One of my work colleagues has a saying he often uses: “I look, but what do I see?” It came to mind recently when I wanted to buy a card featuring the Nativity scene for a friend who I knew thought of Christmas that way. I was looking, but all I could see were Christ-less Christmas cards featuring everything from snowflakes, reindeer and santas, to presents, stars, Christmas trees, decorations and words like ‘season’s greetings’, but not a Christ child in sight.
The very essence of Christmas – Christ – is absent from the mass of Christmas products drenching stores and media for the past few months. It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.
To put it into perspective, it would be like the Olympics without sports, soccer without a ball, motor racing without cars, fashion without clothes, music without sound, royalty without the royals.
Even though we all acknowledge the obvious commercial presence of Christmas, there is little focus or question on what’s not present, like Christ.
This isn’t a rant about the Christ-less Christmas being a bad or evil thing or about our lack of piety, but the Christ-less Christmas is, perhaps, the most blatant example of the meaninglessness of words today, the hollow emptiness of our language and the growing façade of words, whose substance has been rotted away like houses eaten through with termites, appearing solid but crumbling into nothingness at the touch. The word Christmas describes a foundational part of our lives, yet that foundation today has no relation, or connection, to the actual celebrating-the-birth-of-Christ-into-the-world meaning of the word.
The real problem with Christmas is not that it is Christ-less but that it is meaning-less; that is, the actual meaning of the word Christmas and what it has come to mean, in reality, are no longer the same thing. Putting Christ back into Christmas is about using words and language in the fullness of their true meaning so that we may mean what we say and say what we mean, deeply, fully, clearly and truly.
Observing the activity around Christmas reveals that the majority of us are definitely religious about decorating, gifting, feasting, holidaying and rounding it all off with sale shopping, devoid of honouring the birth of a being, whose short life and simple wisdom has echoed down the centuries, offering a way of living that has inspired many. We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ.
Christmas is a super-powerful word and once we get past the white noise and discern its meaning, as The Way of The Livingness invites us to always do for ourselves, it offers a genuine and true way to live. The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds. How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are?
Without such truth in our words, we can say one thing but mean and live another, as so many of us can testify to with our current experiences of Christmas. How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives? What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.
Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them. Moreover, the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.
By Adrienne Hutchins, BEd, Brisbane, Australia
Related Reading:
What I Love about Christmas
The Way of The Livingness – It’s My Religion
Christmas Lies, Christmas Myths and the Truth about Christmas
Related Tags: Serge Benhayon
Words on Serge Benhayon 
The word ‘living’ to most is ‘existing’ where the true meaning of living is to connect to your essence and know who you are.
As with anything in life, we have to clean up any mess we make. Energy isn’t exempt. Our words will need to be re-imprinted by living their original truth.
We have been too forgiving of the absence of essence. It indeed has allowed many cracks and the consequential falsity to be part of our accepted reality.
Absolutely Adrienne, our living way every day can be filled with the Christ when we are re-connected to our forever living essences or inner-hearts.
“What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” That is so true Adrienne and most of us are not aware about it anymore – therefore I like it very much that you invite us all again to be more aware about living what we are talking so that we as a society can again walk what we talk.
It’s true Adrienne how often do we stop and feel the true meaning of the word Christmas. It must be expressed millions if not billions of times during the lead up to Christmas, but we have made it about presents, food and entertainment in an effort to make Christmas special or different, without considering that none of this is necessary if we just accept that it is a time to come together in Brotherhood and enjoy each other’s company and reflect on the completion of a cycle, in preparation for the year ahead.
If someone lives the words they speak you can feel it. If they don’t you can feel that as well. The one who walks their talk there is a deeper sense of trusting that person compared to the one that talks their walk.
Absolutely Leigh, every step is building on the previous step when we understand the responsibility to live the truth of our words.
Agreed Christmas is meaningless and soooo commercial and as we are getting nearer and nearer to another year of Christmas I am really feeling this. But of course if we live the rest of our year without any true meaning than how on earth are we going to suddenly change this at the end of the year to have meaning when we do not have the foundation to start with? Also who decided on Christmas, for what I am aware of Yesuha was born on the 25th December and there were no 3 kings and also there is no ‘one’ (yes there are amazing world teachers and he was one of them) as each and every person has that same light and connection to the divine within us so Christmas is something that has been bastardised and commercialised. What if instead throughout the whole year we celebrated that same light within ourselves and others … now that would be worth something to celebrate ✨
Coming together to celebrate oneness, unity, community, congregation, light and love…we can do this every day of the year…however the cycles we have express something for us to learn because many of us do not live this everyday.
What I notice about Christmas time is that a longing occurs in people for something more in their lives. It is like we want a deeper connection with people but don’t be honest about it and instead give presents, which really do not support us at in terms of the connection that we are looking for.
Elizabeth I like what you are saying because something is definitely missing from Christmas this year there seems to be a lack of something? Which judging by the food trollies loaded with groceries we are trying to fill by consuming food. There seems to be more unease in people, they feel very nervous and unsettled and to me this seems to be over riding any sense that it is Christmas. Going about the towns and cities it has never felt so unlike Christmas.
“Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them” – so true, and the opposite can also be said that we have the responsibility to live the truth of the words we speak in order to preserve their integrity.
We don’t have to celebrate christmas to live the Christ; such powerful expression. So true! Lets see the trap of our illusionary way of living, because we hiding what is oh so visibly true.
Christmas came with a certain feeling for me as a small child and then I spent my whole adult life trying to re-create the magic I felt when young and failed miserably because it involved a lot of stress to re-create it and then it would inevitably fall short. What I realised was that it was the closeness of the family that made it special and not the presents. My family acted differently towards each other at Christmas and that’s what I had picked up on and enjoyed the most.
Bringing back truth into our lives start with reclaiming words that carry an immense beauty. That, however, is just the beginning. Moving in a way that is true to the word is the real thing.
The celebrations that took place at the end of the year to mark the end of a season and a beginning of a new cycle of rebirth were hijacked by the Christians and were used to celebrate the birth of Christ instead. That is why we still have the Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe to name a few entwined with ‘Christmas’ these belong to the ‘heathen’ celebration of the closing of the old cycle and the re birth of the new. So really we are celebrating something that isn’t factually true at all.
Is this whole celebration built on a complete lie in other words? What foundation do we set for the new year if we end the current cycle on a falsity?
‘Being definite in our language’. This is a beautiful phrase, which I love because it also calls in to account every gesture that one makes when speaking, so words are no longer to be flung about as they can instead be considered and carefully placed with delicacy and with an awareness of what impact each word has.
We use the misinterpretation of words we bring further divide amongst us. If we really wanted a unified world we would look more carefully at how we speak and the words that we use.
And invented words can also create a retail misadventure in the protection of the wealth hungry, greedy individuals and corporations that care naught about “a unified world” and how words can glorify us so we become re-connected to our Soul-full-essences.
Christmas is an opportunity for us to take time to deepen our connections, to spend time with each other, and not get caught up in the multimillion dollar business of Christmas which reflects everything Christmas is not about, the greatest gift is always love.
So many twisted words within our vocabulary, Christ, Esoteric, Truth, Love – it makes you question whether there are any words left in our dictionary that hold true integrity.
The misinterpretation of words leads to misunderstanding of each other.
I love what you share about bringing integrity back to words and how we use them, it is so important that we are discerning and not haphazard about the language we use and why, it informs so much of what we understand about the reality of the world we live in. When we use words responsibly and cohesively, we will unify as a humanity.
Christmas has become about presents, gifts, food, emotional drama, escape and zoning out, and not much about coming together in harmony, sharing, bringing love and appreciation. I feel we need to ditch our current pictures and images of Christmas and return to basics. Strip it right back to appreciate that this is a time of year that offers us an opportunity to reunite, reconnect and return to a deeper level of love.
It is fascinating and no surprise really that we have rejected the opportunity to feel a marker in time, a day in a year, to reflect on the degree in which we en masse live the quality of Christ in our lives and with each other as an avoidance of being honest about the degree we are choosing to walk away from the responsibility of living true Brotherhood. There is much that needs to be re-imprinted and claimed in our language and through our Livingness.
It is true that the way we can get swept up by Christmas, and go all festive is indeed a religion. It is a relationship with the theme of the season, making it about the excitement and gifts and sales. When in fact this is so very far from the original meaning, and we have just said yes to something being commercialised and exploited.
I often do feel an irony that many people who go all out in their celebration of Christmas aren’t religious.
As do I Suse – it highlights just how much we are willing to ignore and diminish all that we are and all that we are innately connected to and instead play along with sub-standards to keep us distracted and entertained from feeling the responsibility we are willfully walking away from.
I like this enquiry from your colleague – ““I look, but what do I see?” . The truth is when we look there is so much that can get in the way of receiving what is there to be received. This can be how we feel about ourselves, our reaction to what we are seeing, our beliefs and ideals etc. To truly receive what is there when we look is to settle back within ourselves and deeply surrender knowing that whatever is presented to us we can deal with.
Every year we go through a vast number of online cards to find one or, rarely, two that are beautiful and fit the bill. Finding Christmas Cards seems to be work.
Thank you Adrienne for explaining the meaning of the word Christ, it makes so much sense and I can see how far away we are living from this truth when I look around. I can see how society is living and celebrating Christmas has not an ounce of brotherhood.
It is interesting to observe how many words we as a society distort and change the true meaning of, so we can use it for distraction, commercialise it and lace it with falsities. Why we do this? To avoid evolution and responsibility.
Interesting how we have turned Christmas into a distraction and business when its a time of year for true togetherness and brotherhood.
Yes, our guard is down during that period and hence we are more vulnerable to a message of spending money on others.
It looks like we have been very good at turning pretty much everything into some form of distraction and comfort. For example, exercise, work, leisure, and life. Everywhere we look we have created life into one huge distraction by avoiding responsibility and love.
Many of my biggest insights came from realising what is missing when I look, something that should be there but often isn’t.
“The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds”. How different Christmas would be if we had the above understanding of what the word Christ actually means.
“the hollow emptiness of our language and the growing façade of words, whose substance has been rotted away like houses eaten through with termites, appearing solid but crumbling into nothingness at the touch”
Ouch, and yes. Ouch because we have all allowed such emptiness in our language, and yes to the awareness that we have done this, because with this awareness, we can choose differently.
“How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives?” Serge Benhayon shines a light on the true meaning of words.
Thank you Adrienne, I love what you have written here about the bastardisation of words. The word Christmas for example has become Xmas where the word Christ is kept out of it all together. What is it we want to avoid by not using the word Christ? As you rightly describe it the word Christ means “our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds”. Rather than bastardise the word Christmas would it not be sensible then to look at why we want to avoid the fact that we are having a deep connection with each other and that it is only our hurts that prevent us from knowing this and living its truth in full.
We use words to suit ourselves, we measure what we say and rely on “semantics” as our get out of jail card when a situation gets heated and we want to escape the discomfort. If we maintained the integrity of words, then conversations would be a lot more honest and truthful.
It it true that often when we say, write and communicate words we very rarely consider and express the true meaning of them, we are flippant, and not committed to what they mean in truth but use them in a careless and irresponsible way.
When we step back and look at life today, there is a lot that lacks meaning and substance- when we see our kids spending countless hours playing computer games based on killing, when we sit in front of television screens for hours yet share few words with another sitting next to us, when we live in such a state of busyness without a real sense of purpose- we think we are advanced but we have just got faster and with more distractions to cover the lack of substance.
The true meanings and origins of words are still there it’s just that the truth of words are not being lived and therefore as the youth grow up the true living reflection of the word is not being lived and as a consequence the living truth of the word is lost to the youth and so the cycle continues.
For Jesus by his livingness reflected to all the meaning of the word Christ which means
” the light of the Soul consciousness ” as explained and reflected to me one time. ” Christmas ” is not about a person but an expressed way of living that we all have access to if we so choose.
The Christ light lives within us all. Yeshua (Jesus) was the first to fully embody it and live in such a way that he was able to reflect to all others that the one and same light – the light and love of Thy Father – burns deep within us all. History has conveniently buried this truth and deified a simple and humble man so that we, as his equal Brothers, can no longer relate to the way he was living despite the fact he has said words to the effect of: ‘one day all this you will do and more’. Our issue with the Christ-less Christmas is not so much an issue with this man, it is the same old issue we have been having for eons as a humanity and that is that we do not recognise, accept, live and appreciate the depth of divinity we have access to and are living in separation from.
When I was little and learnt that there were other languages spoken in the world that I would not understand and there were people who would not understand the language I spoke, I panicked. The possibility of not being understood for what I truly wanted to mean was scary, and the fact that there were people who could understand more than one language and that there was such thing as translation didn’t quite convince me. How could I trust them? Words became feeble and lost their solidness on me at that point.
And later we learnt that they need not be solid but also could be manipulated to a degree that we probably didn’t expect.
It would appear Christ has become daggy in mainstream advertising and for the person who celebrates Christmas. It may have become tarred with the connotations of religion which are generally negative. It’s now really about presents, food and having time off work – relief from the everyday.
This is so true Fiona, the way we celebrate Christmas has changed, I didn’t notice this until you pointed it out. It has gone from being very religious to now being very commercialised and much about escaping life.
The phrase ‘actions speak louder then words’ comes to mind. These days I watch far more closely a persons movements than their words.
“Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them.” There’s a strength. authority and integrity that comes with being precise in our language. We can feel the truth of words, even when the meaning may have been bastardised.
When we return to the appreciation of the power there is in words there is an opportunity to feel the responsibility we have in our use of them. Words are not ‘two a penny’ or ‘throw away’ things, but things that come with energy and hence responsibility. We pay heed to the physical impact of a punch or a kick, but the energetic impact of an abusive word is just as forceful. I have found reigniting my responsibility around the use of words to be a joy-full thing to do…and truly empowering too.
I absolutely agree Richard. We have a responsibility to use words correctly and with the integrity they call for.
Beautifully expressed Richard, everything is energy and this supports me to understand that words are equally as powerful if not more powerful than a physical act. I have found it easier to heal from a punch than it was to heal from abusive words.
It’s true Christ has very little or no relevance for most people at Christmas. Christmas has become a huge commercial wheel that starts in September/October and continues until the New Year, instead of it being a time when we can reflect on our lives, discarding and letting go of everything that no longer serves us, preparing ourselves for a new cycle and the year ahead. It is a time for celebration and joy but we have bastardised everything Christ means and made it into everything Christ is not.
It is the Christ light within us all that is something to celebrate. How true we have lost the truth in words, and in doing so the living quality of those words.
