She threw a party, on Christmas Day. The grandest, most monumental party She had ever created. She spent days preparing. She decorated the house with LIGHTS and brought wonderful music. She baked sumptuous foods, bought amazing wines, created incredible desserts of every kind. Finally, everything was just perfect. All was ready.
Her guests began to arrive on time, as they always did. Each guest bearing precious gifts, but not the kind that could be seen, not the kind available in stores, but more precious even than gold, frankincense, or myrrh. Grief and Despair brought the gifts of pain and suffering. Thief brought the gift of believing it couldn’t take care of itself. Victim brought the gift of manipulation. Hiding brought the gift of believing it wasn’t seen or valued. Lack brought the gift of never having enough. Rage brought the gift of being used and abused. Failure brought the gift of not being good enough.
On and on the guests arrived and placing their gifts at the foot of the LIGHT illuminated tree, took their seats at the feast-laden table. They began to feast, devouring the food and the wine and the incredible desserts. When all were sated, She stood and took up her glass to make a toast of gratitude for each and every guest, and for each and every gift that had been brought – the same ones that had been brought year after year after year - to every party she had ever had.
She thanked them all for coming, saying it was the grandest of all parties ever thrown. This year, however, was different. Her guests acknowledged this with nods and murmurs, for they could sense this as well. “I wish to create something different, for New Year’s!” She said. “I have grown very much this last year, I have changed. As grateful as I am for all the gifts you have always brought, I have enough of Grief and Despair. I have no more room for more Thief or Victim. I have no place to put more Hiding, Lack or Failure. And Rage, you see, is now overflowing on my mantel. If you bring me a gift for New Year’s, I choose Joy and Peace, for those will surely help with the Grief and Despair I have so much of. Abundance will be a welcome friend to Lack and Thief. Failure and Hiding are looking forward to Power, and Forgiveness will help all of the Rage that is overflowing on my mantel.” She looked around at her guests. “What do you think? Aren’t you tired of bringing the same thing year after year? Won’t it be fun to be something different? Something LIGHTER?”
Her guests murmured amongst themselves, nodding and whispering. They took a long time in their deliberation. Some wore frowns. Others looked confused. Some even looked frightened. Finally, though, they began to nod. As they did, a LIGHTNESS and Ease began to fill the room. Wave after wave of palpable LIGHT filled her, wave after wave of LIGHT filled her guests. The LIGHT was so bright she had to close her eyes.
The LIGHT overtook her, sending her down, down, down into the deepest part of herself. Deeper than she had ever gone before. She was gone for a long while, but finally she roused herself and realized her guests had become so quiet she could no longer hear them. She opened one eye, then the other. At first, the room appeared to be completely empty. No guests remained. All of the gifts that they had brought and placed under her tree were gone. And then, She noticed something wonderful. Where their gifts had been were now glowing sparks of LIGHT that began to glitter and glow and fly around the room like shooting stars. They each landed with a loud POP in the seats where her guests had been sitting. Slowly each glowing, glittering spark of LIGHT began to take a form.
First to emerge was Joy – where Grief and Despair had sat, a beautiful crystalline ball of fire. Then Peace, a bright green glowing flame. Abundance greeted her as a bright pink ocean of swirling light. Power joined them as a massive blue sword of LIGHT. Forgiveness was a gentle yellow breeze that blew an intoxicating fragrance into the room
She realized then, that all this time, year after year, these gifts she kept receiving that She never, ever wanted, She accepted anyway. She held onto them thinking She had to keep them safe and alive. They were of her own choosing. And all along, all She ever had to do was to choose something different.
She never had her New Year’s party that year. She never had another Christmas party either. You see, She was too busy playing with her new gifts. She was too busy getting to know them, nurturing them, being grateful for them. And as her gratitude for them grew, so they magically grew as well. And her life overflowed with what she really wanted. And she lived ingeneously happily ever after.
~ Myrrh de Marmion, copyright © 2015