This is a little speech I wrote out and shared with the kids (teenagers, really) that I work with in a wilderness therapy program. They needed a pep-talk and this is what I came up with early one morning in the cookhouse. We fried up some bannok and went down to the shore of Long Lake to get into this Christmas message.
It seems to me, after yesterday, that there is a need to restore our perspective on this place – why we’re here, and what can happen here.
Yes, the buildings are run down in the aesthetics department, and you can smell your own poop (and others’!). But the buildings work – the structure is sound and, well, everybody poops. That’s just reality. You are here for a reason.
You are here for a very good reason.
You are here to find peace. You are here to make peace. Make peace with yourselves. Make peace with reality. Make peace with your loved ones. Some of you might even make peace with the land while you’re out here. That is one of the greatest, most helpful relationships you might ever develop – and I’ll say that here and get back to my main point, this whole business about “missing Christmas”, or “being stuck here for Christmas”.
Okay.
What does Christmas mean to you?
Let’s really think about it. There are probably many layers to it.
If you’re a practicing Christian, you remember and know (and it’s good to continue to remind yourself because it’s easy to loose sight of this in modern times) that Christmas isn’t just about December 25th. We’re halfway through Advent, you know, where someone goes to the front of the church each Sunday and lights another candle. One for peace, one for hope, one for joy…
Advent means ‘waiting’. It’s no coincidence that it happens at the darkest time of year. It’s no coincidence that this season of hope happens at the hardest time.
We light candles as a symbolic act to show God’s love in the world. To show our love in the world. In life. To show how powerful and comforting even a little bit of warm light can be when its cold, and dark, and damp, and snowy. And it’s not only a symbolic act, it’s also an actual thing. Light a fire, build your spirit. Help yourself. Help others. Share good things.
If you’re not a practicing Christian, and if you are, what else does Christmas mean? Time with family? And friends? Parties? No school? Too much food? Presents? 🙂 Fun. Joy. Peace.
Well guess what.
You guys are here because reality had gotten far from that in your families.
The condition of your relationships with your parents and your loved ones has been suffering. There’s been hurt, and there needs to be healing. That’s why you’re here, whether you chose to come or whether you were sent. You are here to heal. You are here to do your part, while your parents are doing their part, to bring yourselves out of that darkness. Out of that confusion. That anger, that lonliness, that frustration. You’re here to light candles, to build fires, and to learn how to keep them blazing. And if you need to move camps (which we always do in life, over and over again, that’s why Christmas happens every year, to remind us of this lesson so we can be comforted and guided by it again and again), we build fires again. And share those fires. We invite people into the circle. We celebrate.
And you will. And we will. We’ll have a fine Christmas and make the best of it but really, you have to go deeper than that.
You know historians have believed for a long time that it took over two years for the wisemen to find that baby? That’s a long time to be searching for something.
If this is a hard time,and I’m sure it is – and you looove Christmas – get your candles out. Get your light shining. If you can’t find your candle, find a friend who has one and cozy up. Be strong. Be bright. Be clear about what you’re hopeful for. Have faith in yourself. Have faith in life.
You are in the ‘wilder’ness to heal your relations and the work you are doing and the discoveries and realizations you are having now are what needs to happen for you to be able to sit down with your family at that big Christmas … to celebrate with your friends … FOR REAL … when your next big true Christmas comes.
You are on the wiseman’s walk.
You are following a star.
King Herod wanted to kill Jesus, hey? They were all racing to find him.
What are you trying to save in your life? What are you trying to protect? To nurture? To celebrate? This is what’s gonna get you to the manger and this is what gets people to that big warm lovely Christmas dinner table.
Listen to your dreams. Listen to the angels. Accept the manger when there’s no room left in the inn (that’s this place). Keep following that star.
It might be hard to see, and it might be hard to accept, but what you’re doing here is the biggest, best Christmas present you can give.
– from Kim Sedore with love
Long Lake, Ontario
December 2, 2015.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
wrelease 