And we further reduce the meaning of this word by giving ourselves permission to celebrate only once a year.
Yes similar to birthdays where we celebrate for a day, take a little extra care, express our love with each other and then it’s over. We are so worth living in appreciation of ourselves and others every day, each moment in fact. Joyful day to you 🙂
For many Christ is just a word, a concept, an ideal, and not a living presence that all have access to. The great joy of Christmas is certainly blotted out by the excesses of materialism and/or poverty, and most certainly by the excesses of food and alcohol used by may to numb themselves to family feuds that can simmer away at the feast! The whole thing can be quite an anti-climax, and can completely miss the mark of celebrating the birth of the Christ fire within every human heart and body.
We withdraw from life then wonder why it feels so bankrupt and empty. We repackage the same stuff every day but nothing will change till we bring the truth and understand we hold love’s essence inside. We are here to never hold back. Thank you Adrienne.
Our reactions to the world leads to blaming everything around us but when we get really honest, we begin to see how much misery we contribute to the world when we choose to hold back. Honesty is a step we can embrace that takes us closer to responsibility. No blame is present when we decide to take full responsibility for life.
What a very fitting blog with Christmas fast approaching, and what a great example of one of many words that have lost their meaning through the ages. You can see with this word how we have slowly pushed off track leaving it completely void of it’s truth. When words are lived in truth it’s a great gift for all.
It can feel really uncomfortable at first when I begin to undo the true meaning of words. The consciousness that I chose to be a part of can feel big but every moment of discomfort is something to celebrate and appreciate because in that moment I have allowed myself to feel and sense truth.
Great point. Christmas for me has nothing at all to do with Christ, in fact, I forgot that it was even meant to be a celebration of his birth and remember back at school doing nativity scenes – that was about all I had to go on that this is what the day is supposed to be about. But have we been told the full story of Christ, therefore do we know what we were truly celebrating? Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing to lose meaning for something that was never the full version to begin with. Were we celebrating Yeshua or simply the version the church told us?
‘We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ.’ So very true – and in fact I would say the non-Christian could have a clearer perception of what the Christ truly is.
This article is truly a snapshot of how we live and behave in our world today, where we have completely changed meanings of words and in the process have chosen to lessen our quality, as the pull to maintain it is eroded with the way we talk and treat another.
It is true that we don’t have to be a so called Christian to appreciate what Jesus brought to the world. The problem comes from the word Christian also being reinterpreted to mean membership of some organised religion rather than simply a lived way of life that is common to all of humanity.
It feels that instead of what we have lost in the cracks, all we have left of the true meanings of many words is what is in the cracks!
If we would truly celebrate the Christ it would not be possible to do it the way we do it. Yeshua brought to earth a way of living that is so different from the way we now celebrate Christmas, it is often leaving us exhausted, pressured and with way too much food in our stomachs that we have to recover after it. The way of living Yeshua presented was about true love and care for yourself and everyone else, honouring we are divine and very beautiful and living in a way that is naturally vitalising. We would really benefit greatly from taking head of these teachings now again.
It’s a powerful read Adrienne, about the versions of words we choose impacting our integrity and ability to live the truth that words once meant. Along with the versions of words we have many differing versions of ourselves, we are as lost to the integrity of our true selves as we are to the true meanings of words.
“Without such truth in our words, we can say one thing but mean and live another”. I think this causes much grief, confusion and tension in this world because we are raised to focus solely on words and not on what is actually being lived and felt. A simple example is when people say that they are good thanks when asked how they are, but they are not really good at all. We hear the words ‘good’ but their body tells another story.
This is very interesting Sarah, and it makes sense then why lies seem to be more accepted than truth in our world. I notice not many people are prepared to call out the lies that we can feel in our body but instead buy the lies through relying on only one or two of our senses. The most common combination we use is sight and hearing and we tend to leave out our other senses. Why not use them all to discern the words we receive, read the energy and then we can never be fooled?
You have summed this up so well ‘but the Christ-less Christmas is, perhaps, the most blatant example of the meaninglessness of words today, the hollow emptiness of our language and the growing façade of words, whose substance has been rotted away like houses eaten through with termites, appearing solid but crumbling into nothingness at the touch.’ And on reflection what I could feel is, well, the whole story of the Christ has been bastardised so no wonder ‘Christmas’ has. If a world is fed the ill story that only one person is the Son of God and can only save us and was killed how on earth is that going to leave us feeling? Like where do we go from there? The truth is we are all equal, each and every person has the ability to hold the same amount of love, truth and wisdom within their own body as Jesus did but are we taught how to live and be this? No! So in order not to feel any of this we make Christmas about … shopping! If a current or torrent of lies is not discerned then we get caught up in it and end way way off track like we have done with Christmas. Time to stop, discern and take a step towards true truth for it has never left us we have left it.
We celebrate Popstars& actors but not honouring and reflecting why Christ-mas does exist in the first place. The life of Jesus was there to reflect unity and that everyone carries the same Christ and love within. How far astray are we as humanity, that it became a feast of consumption and disregard, fulfilling expectations.
Thank you Stefanie, this is such a great comment. We dismiss a true Master of love and Brotherhood in this world and celebrate and watch every move of a pop star. This perhaps reflects the way we have lost values. When a true reflection such as Jesus is presented we make it out of reach and settle for a much lesser reflection. We have settled for a superficiality in life, for excitement and distraction, instead of exploring the depths of how life can truly be as presented by Jesus and many other great teachers of the Ageless Wisdom in our past.
The world can appear unbelievable at times…All we have to do is to breathe “Christ” in our every breath and in our everyday, live the truth that our bodies know and allow everyone else to live theirs. Ooo Christmas every day and that is the truth of how it is within our hearts.
I love it Adele- Christmas everyday. I am in 🙂
Christmas then brings it home to us in celebration of ourselves and the way we choose to live in brotherhood. It completely turns things around where our focus is not on something externally or are reaching for but on that which is already within each and every one of us making Christmas about love and connection which ultimately is what we truly want in our lives the most.
“We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ” – very true Adrienne. Witnessing much of the hypocrisy in the church turned me against religion, but the Christ energy is alive and living in us today. .
As it is coming up to Christmas this is a fitting blog to read. It makes me see how much we have pushed marketing onto Christmas to be this super happy time when in fact we have lost the original impress altogether.
When I was first introduced to the notion that we are all family, I was a bit like – what the? Family is your blood family or your closest friends that you create a family with. And when Serge Benhayon spoke about loving everyone equally – I did a double what the??? I don’t love my neighbour for example, like I love my Dad. Then I listened more and more to the wisdom the Ageless Wisdom and I started to get it. We are love. There is a love we have for humanity, We all have it. We have just chosen not to be it and live it. The expressions of that love may change depending on the relationship, but the equal love is there for all. Brotherhood. True family.
I love what you have said Sarah. I have found that if I fall still, deepen my connection with my body and inner-heart, in a split second I am loving whoever is in front of me, as ‘deeply and madly’ (just playing) as my closest friends and dear daughter and granddaughter. Everyone’s essence is adorable.
Very true I’ve experienced that as well.
It’s so true Lyndy, everyone’s essence is adorable!
It is so important to come back to the true meaning the words before using them — as otherwise the content will just be empty. It is not the words that are the problems but us using them in a way that is unhealthy and of no truth. When we look at the word Christmas we know it is ancient and precious, so it is all about honoring the truth we know to be.. The rest will follow from there.
My father always said that Christmas was everyday if you know that what you have and what you do makes a difference. Wise beyond his years!
Christmas in the way you share, Adrienne is a great example of how we deviate and get side tracked from original meaning… and not just side tracked, but led down a completely different road. How many other areas of our lives do we completely negate the truth? Another question to pose… suppose what we think is the original truth, in fact turns out not to be – and that in it itself is also a lied version? We can see that we have multitudes and layers of lies that we have accepted.
It’s pretty shocking when we begin to look at just how many words we have bastardised over the years. We’re not aware of it daily because we partake in the misuse of them , but if you bring your attention to it, it doesn’t take long to notice the list is long. It’s a wonder why we do it, it feels like a lack of commitment to how we live, like we use words as scapegoats to avoid responsibility and authority.
Thank you Adrienne, sharing with us that our words should be brought back alive in how we use them – and that the more we allow to live by awareness and integrity the less we allow any untruths to be lived.
This blog makes a great point. Once you embrace the true meaning of a word it is impossible to have any sympathy what is done in that name if that which is done is an open denial of what is true about it.
Truth will always win. Question is, how fast do you want to return to the truth or live in a version of it, that actually only keeps you longer away from your essence and true wisdom.
The Christ light lives within us all and cannot be packaged or bought for it is an emanation we express when we truly connect with ourselves and each other.
I simply love words Adrienne and while reading this I felt the absoluteness in the truth of the word Christmas. It truly is a word that encapsulates us all from the very core of who we are. It hold us all as one in the true sense of the word. Thank you.
‘We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ’. Very very true Adrienne.
I agree Suse. Sometimes the words are not used with the meaning they truly have, sometimes they are somehow owned by some specific groups. In any case and fortunately, we can choose the way in which we use and re-imprint them with its true meaning along with our livingness to restore its true meaning
Truth in words is given such little regard – interpretation and bastardisation is rife in our everyday communication as well as in the media. Thank you, Adrienne, for reminding us how harmful and retarding this is for us to be accepting that.
A great blog Adrienne, bringing meaning back into what has become such a meaningless day and the fact that the lead up to that day is starting earlier and earlier in the year, just perpetuating the whole process. It does of course as you say come back to your livingness and how we choose to speak, live and share the day of Christmas, not just on that day, but every other day of the year.
On a similar vein what does Easter have to do with rabbit ears and chocolate?
For an answer see the cartoon of doctor and rabbit on the Facts Blog about Dr Sam Kim http://universalmedicinefacts.com/dr-sam-kim-an-exemplary-physician-universal-medicine-and-the-media-part-1/
Expressing truth from our bodies opens us up the multidimensionality around us, where spoken words carry the power and wisdom of the entire universe.
” being definite in our language invites us to return to integrity to our speech ” This is so true , honouring the origin of words , true words come from a livingness and a knowing. Jesus talked the Christ energy and therefore lived it .
This is an interesting one, because there are many words used now that have lost their true meaning, and are often used to mean something very different from their original true meaning, and I agree we have lost the Christ in Christmas as it has become a commercial tool for making profit, and an excuse to over indulge.
“Even though we all acknowledge the obvious commercial presence of Christmas, there is little focus or question on what’s not present, like Christ.” Interesting what you share here, how very little or no mention of Christ is used, I know this as in our hospitality business, we too have got caught in the commercial side of Christmas rather than the true meaning of it, spending time with family, friends in true brotherhood.
We think we use words to communicate and elucidate. But in my experience these words are more like chains, heavy weights we use to bring us down. Why do we speak so often to box, cut off and reduce? Like simple building materials these words don’t have to be used this way, but can be repurposed to heal, surrender and foster understanding. It all depends as you show Adrienne on the energy with which we speak. If it’s not Love, it is not it.
I do so agree Joseph, words are a tool like anything else and it is the quality of energy with which we use them that matters. When we leave the planet that quality is all we take with us. I have just had an article published on Words and the way we use them and how we could build a one-unified language together: http://www.unimedliving.com/accountability/the-lies-we-tell/words-the-power-and-the-glory-or-a-death-sentence.html
Sometimes the words of a blog resonate deeply within, and travel through the body like sparks and fire, lighting up everywhere… this is one of those writings… to feel the Christ within… a true blessing and reflection for us all.
The lack of integrity that permeates the systems and particulars of life causes enormous harm… void of a quality that holds truth and it’s expression steady. To live this everyday would be globally revolutionary but must first start with us… for a body void of this inspires no one to change.
If we are to truly celebrate the birth of Christ into the world then we have to understand that this light – the light of Christ – is not owned by the man to which it is attributed but rather a spark that burns deep within the heart of all of us, and that this man Yeshua came to reflect to us in full, the beauty of its flame.
Where we went disastrously wrong as a race of beings on this planet was to pollute the true meaning of what this great teacher and humble student was here to present to us. For example – stating that he was the only Son of God (through the greatly bastardised teaching in the bible that God sent his only son to us) when in-truth he was here to show us that by virtue of this love lived, we are each the equal sons of our one heavenly Father. That is, we are all ‘sparks within one flame’. Yet here we are thousands of years on today and we have self-created religions whose sole purpose is about creating division amongst us. Not only by outright lying about the true esoteric teachings, but also by way of pitching the believers against the non-believers so what we are left with are either those that believe in the lie of ‘religion’ as we know it and vehemently defend it to the bitter ‘end’ (much bloodshed has been in the name of ‘religion’), and those that are in a full scale reaction to it. Either way it keeps us all away from truly connecting with each other simply by the warmth of love – the Christ light – that regardless of all this mess we keep choosing to indulge in, still burns within our chest.
And that is simply the true meaning of Religion – to return (re-turn) to the love that we are and express it in full with all others regardless of their chosen religion, creed, philosophy or ideology they may choose to live their life by.
So many words have lost their true meaning so the relevance of what is being said needs to be discerned by the energy with which it has been imprinted.
For more about energetic imprints go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=ENERGETIC+IMPRINTS
We have lost so much meaning of words today, Christmas being a great example, and as is highlighted here we think it doesn’t matter, but in fact it does, it means we speak in a way and use words in a way that does not have true meaning and we get used to a way of living where our words do not match our actions, and this matters – after all if we live in this way how can we discern truth, or casual ‘lying’ in what we say is our norm?
‘The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood’ I didn’t know this was what Christ means. It make sense but it seems we have lost its true meaning and from observing how we are celebrating together during this time of the year, we are living very far from connection and brotherhood.
Thank you Adrienne for presenting the opportunity for us to consider the use and quality of the words we speak, as it is an integral part of our lives. The way we generally use words today highlights the lack of connection we hold for ourselves and with others, through the lives we are living. In avoiding living in connection to our truth, the quality of our words are corrupted, losing a sense of value and true meaning, as such we miss living the wisdom or embodying the truth that these words hold, through which our expression is limited, reduced and does not confirm who we truly are.
Christmas with out Christ, consumerism and materialism have all but overtaken the meaning of christmas a time of joyful sharing and connecting with each other, appreciating what the past year has given to us with our deepening love for ourselves and each others.
I wholeheartedly agree Adrienne, but where does this integrity of our words begin and end? I attended a workshop yesterday run by singer Chris James, where we got to feel the absolute difference between speaking purely from our mind, or expressing with our whole body. The beautiful thing to see was just how profoundly our body knows sound and knows the truth of what is said. It seems to me our body is the key in unlocking our way of communicating and ensuring our life is not empty but full of meaning. So I’ve practiced typing here and checking how each word feels inside as I write. It feels like it really works.
