\n<p>none of us living today will ever see.<\/p>\n<p>So you might find a spot, indoors or out. You might choose to stand in place, or sit, and<\/p>\n<p>simply breathe. You will find that the breath is not simple, that the shadows are there<\/p>\n<p>as well, but keep following it. The light is there, too, behind this world, supporting it,<\/p>\n<p>nurturing it, waiting until we all decide that we want to come home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Light as a Choice Originally Posted Dec 4th, 2012 on Mary Sharatt&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0Blog &nbsp; \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His Holiness, the Dalai Lama &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; We get to choose whether or not to be light bringers. In &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/?p=4257\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Light As A Choice<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4261,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/4261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ChristyEnglish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}