(not necessarily in that order)
The Joy Singers started recording a new Christmas album last March and we’re returning to the studio soon to do the second half.
Crystal Clarity Publishers will be launching it sometime in November. Considering how much remains to be done after the recording process is complete — mastering, artwork, graphic design, marketing, promotions, etc. — time is already of the essence. ⌛
So, yes — we’re very much feeling the Spirit of Christmas even in the heat of July.
“Celebrate the birth of Christ in the cradle of your consciousness during the Christmas season. Let His vast perception in Nature, in space, and in love be felt within your heart, as well as in the hearts of men of all races and religions.”
–Excerpt from “To Meditate on Christmas Morn,” from the 1952 Edition of Yogananda’s “Metaphysical Meditations.”
Yogananda started the tradition of the eight-hour Christmas meditation in order to honor “spiritual” Christmas as well as “social” Christmas. As Swami Kriyananda said, it’s a time for inviting the infinite Christ to be born anew in the ‘mangers’ of our hearts.
The idea of meditating for an entire day can feel a little (or a lot!) intimidating, but it’s actually an amazingly beautiful and powerful experience. In fact, some insights came to me this year that I’ve been wanting to find the time to explore further.
First of all, I found myself using a different method of categorizing the “types” of Christmas one finds in our society:
Material Christmas (or “Who’s even thinking about Jesus?!?”)
Religious Christmas (or “Jesus is the reason for the season.”)
Spiritual Christmas (or “Seeking to experience the inner Christ consciousness, born anew in the manger of our hearts.”)
Next I marveled at how we can all be so incredibly busy in the lead-up to Christmas — events, decorating, planning, buying gifts, etc. — only to arrive at the 23rd, two days before Christmas itself, and drop everything. And I do mean, everything. All of Ananda Village just stops. Literally.
But I’ll confess that on the evening of December 22, it did cross my mind that I could get a whole lot accomplished if I stayed home and worked on the 23rd. I didn’t give in to the temptation, but it was there.
So, I got to thinking about the need, even (or maybe especially?) at Ananda, to balance our Martha and Mary tendencies.
Not that we are necessarily “worried and bothered about so many things”; we truly do find great joy in service. However, during super busy times like the holiday season, we have to remember to stop serving long enough to sit at the feet of the Lord and just BE with God. And that’s what the all-day meditation allows us to do.
Finally, I have to say how moving it was, as the day drew to a close, to reflect that two days before Christmas close to two hundred people dropped everything for eight full hours in order to sit in silence and celebrate the birth of Christ in the cradle of their consciousness.
I was so grateful to be sharing that experience with my spiritual family.
My well of creativity is pretty much depleted after all the holiday events, but I hope you are blessed with the light and love that are the essence of Christmas.
Of course, the “it” I’m referring to is…Christmas!
Yes, we’re already in meetings for this year’s Christmas Play, and planning for the Christmas Concert isn’t far behind.
After all, it will be October in just a few more days and (as every church musician knows) once we’ve entered the time warp that is October, Christmas is just a couple of weeks away!
Seclusion has worked its magic on me once again.
Even though it wasn’t a totally strict seclusion, there was enough of a shift from my normal activity flow to allow me to open up and receive the blessings.
And blessings there were! One of the biggest is that I’m actually looking forward to tomorrow’s eight-hour Christmas meditation — for the first time in a while.
We’ve gotten a good start on our Christmas rituals.
The tree and nativity are up. And today we got our coffee in Starbucks Christmas cups. 😄🎄
The transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas has begun; eating leftover nutloaf while decorating the tree.
Tomorrow afternoon is the setting up of the creche.
Today was about getting music together for Mantrini, who’ll be directing the choir for our Christmas concert, as well as copying parts for the choir itself!
Now I’m absolutely done for the day.
As an undergrad at SF State University final exams for the fall semester would frequently end sometime between December 19-22. So Christmas had to “wait,” with pretty much all buying of gifts and wrapping of presents and holding of parties getting crammed into those last few days.
[Interesting to remember that w-a-a-a-y-y-y-y back in those olden days there was no such thing as online shopping; you shopped in-person at a store — end of story.]
I took a break from college for a few years and worked as a waitress. Christmas was a time of extra shifts with big crowds and you didn’t even imagine you could take time off unless you had a ton of seniority.
During my years at the SF Conservatory I had already started freelancing and December was by far my busiest time. Orchestra holiday concerts; office parties; background music in shopping malls; and lots of church gigs. For years and years Christmas Eve was spent in a church, for my financial — not spiritual — wellbeing.
But then I became consciously aware of being on a spiritual path and my priorities started to shift. There finally came a Christmas Eve when I had to leave my church’s beautiful and deeply inspiring service early in order to perform at a church where the service meant nothing to me and felt totally lacking in inspiration. And I said, “no more!”
Which worked for a few years, until I got more committed and more involved and eventually started helping with the music ministry and even working on staff. And…you guessed it! That tendency has stayed with me through all my years with Ananda.
For years now my “personal” Christmas tends to wait until after the concert, after the pageant, after whatever else calls for music. So that Christmas inevitably finds me scrambling to catch up on gifts and wrapping and cards and socializing. At this point, I can’t imagine the holidays any other way.
But despite feelings of overwhelm and moments of stress — which I might occasionally mention to my spouse 😂 — I really wouldn’t have it any other way.
Lots of crazy rushing around today (deadlines, deadlines!), including preparing for tonight’s Christmas Zoom Sing-Along.
We’ve all been craving singing together, so tonight we did the next best thing, by coming together virtually to sing a bunch of choir favorites — traditional carols, the Hallelujah Chorus, some Oratorio choir pieces, and — of course — all of Swamiji’s original Christmas songs.
Predictably, even as tired and frazzled as I was, the music lifted me up and softened my edges and helped me (finally!) start to feel like Christmas really is coming!