The pictures that hold us stuck keep us so limited in awareness and in a lack of openness to seeing just how we are caught in the drive to continually create our lives living these pictures that we lose any sense of who we truly are.
A great call to be more aware what words we use and what they mean to us. One step to bring truth back into this world and our living way.
Our words act like signposts and yard sticks that both guide us and allow us to measure where we’re at. Once we scramble their meaning its like smashing our compass and destroying our gauge.
I love what is shared here about Christ meaning our connection to each other and brotherhood and how amazing it would be if that would be celebrated – if one family was the whole purpose of Christmas – not presents
And food – but relationships and people.
So, by your writing Adrienne, I can see how Christmas can be a time to confirm and consolidate the life lived up to that moment, it is in effect a mark that comes around each year, giving everyone a guide or a road map back to unity and brotherhood.
This blog encourages to ponder on the way we use, or abuse words and discern their deeper meanings and derivations, but more importantly their energy. How about the other part of the word Christmas, the “Mass”, a significant word for Christians while meaning something completely different for others. The word Easter comes from pagan origins and was appropriated by the Church and has become a religious festival that most Christians take very seriously, in fact it is probably the most important one, as it holds both the crucifixion and resurrection, the central tenets upon which the Christian Church is founded, and Christmas was the same, most pre Christian religions celebrated the return of the sun at that time of year and the sun was a symbol of God. We still feel this in our bodies as we pass the solstice, and often it is a time for deep inner stillness and reflection, where we meet the soul, (Christ), as well as the joy of gathering together as one brotherhood to celebrate the love we all are. This energy is always passing through our bodies for us to choose, if we choose it we will use words wisely in their true meaning.
And what I really notice and appreciate about bringing the truth back to the meaning of words is this comes with an inspiring simplicity that makes our responsibility very clear.
Taking the meaning out of words and replacing with a false meaning that is somewhat similar but not entirely the same is exactly what allows corruption to creep into society because we then champion a version of the word that is false and we get used to living that. Then we do not have a marker to see that the word is not being used in its truth and therefore the action that claims to be associated with that word would not be seen so easily to be the lie it truly is.
We all should we look deeper here, for in recent times, yes, the religious meaning of Christmas has been lost. But is that a bad thing? After all, when you dissect the christian version of the life of Yeshua, and how the bible and teachings of Christianity actually came to be, written as they were many hundreds of years after his actual death, it is unlikely that the religious teachings that form the basis for Christmas are for the most part true. The study of the life of Yeshua has unfortunately become theological in nature, rather than studied by way of living essence, which is of course now impossible, and that is why we have the situation today where the christian church today is still arguing about basic human tenents such as equal rights for women, when if they truly lived as Yeshua lived, such a right would not even need to be debated.
The words we use are not just decoration or a secret code to unlock some understanding but each one carries a big meaning with it too. So when we put them together willy-nilly and speak without them matching actual reality its seems we start to sabotage ourselves and our integrity. You highlight here Adriene, how the sums of life simply work, so 1 plus 1 always must add up in what we live.
Not only have we lost the meaning of word we have lost the respect and reverence for the power of the spoken word, how it can stay inside somebody their whole life, an uttered sentence, always in the back ground of a person either condemning them or confirming.
It stands to reason if we are living a version of our true selves, that the words and the language that we use in life will also be distorted and there will be a lack of authenticity in what is being expressed.
‘The very essence of Christmas – Christ – is absent from the mass of Christmas products drenching stores and media for the past few months. It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.’ Absolutely Adrienne. And it is that way because we ourselves have lost contact with our true essence, Christ. Were we to come back to the glory of the Christ and live his message on earth the world would not be such a place of misery, crusty, corruption and degradation. Nor would it be a blind and empty celebration of a ‘lovely’ idea – a distraction from the responsibility to live love which we have so wilfully abandoned.
Lyndy these simple words that you have shared ‘our true essence, Christ’ really struck a chord with me. I got to feel that we are all indeed walking around with the energy of Christ within us and this realisation got me to feel just how hard we have to continually work to not be living the truth of who we are. It is crazy beyond belief.
I love what you have said Alexis and I can feel the essence of Christ in what you have just written – a true footprint on the Internet. And yes you are so right – it is Crazy to be living not in this essence! I am dedicating myself to choosing Christ over Crazy, and am a work in progress.
Christmas has come to reflect what is held as a priority for our society, the need to have things to be secure to not go without equals success. there is often a token nod to our spiritual roots, and a family gathering dreaded by at least one section of the family. It has come to reflect the disconnection of self and others.
We do have a choice to live and reflect something that is the complete opposite of what we have settled for.
If you consider Christ, then you consider Christmas you are talking about two totally different things, it’s the difference between Religion and non-Religion, God and unGodliness, Divinity and Human Creation, Spinach or Cake – the quality of the two are polar opposites apart. Religion is every-moment everyday, but Christmas has tried to take the divine and pigeon hole it into one day, which is impossible when you know the splendour of God from moment to moment.
Expressing what is Truth deepens Divine Will, not holding back what is Divine Will supports our expression of Truth. Through the physical vehicle, we are living and returning to living the natural rhythm of ancient wisdom. We all know this rhythm, but it is our choice to express it that will allow its naturalness to become normal once again.
Sometimes the misunderstanding that occurs from interpreting the meaning of words, ie what someone is saying can make it difficult to even have a common understanding on very basic matters. On one hand it is a matter of what we have learned a word to mean but much more it is the pictures we hold or actually that hold us and thereby the limitation of our awareness and lack of openness to see another for who they are without lacing them with our preconception.
Often it seen that Christmas is a time to attempt to make up for a lack of love lived by trying to buy love with expensive gifts.
It is beautiful how you discern the cracks that are in our empty use of words, and fill them with the wisdom from your heart.
All too often it seems parents overcompensate with buying expensive presents for children to relieve the guilt of not being present with them all year round.
Wow. That is a revelation that if considered and accepted would change things a lot.
If we look at our definition of a word like ‘health’ we can see that the drop in what we accept in life (e.g. it is ok to have aches and pain, be depressed or be on medication as long as we don’t have cancer) has an impact on the meaning of the word we settle for. Then again, the new lowered definition of the word in turn defines what we see as our new ‘normal’ in life.
Society reflects a downward spiral in the quality of life in many areas and is also shown in use of words. So what is our individual responsibility? I would say to live in a way that reflects the highest quality of expression in our living as well as in our use of words. Our world and our words lose their quality and meaning only because we let them do so.
I know I have found it convenient to use words that do not hold their true meaning. Every time I have I known that I can continue in way that is irresponsible and that it is not going to rock my comfort zone. All the while I can feel a deep sense of unease and anxiousness because I am not expressing, living and claiming all that I am and know that we are capable of. I am working on this every day, being more responsible and see the pockets that I still hold onto. The more I choose to be all of who I am, the more responsibility that I step up to the more I know that the old irresponsible way is not something that I can be choosing any longer.
Christ and Mas or Mass are often ignored for the tinsel and trimmings, I feel for me it is coming together at the end of a cycle and then stepping out with a deeper commitment for relationships and community, with an bodied knowing of Christ’s light within our bodies and lives.
The lack of integrity in how we use language and information to prove our points is very real and has instigated a new word into our dictionaries and vocabularies being Post-Truth.
I don’t feel this, what I do feel at Christmas is yes we have lost our ways and become far too materialistic, but it’s about people coming together and family. This I do see, it may not be perfect or how we want it to be, but we can’t deny, most people come together to be together, and celebrate. This will change more and more as the years go on to come back to a true way of living and celebrating.
It would be pretty cool in this day and age, given how harming most music is, to have music without sound. Silence is a joy.
Just yesterday I had a conversation where once again we first needed to define the meaning of certain terms before we really could talk about the same subject. Even when we speak the same language it is not necessarily the same language.
We are lost in language as long as we disconnect from the energetic meaning, ie. the living vibrating expression that comes with words.
How empowering it is to not only use words with their correct meaning but also at the same time have a relationship with words so when other speak there is a true understanding. So lets celebrate the brotherhood we all share every-day and learn how to distill the truth in words that will empower everyone and take the falseness that has prevailed for to long. Thank you Adrienne, this is a great topic that needs exposing, so that everyone gets the same meaning of words and the energetic intention behind the words.
This type of reinterpretation of a word like Christmas becomes possible once we turn our backs on the responsibility of living in a way that would be in line with what Christ truly means, as Adrienne has described so well. Perhaps it is this avoidance that drives us as a community to indulge in the bastardized version of Christmas and other words.
I have always loved words – looking up their definitions and learning new words. But there is another facet to words I am only just beginning to uncover, and that is using them in their true meaning. There are so many words that have lost their meaning over time, and in that we have lost something very important – the ability to truly communicate and understand. If someone changes the meaning of a word we miss out on what it means in truth
A great read Adrienne, I was only commenting last night how amazing it is to have the understanding that there is a true meaning of words. How empowering it is to not only use words with their correct meaning but also at the same time have a relationship with words so when others speak there is a true understanding.
Thank you Adrienne for an important blog on the true meaning of words as a true livingness in our lives, there is much here for me to ponder on.
Adrienne I’ve noticed more and more people feeling disengaged by the commercialism of christmas and whilst they still may go along with it, still getting caught up they do see through it. What I find most important about that time is being able to connect with, spend time and enjoy deepening our relationships with family.
Everything about Christmas shows us that we can not sustain life as we have chosen to mould it.
Even if Christmas was about us celebrating our connection to Christ, the energy of universal love in expression, would we take the opportunity to reflect on the level of that love expressed in our lives with everyone and everything? Would we then remain committed to at least maintain this quality throughout the year? It seems that we keep singling out one day in a year to champion qualities we think worthy, making a caricature of those qualities and thus a caricature of our lives.
Thank you for voicing what many have felt Adrienne. Christmas is becoming more and more about gifts, food, holidays and sales than the truth of the energy of the Christ and the wonderful teachings of Jesus that are so relevant today! One of the things that I do feel most really appreciate is the connection to family, friends and people in general at this time of year.
Christmas seems to me to be a bit like going into a confessional cubical in a church and asking to be forgiven for something and then going back out and repeating the same behaviour until your next visit to the church. Many families get together at Christmas and tolerated their family members with a smile on their faces just because its Christmas offering gifts to buy forgiveness for what ever has unfolded throughout the year but never really addressing to issues within the family by taking responsibility for their action and the way they live and then the cycle continues and is modelled to the next generation.
To lose the true essence of so many words and events highlights for me how we have disconnected from our own loving innermost and its own wisdom.
We have dedicated this day to the celebration of Christ but have lost the truth of what Christ means – that it is about living in brotherhood all year round. Many families don’t even manage it for that one day.
Great call Adrienne!
You can’t help but question and wonder how this level of bastardisation has occurred and that many if not all of us are in the false belief that this is our Truth. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and the teachings of the Ageless Wisdom I have been able to see the illusion that is being lived, that I have been apart of for a very long time and that it is there to keep us away from who were truly are. I am deeply thankful of meeting Serge and to have been re-introduced to the work, something that I know deep within because my body responds so obviously to it.
The fact that we have been allowing the erosion of meaning of words, the main tool we currently use to express, is a fundamental indictment of our current world. It allows us to erroneously think we are fine because we can tick the boxes set by the new watered down version of our words. Reading the excellent work of Unimedpedia on the Unimed Living website, where a team of very dedicated people pick words and re-introduce the actual meaning of them is a huge eye-opener about the depth and quality of expression we have been compromising through our laxness in this area of life.
Yes I agree Golnaz and working with a couple of men recently I was amazed at how often they used swear words as adjectives. They were obviously not really wanting to do the work they had been assigned and were resenting their own actions. One of them stated this quite clearly half way through the job. It was great to hear him admit his real feelings rather than showering resentment on us. Of course it is up to us whether we take this on or merely observe and not absorb the not so hidden emotions of others.
This is super important to be discussing, this really stuck with me – ‘How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives? ‘ – So much has been compromised in the wisdom that is available to us yet the language we use dilutes it completely. It is not a coincidence that this has happened and yet we have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Are we arrogantly enjoying the convenience of not knowing them so we don’t have to be responsible for our actions?
I love what you share about being ‘definite’ in our language. I have found that meaning what I say has been super supportive in my life, so when I say a word, I know what I mean when I say it. There is power and simplicity in it…less mixed messages and a strength in it. If I say something that does not feel true in its meaning, I look at it and feel the quality of it and work with it, I find the truth in my expression. It is a subject that I talk about regularly with people, it is staggering how much words have been altered from their origins and it is well worth considering why this would be the case…
We have lost the true meaning of many words and events especially what it means to be love and loving. We have reinterpreted love to be something that is emotional and that we give to others rather than being the love that we are and openly expressing that.
It is interesting to observe the looseness with which we use words and the prevalence of words, concepts and language that have deviated far from their intended and age-old meanings.
It is a great blessing to restore the true meaning of words and to apply them with energetic precision.
So true Adrienne, we have much to consider and ponder on in regards to words and the way we use them without clocking any true depth to their meaning.
I feel religious deeply when I read this article, I know in my body what Christmas is about and I know now clearly why I feel such a tension when that time in the cycle of our year comes about. This last Christmas was a new marker for me, I really observed the tension of what is not it, while appreciating and living what it is….awesome subject to discuss and highlight.
There are moments in life when we refuse to be accountable for our choices. If someone tries to get us to come clean with our stance we duck and dive, and at times we are outraged when we are pushed to declare where we stand. And the lost meaning of our words helps keep up this facade as nothing is clearly expressed or declared. But the fact is that this way of life is crippling us and is keeping us living in a numbed hazy fraction of our true grandness.
‘Christmas’ and the lost meaning of this word is a great starting point. When one starts to go into it, so very many word meaning have been lost and distorted. To get back to true language we need to deeply connect to our innermost heart and express from there.
Coming together, brotherhood, Christmas, feels true. I agree the true meaning of Christmas has been hidden ….I was talking about this recently, words and Christmas… I agree when we say words without a knowing or acceptance of their true meaning as we feel it to be, they do feel hollow…this has a big impact on how we relate to life. I am learning to embody for myself what I feel is a true meaning of words and when I say them, I commit to them, this includes words I have reacted to and or misused, there are many, but God, religion, Love, men, women, commitment, understanding, responsibility….all of which I now feel I have deeper relationships with in their origin and true root and so when I say them, I feel a commitment and clarity that I find deeply supportive.
