Daylights Savings Time ends on November 5, 2017, at 2:00 AM when we “fall back” by setting our clocks back one hour. Although many enjoy an “extra” hour of sleep this weekend, many feel a bit of melancholy as the sun sets earlier and nightfall appears to shorten our day. During this time of the year, we begin to prepare to bring light into our experience as we enter the seasons of gratitude and advent. During the Thanksgiving holiday, we are invited to practice acts of gratitude as we call forth from within the light of appreciation. In preparation for Christmas, the illuminating awakening of the birth of the Christ within, we are beckoned to animate the lights of faith, peace, love, and joy.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution to designate November to be National Native American Heritage Month. Thanksgiving is a popular and cherished holiday in the United States. However, to Native Americans it is a day of mourning. Thanksgiving is a day when Native Americans hold in hallowed remembrance their ancestors who perished in a genocide and lament over the oppression of native people that began when European settlers colonized North America. During the month of November, many Native Americans vow to leave to posterity their sacred customs and traditions. In the following passage, White Feather, a native American Navajo, shares eloquently what is venerated:

“We believe everything is sacred from the largest mountain to the smallest plant and animal. A lesson can be found in all things and experiences and everything has a purpose. To sum up Native Spirituality; it is about honor, love, and respect. Not only do we love, honor, and respect our Creator and our Mother Earth, but also every living thing. It is about being in touch with ourselves and everything around us. It is about knowing and understanding that we are part of everything, and everything is a part of us. We are all One. We also believe that our Elders hold the answers. Our Elders keep our culture alive. We have much to learn from our Elders, and they deserve and receive our utmost respect.”

We the people of this great land can join our Native American brothers and sisters in holding with devoted reverence the natural world and the sacred worth of all sentient beings. There are many ways you can enshrine the light of appreciation by caring for our planet, embracing diversity in others, and honoring our elders and our ancestors.

Cloaked in the energy of appreciation, may you welcome the month of December and the practice of embodying the lights of advent. Each week of advent is symbolized by a Divine quality. During the first week, boldly examine where you are placing your Faith and set the intention to be led by the voice of Divine Wisdom within. Peace, is the luminous focus of the second week. Take time each day to find inner stillness that comes when you release the busyness of the world and rest in the breath of the Divine. In a place of quietude, ask how may I be the living prayer of peace? Entering the third week of advent, you are called to walk in the light of the harmonizing power of love. What may need harmonizing in your life? Dare to listen to your Authentic Self and take the necessary actions that will empower you to be the unifying presence of love. During the last week of advent, may you ignite the candle of joy within your soul. When you remember what you truly are, the light of the world, joy will naturally arise as your heart becomes filled with zeal as you spring forth with enthusiasm spreading good cheer and joy.

As we embrace the coming of cold, crisp air, earlier sunsets, and the history of our nation, let us rise as emissaries of light. Let us stand on the shoulders of our Native American ancestors and hold sacred the natural world, may we sanctify all life with reverence, and may we boldly be the light of faith, peace, love, and joy.

“I am in a state of despair, hurt, anger and disbelief that we are at this point in America — again”, remarked Myrlie Evers a Civil Rights Leader, on August 18th while being interviewed by a reporter after Heather Heyer, was plowed down and killed by a neo-Nazi white, supremacist who drove his car into KKK and neo-Nazi counter protesters. This tragedy is all too familiar to Evers. In 1963, her husband was cold bloodily shot and killed in the driveway of their home by a white supremacist. She continued to share her incredulity over the vehement intolerance that still exists in our nation.

As I watched footage of the KKK and neo-Nazi gang members marching in the streets of Charlottesville with torches shouting, “Jews will not replace us”, I was filled with gut wrenching trepidation. I was chilled to the bone while I watched white supremacists violently push, trample and mace throngs of people who gathered to stand against their prejudice and hostility as they chanted, “ No Nazis…No KKK!”. Immediately after the events of Charlottesville, groups across the nation organized to take a stand against racism and hatred. I received several notifications from local groups who were organizing marches and rallies for citizens to take a stand against hatred, bigotry, and racism. As I read these emails, I felt uneasy. I understand and profess how important it is to be an active and engaged citizen and to not blindly be a bystander as injustice and harm are inflicted on my brother and sisters. However, the universal law of cause and effect reminds me that what I resist persists. Additionally, Martin Luther King Jr. masterfully taught us, “Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.” Let us be aware that violence is not only the act of physically attacking someone but occurs when we, judge, criticize and condemn others.

Additionally, when we take a stand against something the vibratory energy we send out in our words and actions is one of fighting and warring. In a “stance of against” we take on the very energy of that which we do not want.

So, how can we the people embody our Divine Nature to bring about harmony, equality, and peace to our nation and the world? I turn to the Master Teachers, Jesus the Christ, Charles Fillmore, and Mother Theresa. In Mark 4:39 while out at sea on a stormy night, “Jesus woke up rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.” In this precept, Jesus teaches us the importance of embodying our Power of Dominion. During stormy times, we can easily be overcome with fear and our emotions can elicit within us a flight, fright, or freeze reactive response, instead of a Spiritually, conscious and empowered stance. In stormy situations, it is important to be self-aware and to become still by taking several deep breaths and dropping to your heart as you speak words of Truth and Power, such as, “ Peace Be Still and know I Am centered in Dominion, Strength, Wisdom, and Harmony!” From that place of center, you become the embodiment of peace and can discern how your actions and words can embody wisdom, courage, compassion, and power in any situation. Charles Fillmore states that a peacemaker is, “One who has the ability to say peace to the turbulent waves of thought and have them obey. A peacemaker is one who reduces to peace and harmony all the thoughts of strife, anger, and retaliation in his/her own mind.”

After you become still, and you do receive Divine Guidance to take to the streets, I invite you to organize or join a rally that stands for what you desire to bring into expression in our nation and the world. Mother Theresa wisely reminded us, “ I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me. Let us remember that if you focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want you will receive it in abundance. I invite you to be self-aware, speak words of Truth and Power, and be the living presence of peace, compassion, justice, tolerance, and generosity, and together we will have it!