As I read the true meaning of Christmas I know this. I know what it is to live it and by living it I can return this livingness to the world.
Great point Karin. It becomes a war of words when there is no Livingness behind them.
If words do not carry their real meaning that we are shackled until the point we free ourselves with their true meaning once again.
I really enjoy taking the meaning of words back to their origins. It is then fascinating how much we have changed so many words to mean almost the complete opposite.
“It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.” Its impossible for people not to feel the emptiness that Christmas has become when they are faced with the current state of human suffering on our news platforms. We may have mastered ignorance & distraction but we can no longer deny the tension that sits within us all as we feel the suffering of our brothers, our kind.
Christmas day reminds me of the Sundays we had as a child in the 1960’s because there were no shops open and it was expected that the family spends time together and on special occasions we would go out for a drive. The food shopping was done on the Saturday morning and then come Sunday the whole house settled into a quiet calm, and the contrast from the weeks activities was palatable – these days it is so rare to have that level of stop on a Sunday, except for Christmas morning.
I am really inspired by this article and the call to consider the true meaning of the words we use every day. There is an integrity and simplicity to this that feels life changing.
We need to reintroduce integrity in words, because without it we can end up in illusion without realising it and lying, even to ourself.
“I look, but what do I see?” is such a great line to reflect on. I often find I can look around and see things but if I really look without expectation what I saw before is not what was there it was something else. This shows how our interpretation of life from our ideals and beliefs can be totally away from what life truly is.
It is a fascinating observation to consider that many of our words have been slowly and insidiously reinterpreted over time so that in some ways without realising fully it, we end up in a place where a word can mean almost the opposite of what it’s original meaning was.
The way we celebrate Christmas could also be showing us how we are living. It might only happen once a year but our approach and choices on the day say a lot about how we are choosing to live.
It is a bit absurd that so many people on the planet get excited and spend huge amounts of money focusing on one day of the year waiting for some miracles or extra special whatnot.
How would it be to put the same amount of effort to make every day as special as Christmas day?
It feels as though our relationship to Christmas has become as meaning-less as our relationship with humanity. When we live in greater harmony with one another 365 days each year we will begin to realise and truly celebrate the life of Christ.
On the subject of words and their meanings, which this blog so brilliantly covers, I wonder – is it worth perhaps looking around at our world and identifying the words that determine for us what our world is? And is it then worth taking note of these words we use to define life, and to question if those words actually mean what we mean when we use them?
When we truly celebrate Christ, Christmas Day will be realised for the indulgence it is and the lack of true quality it promotes.
Christmas has indeed lost its true meaning, and instead a huge consciousness has been created around it. For many It is now a time of expectations, materialism, greed, gluttony, over indulgence and escapism. It has become the total opposite of what it originally represented. Even if we ourselves do not celebrate Christmas we can still feel the effects of it all around us and we still get affected. We have created a monster that is out of control.
Maybe slowly over time we will get the true meanings of words back, as we deepen our relationship with ourselves, life and everything else. For there must be a point we get to when we tire of everything being so superficial and we look for the deeper meanings in everything and Christmas, the word, and the occasion would be a good place to start.
The Way of The Livingness always brings a greater and deeper meaning to Everything.
The opportunity offered every Christmas is a reconnection to the sacred beings each and every one of us are.
Now that is a Christmas I subscribe to!
I understand this is an observation Adrienne, not a criticism of today’s society. It feels like we are not living in the way Christ taught us because over centuries, we have changed the meaning of what Christ brought to us. I understand that to bring Christ back into our daily lives is to live in a community that serves us all, all together in true friendship and brotherhood, being equal with everyone we meet. We can all return to this if we choose.
The cards have been put in the recycle bin. The dead tree is laying outside waiting for the truck to pick up and shred for compost. All the lights and decorations are back in the boxes and back in the loft or top of the cupboard. But where is Christ? He is still in the box we have put him, on the self within us, waiting to come out, like a forgotten present that was overlooked and did not make it under the tree again!
Ah Steve that describes Christmas so well for me. We have become so good at the glitz and lights, fancy presents and the full works. But indeed where is the Christ? It seems like this is the one element we keep forgetting year after year.
We see a world that does not match up to what we naturally feel.
Yes Adrienne, I found a similar thing with the cards and associated adornments. For those with whom connection is an annual event, and not overly ‘religious’ as the term is believed to mean by many still, I found difficulty and for a few bought meerkats bearing santa clause hats. Yes, I know, I shake my head also, but this image they found non confrontational and acceptable. Then I endeavoured to find some sort of ‘Angel’ for a young person who really wanted one for her room. Was informed by helpful staff in large stores that they are no longer ‘politically correct’ and very difficult to find now. Interesting times we live in for sure.
I really connect to the Christ or Christmas being about one family or brotherhood, I feel this all the time in every relationship I have.
Christmas is no longer a celebration of the culmination of 12 months of connection, appreciation, love and togetherness, it has become like many holidays a point from which people seek relief from the function and dissatisfaction of their every day lives.
I wholeheartedly agree, Lucindag. And, how ironic is Valentine’s day, celebrating only on one day, something we should do and live every day! It is a strange world we live in!
It is absolutely worth stopping and considering where we have totally lost the meaning in words and what they represent. As a society if we for one minute had a moment of reflection on this then at least there would be a common ground – that we actually need to stop. It feels like things are just getting more and more further away from the truth and we keep accepting this as our normal.
Its interesting how we’ve given certain words to certain religions. It would be so beneficial to learn the true meaning and origins of words at school.
Yes, Adrienne, what you have shared here highlights how empty so many of our traditions are, because we have lost the true meaning of words, symbols and rituals. Thankfully Universal Medicine is re-awakening us to the divine truths of life that are to be celebrated each and every day.
As a child I loved Christmas! Our family didn’t do a BIG present thing and yet I found it a most magical time, especially Christmas Eve. I loved singing carols about the angels, about the birth of the baby Jesus, and often got to play the role of Mary in the local Girl Guides Nativity scene. I loved the tree with its little lights. And I was rather fond of the plums (Wilson plums) that were served up for our dessert along with chicken (a rare thing) and salad on Christmas Day! This festival indicated to me that there was more to life than the mundane everyday life, that there was a guiding star in the Heavens that led to the birth place of the Christ. Of course now I know of the quality of the One Life through all days far more deeply than I was aware of then. But I really appreciate the beautiful Christmases we had in our family.
I can feel your joy and appreciation of what you experienced at Christmas time when you were young. Sounds delightful. So lets take this and build on that. How can we live life so that there is the same joy, the same sense of magic and the same appreciation that there is more to life than the mundane every day. And then the festival would be a reflection, confirmation and appreciation of the quality we have already been living during the whole year.
Children often ask us questions that alert us to the folly of our assumed beliefs and can often easily deconstruct the less-than- honest foundations we have built our ideals on. It would serve us well to at least once in a while listen to them well and endeavour to honestly look at the web of deceit we have allowed in our lives. There are many questions frequently asked about Christmas alone that are not truly honoured
I find Christmas time quite bizarre. It puts on a great show of ‘celebrating’ family and people and the buying of lots of presents, eating lots of food, but for many it can be the emptiest, loneliest, saddest and most exhausting time of year.
How many are trying to make-up for the lack of love in their life at the end of the year and try to buy or show affection with expensive presents? It is like winning a race, is a short-lived moment and then it is gone.
It seems that not only have we lost the true meaning of the word Christmas but also the meaning of the word Christ.
I was just thinking the same when reading this blog.
Now that the maelstrom of the biggest holiday season of the year has ended, except for the bills that are soon to arrive, we can rest for another 9 months. If only the essence of Christ I had heard expressed was when I returned to work, and someone said ‘Christ, I’m glad that is over and done with for another year’! How many other words have lost their true meaning, this is really Bad and not the new Bad that means really good.
Just starting to write and realise Henrietta’s comment above is saying the same thing! Wonderful that you have brought our attention to the word Christmas and how it has lost its essence Adrienne. Just about every word in all our varied languages has lost its essence. Take the word ‘Love’ or ‘feeling’ or ‘truth’ or any word we can think of – they have all been degraded, firstly by the way we move and act in life disconnected from essence, and secondly by the language we employ to describe those actions. What we have done to ourselves is deadly.
Christmas as a word is only one of many that seems to have lost its meaning…this is a good blog to open up the conversation about this and help us see that we have some work to do in bringing back the true meaning of words.
I would never have considered this Adrienne so thank you for writing it. It is my experience too that Christmas has lost its connection to Christ, in fact I would be one who purposely has searched out cards without a nativity scene on them. What I didn’t consider was what Christ represented, that it was brotherhood, a way of living in equalness and that by rejecting the Christmas card it has seen a society perhaps unbeknowingly reject brotherhood with the notion that this was rejecting the religion. Looking at it for me I feel I have thrown the baby out with the bathwater by accident!
In the whole commercial part of Christmas the true meaning of Christmas is lost, it has become so much about parties, presents, alcohol and eating, forgetting that it is about celebration of the birth or Christ where family come together to build the connection of brotherhood.
I think it is very telling that Pythagorus students did not speak for five years, today words a just often verbal diarrhoea, becoming more so flippant with the invention of emoji. What is lost in translation here is the quality and deepth of language in expressing truly what is always there to be ecpressed.
The way in how we express can eventually return us to a one unified feeling if it is truth that we choose, and love that we consistently show understanding towards.
Just how much else are we choosing to try and forget, when something which when pointed out becomes so obvious passes us by every year with little mention?
How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives? This awareness is now coming to the fore through the work of Serge Benhayon and it is shocking and sobering how we have allowed ourselves to live and accept this complete manipulation of what words can bring in truth.
its so true that meaningless language when spoken or written can fool, and divides mankind.
So true Adrienne as far as words carry so much meaning and when the meaning has been bastardized, it causes deep hurt.
It’s a good point that Christmas has actually become meaning-less. It’s a festival with lost meaning.
“The real problem with Christmas is not that it is Christ-less but that it is meaning-less; that is, the actual meaning of the word Christmas and what it has come to mean, in reality, are no longer the same thing. Putting Christ back into Christmas is about using words and language in the fullness of their true meaning so that we may mean what we say and say what we mean, deeply, fully, clearly and truly.” This is a great point you raise Adrienne. As a rule, we have got so lazy with our language, but also with our listening to other people talking. So often I hear a conversation that starts off being one thing, which gets interpreted into something completely different, so that in the end everyone is totally confused about what was even being discussed in the first place. Not only do we have a responsibility to say what we mean i full, but we also have a responsibility to listen attentively so that we fully understand what is being said.
How we come to the point in society that we don’t respect the fact that a word as a meaning for a reason – that the meaning is there to describe first an action of feeling and that when we use the word outside of this context for our own ends, we dilute, bastardise and lose the meaning of the word.
Christmas as far as the retail industry goes has nothing whatsoever to do wth religion. It is all about profits. Shops and Internet sites are geared up to make goods look attractive, the perfect present, the most glittering and attractive decorations, the cutest must-buy cuddly toys, the snuggles looking bed socks, crazy Christmas jumpers to make your friends laugh – everything is for effect, nothing is about what we actually need. Food is purchased in huge quantities because friends and families are gathering – these gatherings can be stressful or full of fun, but there is always an underlying emptiness if true love is not present in everyone equally.
I realise Adrienne that I think I was in my 40’s before I even considered what the ‘Christ’ from Christmas even referred to. I did nativity plays when I was a kid at school, but I still never gelled with it having any particular significance to Christmas day. Santa played a far more significant role and was pretty much about presents and yummy food.
Thank-you Adrienne for bringing back to our awareness to the true meaning of the word Christmas and the falsity of how we use it today. “The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family” this is reflecting a life lived in true harmony and brotherhood each and everyday. It’s time as you stated we brought back the true meaning to words and not kept watering them down to, in the end, bearing no relationship to their true value and meaning.
I saw a sign on the gym door yesterday about Christmas opening hours, where is said ‘X’mas opening hours’.. and I thought back to your blog Adrienne, where the word ‘Christ’ was absent, reduced to ‘X’mas’, and it got me reflecting, and that in today’s modern language, shortening or reducing shows not just how lazy we’ve become over the years, but also how dismissive we are of language and the meaning of words. It’s as if we shorten or make casual to not feel the abuse we’re utilising in not honouring what is meant to be written in full, and in appreciation.
‘ The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family.’ Thank you for sharing what Christmas is truly about. This year I reflected how I appreciate people coming together but how the word Christmas has lost its meaning. But is this strictly true I wonder? Yes, when I see all the stress and distress around Christmas. But when I feel beneath this I feel people coming together – although this is often tainted by people excluding those who they do not consider family which can look very ugly; or conversely, people being ‘good’ and opening their homes to people just for Christmas but aren’t open hearted the rest of the year. It’s wonderful to come back and restore with full awareness what Christmas is all year round.
As many celebrations in life, we’ve made Christmas into an event that is something that is mainly about what we do, i.e. eating, drinking, decorating etc. Rather then connecting to it’s origin and allowing ourselves to deeply feel what it is for us that we’re actually celebrating. And from there feel how we want to celebrate it.
We’re all beings that profoundly feel. If we want to restore our worth and true celebration, we’re to collectively find a way that allows us to start connecting to ourselves and others again to bring back truth.
Adrienne, you have written a very powerful blog out of something I wouldn’t even had consider to be an issue. I could feel how there are many things that have been put in place over time, that strip away our grandness of who we are and what we can live.
There are many things wrong with the world we live in and not using true language certainly doesn’t help matters, if we could all say what we mean and be true to what we say our evolution would speed up rather rapidly.
I concur Kevin and imagine a world where this was true it has been lived before, and will be again.
Thank you Adrienne for your beautiful reminder of just what Christmas truly is about. I especially love your referral to Brotherhood and the fact that we are not just our family of origin but a family of Brothers. I agree we need to bring back the truth of the word Christ and Christmas!
Christmas is a lost tradition as for most it is an excuse to indulge and override what is needed to live and support your body. The consequences of this are far reaching.
How many children grow up thinking that Christmas is about Santa Claus, presents, masses of food and sweet treats and time off from school, and that it is a time when indulgence is written off as being ok because ‘it’s Christmas’? They see a pattern in society where adults write themselves off with alcohol and food for a period through December, only to make New Year’s Resolutions to diet, abstain from alcohol, to ‘be good’, etc. It is a pattern of abuse that is modeled and therefore the cycle continues with that generation.
I agree Adrienne, this celebration would be so different if we were to connect “… deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are.”
37 years old and not once has anyone told me the true meaning of Christ like you have here.
‘The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds.’ I realise now how I haven’t liked the word Christ, and the reason for that is not about the word at all, what I didn’t like was its misinterpretation!! I love Brotherhood and the fact that our family is much bigger than our blood family and that we are all connected. I feel my relationship with the word already changing but at the same time there is a part of me that feels cheated and almost dumb for not knowing its true meaning until now.
I agree Rosie, it has taken me 63 years to get a true understanding of the word Christ and its relationship to brotherhood. I feel as Adrienne has shared I have had the wool pulled over my eyes to see not truth in words. Thanks to the presentation by Serge Benhayon I can now see the trees for the woods in most areas of life including the derailment of words to keep us feeling dumb.
It is more than just the wool pulled over our eyes, its the fact that on one level we knew but we chose to not feel it and to ignore what we felt.
That is true Rosie, what you are sharing is more like the sheep in wolves clothing, so we understand the truth of who we are but put on a different coat to hide our true nature and deny our true feelings.
Very true Greg, and we all miss out when we are hiding or wearing a mask so to speak.
I had the best 2 days over the Christmas period painting and decorating our home!
Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself Michael, and approached the Christmas period no differently than you would any other day.
Great sharing the true meaning on Christmas has been lost. Great for sharing, Christmas is about true brotherhood and livingness together, Christ within us all, coming together as one.
What you describe here is the heart of Christmas – such a great reminder for us all during this time of year.
This is so true, even in the pictures of baby Jesus in the manger Christ has been reduced to one man.. when Christ lives within us all.
The Christ-less Christmas shows us the meaninglessness of words today and the façade of the whole event. When we lose the meaning of the words, we have no idea what we are really saying. The way we live today feels a long way from the teachings as Christ taught us, to live in harmony and brotherhood in our everyday lives. It is time to make some changes.
Words are powerful! As odours they connect to what we combine with them – be it from childhood memories to shorter ago experiences. They revive and activate a memory in us. There are two kinds of memories: an experience we have had in this life and education, as well as the one that is connected to a higher knowing, a deep knowing about the absolute truth of this word. When we hear or read a word that is not used in its truth, we notice this – be it unconscious or conscious. And if it is like with the word Christ and Christmas that the word is used in a wrong way for a loooong time – we have some coping mechanism to deal with it. Like getting jazzed, eating sugar, drinking alcohol (or taking other drugs), numbing and so on. What would be a way of being with this in a more respectful manner? We would have to stand for what is truth – ‘Against’ the trend maybe. This needs some courage… but taking responsibility about our expression and how we live is worth it! It is an honor of truth and an honor for us all, because we suffer under un-truth. So I would not call it courage anymore to re-claim the truth of words, but Love. Being and expressing love for all.
Christmas for me is about love and family, being with people, that’s what I love about it the most, and the most important thing to me. In all fairness I feel many people have been put off the word Christ or Jesus because of the institutionalised religion portrayal of these people which is not true. So as you say the words come loaded with an energy and pictures which are not true, through the teaching we have received at Sunday school, school, visits by my ministers to school, there was very little fun or joy in them. They as far as I can remember portrayed these figures as suffering – how how we have to and are still paying for their suffering today. Like that feeling institutionalised religion almost is saying it’s your fault Jesus died, he did it for you, you’re not worthy, you have to be forgiven – which none of this is true. But you can then understand why some or many people balk at the word Christ, Jesus, church or anything to do with religion because they have been hurt by it. By what is not true.
“To put it into perspective, it would be like the Olympics without sports, soccer without a ball, motor racing without cars, fashion without clothes, music without sound, royalty without the royals.” I love this analogy as it sums up astutely the emptiness of what we are actually doing around Christmas time. Celebrating Christmas without the true understanding that Christ is an energy introduced to support brotherhood demeans the incredible offering to humanity that has been given and simply exposes that en masse we have chosen to reject it.
Adrienne, what a super observation about the word ‘Christmas.’ There is an obvious absence of ‘Christ’ in everything that we do around this season.
Words connect us on so many levels. If we neglect the true meaning of words its impacts on the quality of our relationships both inner and outer. When we use a word that does not convey what we mean, feel or experience we abandon the opportunity to deepen our relationships and the exquisite, much sought after quality of intimacy, joy and connection.
I’ve felt for a long time repulsed by the debased form of Christmas that now exists and rejected it. The opportunity to open this conversation on the true meaning of words and Christmas in particular is vital. As you say: ‘The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood.’ When we lose the meaning of words, we lose the meaning of life.
Great point Kehinde, so much is lost when words are bastardised. Brotherhood as I know it is now taking on its true meaning so humanity can unite.
Adrienne what you shared about ‘saying what we mean and meaning what we say’ highlighted to me how most of what we say actually lacks true meaning. So much of our speech has become a medium for carrying lies, a means with which to manipulate others, a way of avoiding something, a way of obtaining something, a method of inflicting pain on ourselves or others, basically a way to perpetuate the global lie that we are all part of. My oh my we are individually and collectively using speech in the most appalling way and yet it could so easily be a means with which to deliver love and truth. How quickly would things change if suddenly the only things that we were allowed to express had to contain love and truth!
The very deliberate misuse of words in their true meaning has a far greater impact on our world than we choose to see.
If we would be able to consider that every word we speak carries energy, and that if we talk about or to somebody that these words carry either emptiness or fullness, could we then understand how wise it would be to apply energetic integrity to the best of our ability in every word we speak or write? Because all that we express does matter, even though we’ve not been educated this (energetic) fact. If someone’s angry, it’s terrible to be on the receiving end. Imagine that you’re not there physically, but I would speak rudely or in an abusive way, do you think that you’re not affected? We are! But we have hardened ourselves to not feel this. We’ve lost the true meaning of words!
To me, it makes sense the Christmas is void of meaning. One being that most people want a break, to pig out on food and drink up – we connect to the celebration aspect of the holiday and the ‘coming together’ but many do not have a connection to or believe the story that Christmas is supposed to represent.
I haven’t bought Christmas cards or presents for years, it always felt like rather a false exercise to me, and based mainly on us wanting to be liked. This year I have been particularly affected by the juxtaposition of people’s posts on Facebook: pictures of refugees, bombings and horror around the world interspersed with photos of piles of wrapped presents, glittering lights and Christmas trees and adverts for food. Somehow it seems we are living in two separate worlds at the same time and yet I know we are all on the same planet.
A great exposure of the meaninglessness of words… there is indeed much that we ensure looks good on the surface but is void of any substance and as such, a quality in meaning that has been lost and as you have shown here, at great expense to us all.
I feel life would be far simpler if our words existed in their true meaning and we knew exactly where we stand with them. Christmas as a word and a thing is a very good example how far away from truth most of us are living.
“Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.” What a brilliant sharing bringing the true meaning of Christmas back to us all. This has been lost and mis-interpreted in so many ways and it is time now to start living the real truth of words again.
Tricia when I read the true meaning of Christmas again in your comment, I got to feel the joyous vibrancy of the word and then in stark contrast I also got to feel the washed out and utterly lifeless way in which we have currently chosen to interpret the meaning of Christmas.
So do we just use words and manipulate them just for our own good? and then my next question, do we just go along with the Christmas celebration because everyone else is. So we spend money we may not have, on presents that may not even be needed for the receiver, drink so much that we are numb and not honest with our selves or others because we are afraid to say No to something that everyone else does. Are we afraid to not follow the masses? I don’t mind if others want to do this but please don’t expect me to play the game.
Drinking alcohol the first time and it burns all the way down, then are told we will learn to enjoy it? Has December become our favourite tipple? Your list of what Christmas is NOT could fill pages! One only needs to look at the foundation of Christmas, was this the birth of the first advertising agency? The new and improved Pagan holiday! And, we keep trying to improve it every year? How can you improve what has always been inside of us every day!
It is known even amongst scholars that Jeshua was not born on the 25th of December, but in July!
‘We don’t need to be christian to connect with Christ’ – so true.
Breaking the word Christ down to its true meaning makes so much sense and completely dissolves the commercial lie we are fed about Christmas celebrating one person’s birthday and making it about presents etc..
Having just passed Christmas and now New Year, I was pondering on New Year. Rather than considering it a beginning of a cycle, I know I have thought that it was an opportunity to leave something behind that I did not like. The only thing with that is that you never do leave anything behind. We carry everything with us, unless we deal with it. From a calendar perspective it is new, but really that is it.
Adrienne, you are quite right. Apart from some priests hardly anybody mentions the word Christ when it comes to Christmas.
‘Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them.’ I loved this line Adrienne which brought to me a deeper appreciation of the power words carry as well as the responsibility we hold in how we live and express.
Christmas came and went quickly for me this year which I really appreciate as it being just another day of the year and I did not feel caught up in the stress and expectation which have come to be a part of the build up and day itself. However I still did not fully appreciate the meaning of Christmas – so great to have a reminder of the truth missing from the day and given in the word ‘Christmas’.
Memorable words of a bishop at a christmas choral service in London many years ago: ‘ what children want from you each and every day is your presence not presents’
It is so true what you share here, Adrienne, about “the meaninglessness of words today, the hollow emptiness of our language and the growing façade of words, whose substance has been rotted away like houses eaten through with termites, appearing solid but crumbling into nothingness at the touch.” Universal Medicine brings the substance back into the key words and principles of life, through the constancy and absoluteness of energetic integrity.
It’s interesting how Christmas doesn’t seem to have so much of a hold on people this year, it’s a bit like the world is waking up to the disenchantment of knowing that deep down this really isn’t it, and that there is possibility that the way we approach Christmas could be one big mask for what’s really going on underneath.
This is such a fascinating topic. What are the two most simple words in the english language? ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. You’d think it impossible to bastardise, confuse, muddy or dilute two such binary expressions. Yet recent experiences at my work have shown me many, many times that even these two ultra simple words are no longer sacrosanct in their definitions and the ease with which people say ‘yes’ when they clearly and knowingly mean ‘no’ is, frankly, pretty scary because if even these two most simple and black-and-white of words are no longer absolutes then we really are very, very lost.
It strikes me as extraordinary just how far from the truthful original meaning of a word, or ceremony, we allow ourselves to stray without even a blink of the eye. Great blog Adrienne reflecting the obvious to those of us who know it but have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas.
“Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them.” When we do take on this responsibility we begin to build true communication between our selves and one another. Words carry a vibration and purpose so when we express them in true accordance with what we are feeling and want to convey, they will be expressed with an energetic harmony that actually heals us. When we bandy them about without really connecting to what it is we are saying, their vibration becomes distorted and they turn into loose bullets that just damage us.
It is interesting to reflect back and consider at what point did we lose ourselves in the commercial world and allow this to influence us in such a strong way that we have lost sight of what the true values of Christmas really are. You could ask at what point did we need to bring the commercial world into the picture and why did we feel it was needed. There is always people and organisations out to make a quick dollar from any situation but the reality is we have to sustain it. What are we sustaining and why, what is it that we do not want to look at as individuals and as a society?
“What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” – Very true Adrienne and nailed. Walking our talk in all we do and be is where it’s at.
Adrienne I saw love this as it resonates deeply within, the possibility of this occuring feels very very yummy indeed: “The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds. How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are?” It feels that this is the only way to find our way back to a truly harmonious way of living with all of us as a one unified humanity…
This analogy really drives it home doesn’t it – “To put it into perspective, it would be like the Olympics without sports, soccer without a ball, motor racing without cars, fashion without clothes, music without sound, royalty without the royals.” If everyone just thought about this and truly felt into it, maybe then our true celebrations and ceremonies could start to come to the foreground again with the emphasis on what was intended and not what we interpreted it to mean …
I also wanted to send some Christmas Cards to family and dear ones overseas and I found the same: “I was looking, but all I could see were Christ-less Christmas cards featuring everything from snowflakes, reindeer and santas, to presents, stars, Christmas trees, decorations and words like ‘season’s greetings’, but not a Christ child in sight.” None of it felt what I wanted to convey so in the end I did not send any at all, and just telephoned and connected that way instead.
This is so true Adrienne – “We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ.” – How many people do we know that have renounced to be Christian and/or religion, yet do live a life with the basic principles of living in Christ energy in place.
Unfortunately Christmas is such an accurate representation of where we are at as a race of people. ‘A stressful time for most, fraught with emotional tension and crammed with all manner of self medication in a desperate attempt to find relief’.
Words and their true meaning are so very important.. and it is great to read your blog on the very true meaning of the word ‘Christmas’ … Thank you
A great topic to bring up Adrienne… could ‘I love you’ even be meaning-less when ‘love’ isn’t lived or celebrated within a relationship?
“Christmas is a super-powerful word and once we get past the white noise and discern its meaning, as The Way of The Livingness invites us to always do for ourselves, it offers a genuine and true way to live” – without the Way of The Livingness, i’d still be living what i’d call: ‘the way of the reality’, taking things at face value without seeing all of what is there, and so living like this too in a blindness, which includes the meaning behind words, and the intent behind everything. The Way of The Livingness has opened up life as i know it through the quality in which life is lived; it is the way of unfolding true truth.
“It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.” I always felt the bizarreness of this even as a child…that Father Christmas, Christmas pudding, mince pies, pine trees, excessive alcohol and the like had no seeming connection to Christ… that the meaning of Christmas had disappeared amoungst the rush to get to the shops.
One day we will see Christmas exposed for the scandal it truly is.
I love that to live with the integrity of our words meaning what our bodies are living, we love so far ftom this today generally it will be felt if we all start to live what we speak.
Having learnt a few languages it is always interesting that so many different people have different interpretations of words and of course this happens in our own language too so quite often there is no common true meaning but each and every person’s individual interpretation that suits them, instead of what is true for all.
A bit like a cease fire, the world attempts to bring ‘goodwill;’ at Christmas time, and then back to the fight for the rest of the year. So there is no true harmony or goodwill at all – just short relief for some.
It is truly a farce, this good will, as even during Christmas time a lot of unresolved issues can and do arise which either end in a fight or are kept barely suppressed for the sake of momentary ‘peace’ …
A cease-fire should be a moment of reflection, but we only use it as a pause button.
Hence the gargantuan consumption of food and alcohol – to numb the pain of what hasn’t been lived.
Amazing blog Adrienne, my feeling is that the sooner we all pay more attention to the values and energy we put into our words the simpler life will become.
Hear hear Greg,yes to listen and pay attention to all our words and movements will go a long way of supporting us in our forever evolution.
Meeting up with friends and family during Christmas always inspires me to make more effort to stay in contact throughout the year too. Even if it is just in simple gestures like a quick call to say hello.
Yes, we can express love at any time!
What I love about The Way of The Livingness is that it continually evolves, it is not stuck in any dogma
Me too Carmel, and the way that by it’s very nature it is a continually expanding truth that is only limited by our own choices as to how deeply we are willing to connect to and live it.
No wonder we’ve lost ourselves in a world that on the grander scale isn’t reflecting the truth and preciousness of life. Life all around us is reflecting how life can be ‘bought’. Where it can’t! Life is to be lived! Living life is a connection with our innermost and follow / obey to the impulses that stem from here. It’s a very sacred, beholding, still and loving place that never judges. It is very inviting to return to this connection. It speaks in the silence – very loudly, but not through sound as we’re sold sound is. Ignoring the inner voice leaves us depending only on what we hear. As most people aren’t connected to their inner voice either, we end up believing and giving our power away to voices (words) that do not carry the love that they originally had. A beautiful example is the word Christmas. As this isn’t just a few days off, a coming together to eat and drink etc. It is a moment in a year to spend some time off to celebrate the love we are together with people that are dear to us. It can be a very precious time in a year where we celebrate the love we hold for ourselves and each other. How different could life be?
Christmas has become commercialised just like so many events as the true meaning is lost and replaced with indulgence and comfort.
The absolute integrity of living according to the true meaning of words is hard to find in today’s society, and yet it is always there as a choice when we are ready. The Way of The Livingness as a religion expounds this as a foundation upon which to live our daily lives and build true relationships.
There are many words that we use today that are void of their true meaning yet we still bandy them around with no regard of their true purpose. Its a bit like putting water in a bucket with a hole in it, the vessel we use to express ourselves is empty of meaning yet we continue to use despite the fact that it does not convey what we want it to. Putting the ‘Christ’ back into ‘Christ-Mass’ is a superb example. Cards, presents, celebration meals cannot convey the true quality of Christ unless we address the reality of the hole and actually begin to embody this divine energy during the 364 days that lead up to this annual celebration. And when we do, we realize that although cards, presents and festive meals are all very awesome presents to give one another, nothing can match the living quality that resides in our bodies as a consequence of choosing to embody Christ throughout the year. Fixing the hole is not about being pious, good or religious in our common understanding, but about restoring a true quality of nurture, responsibility and integrity so that our every expression carries a sincere intent to respect both everyone we meet including ourselves 24/7/365. And hence we a-Mass Christ.
I particularly like this line ‘Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech’, especially as often we can lie to ourselves and others by the words we use.
It is interesting how a lot of people breathe a sigh of relief when Christmas is over. Could this be that deep down everyone is actually missing the fact that Christmas is about being together in brotherhood and we know that we have accepted something that is not that at all?
Good point Elizabeth , breathing that sigh of relief is a clear indication that the celebrations, if they were that, were anything but truly joyous …
It is interesting how much meaning we have lost in the reality that we have created. It begs the question are we living in a true and real way?
Great point Jennym, if we have lived in a true way after the point that the original word came to describe the action/quality, then there would have been no lost or changed meaning. That we have words with lost or changed meaning, shows we have not lived in a true way.
Beautiful Adrienne , showing us what we got inside to let out.. And so that if we decide to hold back, we actually offer empty words.. We always need to live what we share and say. So being honest about that is number one. Thank you.
I agree Christmas is meaningless, it is a time where the retail and food trade make as much money as possible. We all buy into it because we use this one day of the year as a big distraction away from our mainly dysfunctional lives. For many years now my family and friends simply hang out together on the day, we all bring a plate of yummy food to share, no fuss, no presents, no alcohol, being together, catching up and enjoying each others company.
We have also turned our backs on what Christmas has become, the commercialization of everything in excessive amounts. The gathering of friends with simple food and conversations is our normal on how we celebrate.
Christmas has taken an interesting turn this year – less about the festivities/presents/atmosphere, more about the food and booze!
Although we can change what we commonly understand a word to mean, we can never change the energetic meaning of a word because it is the energy that gives the word life. Energy comes first, the word second, whereas the word comes first and our understanding comes second.
By changing the meaning of words we change the meaning of life.
“How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are?” – it would mean there would be no (need for a) single day assigned for such a celebration, when every day we are living with the quality of such love, and, the love of Christ in energy. Perhaps Christmas was invented as a pull back towards this true way, and in the process each and every year, has watered down into the disastrous commerciality and ‘missing of the point’ we have today with the descriptions you share of those Santas etc. Adrienne!
I agree that in general the whole meaning and purpose of Christmas has been lost – it has been massively commericalised and is no longer simply about family and friends coming together but rather about food, drink and presents. And then the boxing day sales where even more things are bought. It is like we come together but do not actually spend quality time together.
It is interesting that you have shared this Amina. Why do we use this time of the year to connect when there are plenty of opportunities more often without the pressures to bring gifts and the build up of cooking and preparing days ahead?
‘We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ.’ I love this statement Adrienne. The Christ is in the inner-hearts of us all, no matter what religion we may call ourselves and we can be inspired by those ascended masters who hold the office of the Christ to fully embody that beholding Love on earth. Christ-mas is the celebration of the birth of the beautiful teacher who came to earth that Love.
Adrienne your example of how the word and period of Christmas has been lost is something that I can see applies to so many aspects of life, for one example we can take “work” for me I get the sense that for many this becomes about what they can do or indeed how little one can do and how much one can earn. Yet with that we miss the true quality and purpose of working together, of brotherhood something that we can see we had in Ancient Egypt yet has been lost for many centuries. I have no doubt there are thousands of words where we are using them without appreciation or connection to the true meaning and purpose of them.
‘Moreover, the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.’ It feels equally true that it is when we do not live the quality of the true meaning of words which allows them to be bastardised in the first place – like giving ownership over to something other than truth and allowing what they then become.
One can feel the momentum and consciousness of Christmas and how this has a life of it’s own, devoid of the power and invitation to humanity that Christ light truly holds. If we were to seriously ponder the possibility that it is the Christ light that must lead us out of individual and collective darkness so evident in the world – there would be no glitz, glitter and greed that sucks society in like an unstoppable vacuum.
Adrienne, I enjoyed your simile of ‘Christmas without Christ’ to playing ‘soccer without a ball’. To play the game we would need to pretend there was a ball and go through the motions without actually hitting it. So we pretend there is a Father Christmas and we go throught the fake motions of opening presents, dulling ourselves with overeating, having empty and meaningless conversations with family or avoiding confrontation where old dynamics would normally play out. Everyone feels the futile meaninglessness of Christmas and yet we still cling onto this ritual. Perhaps there is a longing in all of us for some true meaningful ritual but we settle for the fake version instead.
I consider myself a person who is open to new things and able to look at other ways of doing things that are different from the norm. However I am seeing places in my life where I do not want to go. It is easy to focus outside of myself to make changes rather then to look inward.
Christmas has never felt ok to me. Most people were not Merry, unless they had some alcohol, and people were more stressed than usually. So I have slowly withdrawn from doing the traditional things at the holidays. No more parties or gift giving, just focusing on spending some quality time with people. By listening to feelings and changing my focus I have changed my experience of Christmas, and I have shown other people that is ok to trust your feelings and do something different.
This is how I can make a real difference in the world.
It isn’t just that Christ, also known as love is missing – how many foods and gifts are great for numbing but not loving to the body or other parts of us? – I wonder if it is actively been avoided? However, many people are more open and warm to others in my experience during this time.
When we return to living the true meaning of words, we will call the rest of the world to return to their true meaning. If I say I love someone, and use the word to describe true love rather than simply emptional love, soon those around me will relate the expression of this true love with the word.
People, including children, who are talking from the connection with themselves (i.e. from their body) are a pure joy and honour to listen to. Whenever somebody is speaking from their sacred place within, I’m in awe with them and can listen for ages. Whenever somebody’s sharing wisdom, there’s much to be learnt!. I feel blessed with so many amazing people around me, sharing their delicate expressions with me. Learning about life never ends, never! Thank God for life.
As a society we have become very dishonest of the ways we use words, we have bastadised their meaning to suit our irresponsibility to be more and embrace all that we are. And Christmas is the perfect example as in truth is a a time to reconnect, appreciate and confirm our love with others and live our innate right of true brotherhood on earth.
Yes it is very important to bring words back to their original and true meaning. Many words now have (personal) versions that are all slightly different for instance love for one person is a smile yet for another person it is presents etc. In truth there is only one meaning for a word and when we ignore that you say “What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” , we and the truth get lost.
In disconnection from our body and our innate ability to feel and know what we feel our language can at best be an approximation to what we live but very often will fall short to transcribe the truth. Hence the key to true language and words is knowing ourselves by knowing and feeling our body and then giving words to what is alive and lived within.
‘This isn’t a rant about the Christ-less Christmas being a bad or evil thing or about our lack of piety, but the Christ-less Christmas is, perhaps, the most blatant example of the meaninglessness of words today, the hollow emptiness of our language and the growing façade of words, whose substance has been rotted away like houses eaten through with termites, appearing solid but crumbling into nothingness at the touch.’ – Very well said Adrienne. Just like we have lost ourselves i.e. strayed away from our true selves, have we equally walked away from true language and accepted a distorted and bastardised version.
Once again visiting this blog, I want to laugh out loud. It is so ridiculous: Christ-less Christmas and Christ-less Christmas cards. Yet at the same time it is not so funny either. Because this example seems so very normal. The sentence “oh but when I say such and such I really mean such and such” rolls off the tongue so easily. It seems we have been for so long conveniently altering the meaning and essence of words and concepts, until we now have a world of clichés, and we are settling for less and less quality because we are not even looking for it.
I wonder if we are still getting ‘quality’ in terms of craftsmanship or manufacturing excellence or in the cleverness of the jokes on the cards but not ‘quality’ in terms of love, as you are pointing out, Golnaz.
Great blog Adrienne. Christmas has certainly been a word that has lost all true meaning and then ‘merry’ was added which I read recently was a British synonym to do with the consumption of alcohol so it is basically wishing everyone a ‘tipsy’ Christmas which is the opposite of relating in true brotherhood in the energy of the Christ
We diminish ourselves and one another when we don’t walk our talk or talk our walk.
This is a beautiful blog offering the truth about words and how the meanings have been changed through time and offering the truth about the word christmas for us all to reconnect with and feel . “the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.” A great sharing and reflection of this christmas time and so much more.
Christmas means different things to different people because the true meaning of it has been lost. I find myself explaining to people when they ask, that I do not celebrate the commercial side of Christmas. I now realise that there isn’t a commercial side to Christmas and that I do celebrate it for it’s true meaning. This is an example of what happens when a word has lost its true meaning.
‘How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives?’ True. We often use phrases jokingly without feeling their true meaning. I recently came across a discussion about lying about our age or ageing gracefully. Someone mentioned that she planned to ‘age dis-gracefully’ and although I assumed that she meant she intended to have fun, I felt sad, because, not only does lying about your age deny the beauty of the numerology associated with it, grace is one of the true qualities we women can bring to the world.
After reading your blog, I realised how often we express in a way that is empty, meaningless and without purpose in many social occassions and often avoiding truly connecting with each other. I agree Adrienne, Christmas does feel like this too, the meaning of this word and many others have lost its true purpose and meaning. What I understand is that, how we express is a reflection of the way we choose to live.
Thanks, Adrienne. The word ‘Christ’ causes so much reaction in people across the world and has a wide range of associations attached to it, so it is beautiful to read your clear and simple presentation of its true meaning.
It feels like we have completely lost the true meaning of Christmas; so many people in recent days have said to me ‘I can have another (chocolate, extra portion of dessert, drink, mince pie), it’s Christmas’, like it gives us an opportunity to be even more irresponsible. Instead it can be an opportunity to pause and reflect how we have lived the past year, what has motivated us to do certain things or be with particular people, and appreciate how we have lived our lives with others.
Another way that words have lost their meaning and been bastardised is that different people or groups can have completely opposite definitions of just one word. Terrorist groups fighting or killing in the name of ‘Peace’ is an extreme example of how words change depending on who is saying them and their agenda.
It’s so ironic that the ‘Christ’ has gone out of ‘Christmas’.
Absolutely Adrienne, even though the clues are in the word itself it can still be changed, skewed and misinterpreted, and blatantly ignored… “Even though we all acknowledge the obvious commercial presence of Christmas, there is little focus or question on what’s not present, like Christ”
Great blog on the lost meaning of Christmas Adrienne. I have noticed more and more each year that people just look upon Christmas as a holiday time where you get together with family and friends and eat lots of food and drink a little cheer or two.
There is a powerful reflection here for us all about how, when we rely on mental energy to define words, the meanings can change so that there is no semblance of truth any more. Words come with energy and this energy can be felt in our bodies and to me, this is where we can connect to the truth of our expression. Otherwise we end up with a myriad of opinions about the meanings of things without any true definition.
A great topic for discussion and one that feels more pertinent than ever. The emptiness around commercial Christmas is more apparent than ever. This year we were away for Christmas and chose not to take any presents with us, it was mighty confirming to put our togetherness & connection as a family before going through the motions, and smoothing over any disharmony with the distraction of gifts only to arrive at the same place days later. In fact the lack of bother from my children helped me to step out the box and truly see
“I look, but what do I see?”
“How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives?” We are not taught how to really use words, their importance and how much we have changed their true meaning to diminish their true power. Words are there to impart wisdom and support us in our evolution. All the great words in life have been bastardised from their true meaning ……Love is one of the most mis-used and mis-interpreted words on the planet.
‘ What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live. ‘ This is so important Adrienne, to speak and write from a lived way, embodied, rather than from what’s been heard or read and communicated from this. It is felt and understood in a completely different way.
We certainly don’t have to be Christian to appreciate Christ… in fact we were talking to someone about the Moslem faith and they respect Christ as a prophet, and the same applies in Hinduism as an avatar, someone who communicated a truth and represented God on earth. That is literally a few billion more people!
Wow, great pondering on the name of Christmas. What this reflects to me is our huge resistance towards love, truth and responsibility within humanity, we do not want to know. Yes we want love, but the love shall not ask anything of us, we want comfort and is it not a perfect way to discard Christ and welcome materialism in order to stay comfortable in an attitude which is avoiding truth?
“What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” When we learn more about energy and vibration, we are given the opportunity to appreciate and value the quality and power of words. It brings a whole new depth to our conversations when we take time to align what it is we want to say with the correct word to express it, an important process in reclaiming our selves and restoring divine order to this world.
Meaninglessness or disemboweled words actually rob us of a full life, and an empty life of course leaves us with empty words. Live, feel, reflect, discern, nominate, express – and words will be an expression of what is lived, resonating in another´s ear and body to be known exactly for what it is.
Christmas has certainly lost its original meaning with the current commercialisation and all that it is distracted to be! And hence, how important is it to open up the conversation around this and talk about it and bring awareness to what we have done…this then allows us the opportunity to make changes, and potentially bring back the true meaning of Christmas, a celebration of family and brotherhood not culminating only in one day, but on the contrary confirming what we can be living every day throughout the year.
“Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives” the ironic thing is that It never crossed my mind that words were not definitive yet we all have our own version of words in the way we use them today. Its time to get back to true integrity.
It is interesting how the words “Merry Christmas” are shared with others during the festive season. I have noticed it is often no different to the words “how are you? ” with no eye contact or genuine connection from one person to another. This blog is a great reminder that if these words are not being lived in our body then what are we actually offering the person we are having the conversation with?
We have indeed stripped words of their true meaning and in this we in fact create a way of life beyond that word be it Christmas or Love which is meaningless – this occurs when we do not live words as they are truly meant, when we do not walk the talk of the word and when we allow the quality that is being expressed by that word to to debased and compromised. So it’s little surprise we’ve stripped the Christ of Christmas, the brotherhood of one family everywhere has become synonymous of the opposite, so it’s in fact a reflection for all of us to see and feel, and offers the choice to come back and see that words have a quality, a lived quality a power and without that they mean little and so Christmas is an offer for us all to live the one family we are all are, and this starts with seeing where we are now and considering how this might apply in small and big ways in our lives.
This beautiful blog has really brought to life the fact that we are people first before we are what our different languages have told us about who we are.
It’s very obvious Christmas has lost it’s true meaning and a great relationship made in just how many other words have lost their meaning too.
‘The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds.’ If only the human race could really get this the word ‘Christ’ in Christmas would be said and used in a more deeply honouring way. In the past there has been a kind of ‘leaning’ into this meaning with people becoming more open to each other at Christmas time, even in the sense of people greeting others that they do not know. The warm-hearted lady in our local village shop called out to me one day coming towards this Christmas to let me know that there was a lunch being held at the village community hall for all those who may be alone or without family for Christmas to get together. I appreciated her thinking of me and there are likely many tales to be told like this. But in general people seem so overwhelmed by life or so hell-bent on getting pleasure and relief from it that even these ‘extending a hand’ gestures appear to be waning. And yet the Christ on earth is even more present than before. It will get worse before the healing becomes clear.
This is a classic example of the way society, in which we all contribute, bastardises the truth of words through which we avoid the responsibility of living this truth, allowing us to instead be emotionally manipulated for the sole purpose of self-gain, either for ourselves or over others. As such the corruption of our words reflect a superficiality, a reduction of who we are which we are choosing to live. With this we forgo the opportunity for us all to rise up and live the fullness of our connection to our essence, and embrace the wisdom offered to us through the true and original meaning of the words of our language, to embody for ourselves, together, as they once were lived.
“How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives?” This is such an important question to be asking and look how much wisdom you have exposed by just looking at the word Christmas. It shows me today that we are regularly sold something that is much less than its original meaning.
True Sarah, we need to wake up and see what we are really being sold and have an honest look at why we keep falling for it.
Words are one way of expressing. The more we align and share with the true meaning of words then the closer we are to aligning our expression with heaven.
Very thought-provoking Adrienne, super read on what’s behind a word – the reality and also truth too. Nothing tastes, sounds, or feels as good when it’s watered down….How watered down we do live our everyday life in, Christmas being one such prime example.
‘Observing the activity around Christmas reveals that the majority of us are definitely religious about decorating, gifting, feasting, holidaying and rounding it all off with sale shopping, devoid of honouring the birth of a being, whose short life and simple wisdom has echoed down the centuries, offering a way of living that has inspired many.’ When it comes down to it, it is interesting to note that most of us do and can commit to something; it just may not necessarily be all about evolution. Timely to read this paragraph as tonight I was observing myself over eating once again knowing exactly what it was that I was doing – committing to something that was about dulling my awareness and connection rather than allowing myself to connect to what I was feeling and the choices I had made today!
“…Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know…” – Christmas then is a time of celebration of what is lived everyday – the brotherhood, true family (blood and non blood family), community, collaboration with love, etc. This gives Christmas meaning rather than what it has become which is many instances is the opposite to this.
I was just pondering on what you have shared Adrienne about Christ being absent from Christmas and how it’s true meaning has been lost within the title wave of consumerism or even for those who celebrate the birth of Jesus, this is even capped to the event of the birth rather than what is was that Jesus grounded and lived, which as you have shared is about brotherhood and knowing that we are all one family. There is an immense sadness at this time of year and I wonder if it’s about us not living in the way that Jesus had inspired, the energy that he grounded through the way he was living.
2000+ years later and the world still appears to be living in such a way contrary to what Jesus taught, and that was to live in brotherhood as the One unified family, with equal love for all, with non judgement and compassion for others. But most of all we have forgotten who we truly are and how to love ourselves. We need a new way of living, and that way for me is the Way of the Livingness. Jesus taught that there was another way to live and that way was to NOT drown ourselves in commercialism and indulgence but to share our love with everyone and bring the true meaning of the Christ (the Love of God) back to humanity, all the year around, and not just at Christmas.
Great points Jennifer. I agree there is a great sadness hanging around this period with Christmass and New Years Eve especially when we all go back to our ‘normal’ everyday lives it is felt that what we though would bring us something actually has not changed anything. Change comes from living what is true like the way Jesus was living sharing brotherhood, true love and a great wisdom with all. So yes I would say that we would feel this sadness of not living who we truly are.
We have twisted and turned ourselves (and the words/language) into unrecognisable versions – how crazy is that?
“Moreover, the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.” Amen to that Adrienne!
On Christmas Day, when I was walking inside from work, a sacred kingfisher flew and landed on a light pole, did a little chirp and then flew away – it was so beautiful but the best present of the day was working harmoniously with people at work, which rarely happens during the year as it is rare to stop and appreciate each other which is why working becomes so stressful.
I love what you have said here about the sacred kingfisher and the harmonious day of appreciation at work on Christmas day Harry. These are the ‘Christ’ presents that are being continually given to us all day everyday from the ever communicating universe.
The world would indeed be a completely different place if we just stopped once in a while and reflected on the quality and significance of what we partake in. We will likely re-connect with the essence lost in many areas of life which we may choose to re-ignite.
I remember before I really knew what Christmas was about – it was just as joyful as any other time of year, and then the excitement came because there was lots of presents, and then getting even older it becomes popular to drink alcohol on Christmas and eat lots of food! But observing from what I truly feel, the real joy is missed out on if all the focus is put into external things like food, drinking and presents when the real value is in connection and loving people.
I’m impressed that you were able to be this honest. Drinking is not that fun to be around unless you enjoin it, I found out lately that you do not have to drink to enjoin, it can be a choice to lose who you are and then you are as good as drunk. The fact that you held your own is very cool.
It is so true that Christmas has become something very far from the true meaning and yet we are religious about the food and the presents and the decorations. Pretty crazy when some of us don’t want to call it religious at all anymore. A great opportunity to take stock and consider how far we have come from the true meaning of words.
Christ is the essence of Christmas and also the warmth of our generous hearts.
I find it is so hard to mention the real meaning of Christmas without people tuning out after the first mention of Jesus or God. To me it does spoil the celebration more than I have admitted before reading your sharing Adrienne!
This phrase ‘I look but what do I see?’ sticks with me Adrienne, for if the words I have for things are false in the first place, do I experience what is really there or what I think should be? You show us how terminology not only cuts short how we speak but also defines the way that we live. How important it truly is to bring back integrity to the words we use, if we wish to live in a way that is true.
Thank you, Adrienne. I love the way you write and the universal calling you evoke in bringing truth back to our words and all of our expressions in life.
If the Christ is love, then the more Christmas is about love, regardless of circumstances or background, the more it is the true Christmas.
If you look at the history of christmas day, the choosing of the date was not even to do entirely with honouring Jesus, but actually in honour of pagan rituals that celebrated the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere. Similarly, many of the traditions around christmas are paganistic in their origins. As such, it really has little to do with Yeshua, or Jesus, even though it was date stamped by the Romans as the official celebration of his birth many centuries after his passing. As you have pointed out, the term Christ, which has become synonymous with Jesus, is actually the energetic emanation of love. Jesus himself was referred to as the Christ, due to his willingness and dedication to embody love, and live it in every movement and moment.
But it is not actually his to claim alone, and is an energy that is the divine right of every human being to claim, as he most likely actually taught. As such, really, if we want to celebrate the christ, or seek to understand it by way of ritual, then we should seek to do so every day, and not just one supposed day a year. That all being said, however, even if the date has no historical significance to the true life of Jesus, I suppose it does not harm to bring attention to his life, if doing so causes us to bring reflection to our own, and is not just a bastardised deification of a man who rightly claimed himself to be a Son of God, but not THE ONLY Son of God as mistakenly claimed by the christian church.
Christmas day and christmas has understandably morphed over the years to mean different things to different people, and yes it is in some respects a time to come together. However, even in that, if you really look at it, the cultural significance of this belief system that has become synonymous with Christmas is misleading, For if we understand true brotherhood, and the true meaning of Christ, then we would realise that family extends beyond blood, and that what happens at Christmas is often an insular and inward cementing of the belief that family is just blood, that our immediate family is the most important thing in the world – a belief that gives us cause and justification to ignore the rest of our true brothers – humanity – and look only after our own.
Thus, Christmas has become in its own way a fortification of the white picket fence that so many of us put up along our border to define that small patch of turf as our own and to the exclusion of everyone else. Metaphorically of course, this is exactly what we tend to do with our own hearts, opening to some, but not all,and thereby mistakenly thinking that we can choose who we love, when the truth is that love is an energetic emanation, and a quality of beingness (referred to as The Christ) that in itself cannot pick and choose who it allows itself to be received by. And so, if we are to truly embody The Christ, then neither can we. And that on its own exposes the hypocrisy of Christmas and family.
It’s a bit of a mess, this Christmas thing. I overheard a young boy ask his mother “is Christmas about presents?” the other day and she answered, “no, it’s about Jesus”. One might be tempted to think that that’s okay and better than the rampant commercialism at least, but what about the appropriation of Jesus by religion? And what about the fact that he wasn’t born in December? And how to account for the fact that he could never have been the blue-eyed and blond-haired sanitised version of a Jew of middle-eastern provenance that he is commonly portrayed as? Did the rot start a lot earlier than the commerce of Christmas?
You make a very astute observation – the commercialisation of Christmas has for many become the focus of the holiday, buying and giving presents not as an expression of appreciation for the year spent together, of them as a person and of the connection or relationship shared, but because that’s what is done at Christmas. Many express a enjoyment of the spending time with friends and family, and yet most often this can get a little lost in the festive preparations of food and decorations, parties etc. The greater connection and ‘festive cheer’ we feel can be had all year round – this doesn’t have to be put away with the fairy lights and tinsel for next year.
I agree – the truth needs to be restored in the language we use, and how we use them – for us to get closer to the truth we have lost in the way we are living. Very often what we call ‘normal’ is not natural to us, yet somehow by calling it ‘normal’ we lower our standard to accept it as part of life, and we have been living in a downward spiral for so long.
This is exposing of the patterns of behaviour that we as a society have fallen into with diminished awareness of the substituted reasons behind them. This means that we are easily swayed by factors such as comfort, entertainment and indulgence which are all a choice to have less awareness of the truth and what is there to be lived.
I agree, Christmas should be a celebration of our connection – a grace of our glory. And it is not to shy away from how Christmas has degenerated and blame this way of being lost – but to bring back the truth of its meaning and live it. Not just in December, but this is a good start to build a foundation for the next year to unfold.
Christmas is a great example of a commonly used word where the actual meaning of the word and what it has come to mean, are no longer the same thing. This can be said of so much of our language as we gradually erode and familiarise ourselves with the pared-down, distorted and reduced version of a word to a point where no one realises – and takes for absolute granted that they know the meaning of that word, when in fact it has been bastardised to the point we do not know the truth of it. And thus words can actually deprive us of truth rather than deliver it.
It is clear that the meaning of Christmas as been watered down to a day of giving expensive gifts if the budget allows but when you speak to people many see it as a burden, which is not surprising considering the level of exhaustion humanity is living with. Having lived that way myself but now having stepped away from it, I can see how much pressure we put on ourselves to have the perfect Christmas, and then come Christmas day we are too exhausted to enjoy it.
Thank you Adrienne for this powerful reminder of the misuse and re-interpretation of words throughout the ages. I am feeling contraction in my body as I read your example of the meaning of ‘Christ’ being reduced to generally now mean a single person, rather than a living way of connection with One family – the abuse of words which has the impact of limiting and diminishing our inner foundations and evolution.
“The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds”
The Way of the Livingness makes restoring the true meaning to words a living art form. When we reclaim the real meaning of a word, we restore an ancient and powerful relationship to its vibration and expression and in doing so empower our selves to embody its meaning rather than just paying lip service to it. To reclaim the word Christmas means returning to and living the simple principles of Christ, the energy of Oneness, Brotherhood and God, en-mass i.e. altogether everyday. It’s not about tinsel, carol singing and pudding but a daily expression of openhearted, transparent, loving responsibility and unity.
A further deception, I feel, that the Christmas celebration delivers is that the celebration of the Christ is to be lived and celebrated not just one day a year but every single day of the year.
The celebration of the Christ is to remind us that we are all one family united within the One.
We can be seen and we can be heard but what matters most is the quality in which we live by. No amount of words can fool one who is connected to their innermost.
2000 years of drifting and losing the original meaning of Christmas will be a long journey back that starts with the first step, to choose to reclaim who we all are.
I only came to know the true meaning of the word ‘Christ’ through attending Universal Medicine presentations and courses. After reading your blog Adrienne, I feel it would be possible for us to live in true brotherhood once again, but we first have to be willing to embrace the true meaning of this word and choose what is most natural to us all-Brotherhood.
I enjoyed Christmas day so much this year, and the reason was waking up to such stillness… there was no traffic noise, no lawn mowing or whipper snipping, no voices on the street and not even dogs barking – just a stillness that lasted for hours. I went for a walk through our local nature reserve and met an elderly man who also regularly walks there. He asked me how my Christmas was, and I shared how much I was enjoying the stillness… he replied “yes, there should be more of it.” That shared moment made my week!
Great to be reminded of the true meaning of Christ-mas- the living Christ within us all and sharing this quality- love with all equally in brotherhood.
It is simply not possible for humanity to live the true meaning of Christmas at the moment. Brotherhood can only be truly reached through our connection with ourselves and we are a very long way from that. Now that’s not to say that we won’t all get there in the end, we shall, but we have a very long walk ahead of us.
True, Alexis. The potential for true brotherhood requires resolution within ourselves and then in relation to one another.
There is no way into any-thing else in life other than through ourselves, we are the portal to every-thing else; which is why we are so very lost, it’s because we are looking for the way out and in, everywhere apart from in ourselves.
When words reflect what has been embodied and expressed in the full quality that they come in, there is a solidness built and felt within my body.
To bring meaning back into our words requires us to truly connect with our body and feel what is there to be said rather than searching for words through mental activity. I am often surprised that when I speak from my body, that words will come out that I don’t even know the meaning of. I will often then go and look up that meaning and the word is exactly what I was feeling to express. The body is so wise.
‘Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them’ – I totally agree. Having integrity in our words and the way we use them invites us all to take responsibility and creates a level playing field allowing everyone the same respect and consideration, creating an equality amongst us all.
‘How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are’ …. great question, Adrienne. Right now, it feels we live in the opposite way with Christmas being a time of year when the fractures in families are accentuated and the truth about how our relationships really are is revealed for all to feel.
Perhaps the focus of Christmas being on reindeers and Santas and snowmen stems from the imposing nature of the more traditional Christmas message which in line with many religious teachings encourages us to put our faith in one act, on one day, when in fact our religious quality could be found within everyone any day and is more about connecting to the deep qualities we all have and appreciating and sharing a way of living that considers everyone as special.
So many great statements in your blog Adrienne, and yes, the more we live with energetic awareness and integrity, the more we discover how very important the words that we express are.
Great reminder Adrienne, that the Christmas is about the birth of Christ which signifies coming together as one family in brotherhood. This may be an annual event but it is for us to have in our awareness, as we are never separate.
It’s easy to get swept up in the varied and convenient interpretations of words. There are so many words I have never contemplated the true meaning of. Thank you for bringing light to this topic as it’s actually quite a lot bigger than we even realise.
I like how you point out that “We don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the Christ.” We have made life so much about belonging to something and therefore not belonging to other things that we miss out on the grandness that life can be, the grandness that we all are as a one humanity in the oneness of the universe.
The true meaning of the word Christ is lost in so many family homes at Christmas. The sheer number of calls from children to child support agencies is a reflection of this.
Yes, a crisis brewing in the family can easily escalate because the expectation – of more love than normal – and the reality can then be particularly far apart. My parents made an effort at Christmas but I still didn’t enjoy that time – except for cinnamon stars. They were wonderful.
Christmas has an interesting history which may explains some of the hang-over effects that appear to be anti-Christmas or distractions away from its true meaning. The celebration of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is almost as old as the world itself – the Yule-tide of the Scandinavian world where the Yule log was burnt as a light while the sun stood still (sol-stice) to bring in the new cycle; the Celtic Druids with their gift of mistletoe; the original Saturnalia in Rome where everything was inverted (servants were served by lords; grudges and quarrels were forgiven; wars were stopped; symbolic gifts of candles, dolls, artificial fruit were given) , just to name a few – all these being the celebration of the new cycle, the beginning return of the Sun’s full light to the earth. So the solstice has always been of great astronomical, cultural and religious significance.
Christianity chose to take over, as its own celebration, that period of the year from the Pagan tradition, rather than celebrate the birth of Jeshua and the coming of the Christ on his actual birth-date. This was to discourage the old ways and bring in the new. And as a result number of the older traditions have been brought into our Christmas Celebrations such as the Yule log, the gift-giving, the mistletoe etc. It is easy to see how all this has become commercialised and then the truth of this celebration can be lost.
Christmas, as you have said Adrienne, is about the re-igniting of the Christ fire in the hearts of all men and women everywhere. It can have its celebrations – the gathering of family, whether they be ‘blood’ family or not, the symbolic giving of a gift , the sharing of a feast, the decorating of the home with little lights – and all this can be done in Love and joy to celebrate the coming our the beautiful master Jeshua and the earthing of the Christ, and of that healing balm of Love that resides in our hearts.
Thanks Lyndy, great history lesson I had no idea of most of what you have shared.
Interesting list Lyndy, of various traditions which our modern day Christmas celebration is a hotchpotch of. If the significance of what any element symbolically represents was considered, it could offer a valuable foundation. Even if our conclusion was that it was something we did not endorse, that would confirm the values that we do hold dear. Yet how often do we stop and consider the meaning behind such rituals? This scenario perfectly reflects a world in which we champion image and activity above quality and essence.
What an excellent description of what Christmas has become, ‘a world in which we champion image and activity above quality and essence’.
It’s so true. So many of us do not even think of the biblical story when we think of Christmas. It has become a materialistic festival of feasting and partying with no regard for the original meaning or purpose of the event. It has become the opposite of it’s message and has lost the humility and glory of the christ.
As I was reading I became aware of other versions of the word Christ, and the difference was that the false ones came as an external consciousness, absorbed or learnt from the outside world, perhaps these were ideas and distortions constructed or theorised by the human mind, and they felt like a foggy cloud hovering around my mind. in contrast the truth of the word Christ came from within me and was more like a living energy emanating from my inner heart and my whole body.
I love the true meaning of the word Christ. And it’s association with Jesus. For me he was (and is) the embodiment of the Christ energy of God. An energy that emanates and breaths forth true brotherhood. It support everyone to accept themselves for who they truly are with an unwavering and unconditional support. Knowing that we are all innately made up of Christ energy. Isn’t this beautiful?
Great blog Adrienne, bringing up so many valuable points. Language describes our action and movement and ‘being’ – action, movement, living come first before any words are used to match them. So the word becomes bastardised because of the quality in the way we live. If that drops so does the word meaning. AS you say: ‘Moreover, the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.’
“It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.” This is one of many conundrums we as a humanity choose when we live life superficially – it exposes the level of dishonesty we are prepared to live with every day, and how very few are prepared to go deeper and honestly look at the truth of how we are living and the state humanity is in.
It also exposes the complete illusion we are in and how far we have walked away from the truth.
You are so right, Vicky! Instead of celebrating brotherhood, it has become in many ways the gathering of the clans!
I asked a work colleague how their christmas was and they responded “we don’t do xmas – we’re christian!” I was confused – didnt christianity create christmas?! A clear case of the lost meaning of words.
I wouldn’t call myself a Christian and I don’t ‘do’ Christmas either, but I do believe Jesus was the Christ on Earth at that time, and whether he was born on the 25th December doesn’t really matter, for me Christmas is the celebration of family and coming together in brotherhood and not about all the hype, overindulgence and commercialism that goes with it.
(And I’m not sure if christianity created Christmas anyway, wasn’t it something to do with the Romans, or a pagan ceremony around the Winter solstice)…?
” I looked, but what do I see?” You looked Adrienne, and saw through what there was to superficially see.
You have made me wonder, in how many other areas are we blind to what is truly there?
That’s right Jane we do not have to sit by and let meaning disappear or be reinterpreted, we can reclaim the meaning like Adrienne has done here.
Christ to me means love and as I see it, there is very little love in the way Christmas is celebrated by the majority of humanity. I agree Adrienne we need to bring back words, life, celebration days, etc. to its original roots.
Great blog Adrienne you obviously have a great appreciation for the meaning of words language and communication. I get the feeling that we have not merely lost the meaning of words like we left our keys somewhere and we cant find them. More accurately we are not living with the truth and clarity that the words offer us so we grey out the clarity and reinterpret them.
“I look, but what do I see?” – a great saying Adrienne, that highlights at once the fact that we do know the true meanings of words – in spite of the way they are used.
And so it has been every one of us complicit in reducing the truth in words and it the reflection they provide. “We have not been wanting to see” for a long time.
The ironic thing about the word Christmas is that even through the Christian church the meaning of Christmas is void of true Christ even though it is presented as the birth of Christ (Jesus). This is because it is not just about the birth of one man many years ago but the birth of us all living Christ each and every day and this is sorely missing in what is presented at Christmas time.
One question I keep coming back to is how much longer will we keep playing such a game of lies. This is a great example of the re-interpretation on what words mean and not just words but what they represent. Is it because we are all so comfortable in seeking our desires and a material superficial way of life so we don’t have to be truly intimate with ourselves and those around us? Is it this that we are avoiding and if it is why? Would it mean what we reflected to each other would then expose how we are living?
so many words, so many ways to define, confuse and distract us from understanding their true meaning and purpose. Thanks for drawing our attention to this very loaded word– christ.
Christmas is not long passed and thus I am drawn to these Christmas themed blogs. There are a few things I appreciate in this season, one is the fact that so many of us are committed to being with family. The sad thing is what most of us think we have to do in order to be able to handle being with family. The norm is to stuff our faces with food and drink to the point that we cant move. I am blessed to have the strong knowing from my up bringing and my studies with Universal Medicine that Christmas is about connection to self and others, that its about relationships, quality not quantity of time or food. So this year we had a big lunch, my kids had a ball but I was not drunk, I had no dramas, I was not bloated and I felt light and clear heading towards the new year.
And the same thing happens with Easter, everything it represents and is here to symbolise to us. That love never dies, when we stand by it no matter what it only grows stronger and becomes even more accessible to people. And that there are people who’s resolve with love and with truth is absolute and unwavering. We are blessed and reminded of the inner strength that lies within each of us.
Well done for exposing the illusion around Christmas.
The loss of the integrity of the meaning of words is a hugely significant and important topic you raise Adrienne. It is a means by which individuals, particularly politicians and corporations, can convey one thing through their words and defend their actions, which are not in line with the words. This deceit does not just apply to those in public life but, in fact, to everyone both consciously and consciously, leading to miscommunication and conflict within relationships from speaking with ‘forked tongues’. This lays the foundation and the opportunity for the greed and corruption that is rife within society.
It is so true that the meaning of Christmas has been eroded over the years, Adrienne. The break between the end of the year and the New Year coming could be called anything. It does give the opportunity for people to get together with loved ones, but we could also realise this is a time we can get together with everyone around us appreciating how everyone we come into contact with influences us and we influence them.
Stunning Adrienne and capped off with a pearler… “Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness”. AND without a livingness of this quality of relationship with one another throughout the year, there is nothing of truth in a celebration of it’s fact at Christmas.
Brilliant blog Adrienne, you bring the truth and meaning of Christmas back to this word. How far away we have taken it from it’s true meaning, a celebration of brotherhood, oneness, humanity and a living way that unites us.
These days when I ponder the meaning of Christ – and of the life of Jesus or Yeshua – I find that it is a reflection of the truth that we save ourselves rather than rely on another to save us. We do not need a saviour because everything we need is already given to us within and hence, to seek outside ourselves to be saved, is a diversion away from the place we can really find salvation – within our own inner-hearts.
“The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood…” What if we were truly able to live this… one family, one humanity? Now that would be something, but clearly we have much to learn and a long way to go before this can become a reality in our lives.
Bringing the true meaning of ‘Christ’ back into Christmas is bringing love and brotherhood to all.
By bringing love and brotherhood to all we will naturally re-instate the true meaning of Christmas.
Adrienne on reading the expression ““I look, but what do I see?” it caused me to consider all of the times, especially at work, when what I have seen is what I have wanted to see, in order to support my side of an argument.
Adrienne I had no idea that ‘The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood” now this makes a whole heap of sense to me, I have become increasingly put off by the pressure, hype, gluttony, and financial hardship that the current way Christmass is becomes our common reality. Yet if we too Christ-mass back to the original meaning the way we celebrate with all others over a the period would be radically different.
‘It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.’ Yes I totally agree. I have felt the emptiness of this season from very young and as an older child started to feel a little sad over this. However now I understand that true meaning of ‘Christ’ I can choose how much I connect to myself daily so that when Christmas comes around again I have the foundation there to know from my body what its meaning actually is and to celebrate with a depth that doesn’t need the trimmings.
If you were to ask everyone who celebrates Christmas why they celebrate Christ on that particular day you’d certainly receive some quizzical looks. It’s true that we often and easily ignore the meaning of words even when they are very literal, and in this case following a trend and having a ‘festive’, ‘feet-up’ week or two at this time of year is a pattern followed by most people, without looking into what ‘Christmas’ really means.
“What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” Adrienne that sentences got me as this is exactly describing what is going on in the world as most of us are lost and are kings and queens in burying the real meaning of words. Thank you for bringing the awareness back to this topic – this is really very much needed.
Adrienne, you are quite right. The vast majority of Christmas cards, if they have a human, then it is mostly Santa Claus’ collected adventures.
We have been sold an idea of christmas and sometimes when we feel we do not match this ideal it can be a cause of much depression. I was witness to this this christmas and have been in the past also and am, fully aware that suicide rates rise at this time. It is up to all of us to put the christ,energy, that is love and truer care and brotherhood, back into every day of our lives, into our every breath. Like this we have something to celebrate christmas day and every day.
How ironic that we have bastardised the meaning of the word Christmas so much that it’s almost like we are scared to acknowledge the person at the centre of this celebration who re-connects us to true brotherhood.
I agree there are so many words that have come to mean or symbolise almost the complete opposite of what their original meaning was – much of the world is completely upside down in this way in my opinion.
‘How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are?’ – It is interesting how we have set up our societies and our lives to be the complete opposite of what we are all in truth longing for, to be truly deeply connected.
With Christianity being the chosen religion of one-third of the people on the planet, is it the tail wagging the dog? Has Christmas just become a rest day for all the people; making, selling and generally have a supporting role in the commercialization of a religious holiday. Should we not forget Easter, that is an opportunity for an early holiday?
It is so true that we have lost the true meaning of so many words and messages from teachers to the extent that we have re-interpreted them to continue the illusion that we are living in a joyful and vital way.
Great article Adrienne! I love what you have spelled out so clearly, using the example of the emptiness of the word Christmas, which is particularly relevant this time of year. What you have identified is something that actually translates to many words, holidays and events. And for those of us with eyes to see and ears to hear, let us start living the true meaning of all that is before us, and it will be transformed.
Communication is a tool of evolution – diminishing its power through the bastardisation and diluting of language is an attempt to retard us in this journey.
“Even though we all acknowledge the obvious commercial presence of Christmas, there is little focus or question on what’s not present, like Christ.! Very little celebrating of the Christ energy – and what little brotherhood I do see seems to evaporate over the next few days.
Christmas is a symbolic celebration of brotherhood…and has been based on the story of Jesus being born in the manger in December. But what if this is not the real story, and is only one we have adopted to suit how we want to see things? What if Jesus was not born in December but that it is an arbitrary date we have picked to make it a ‘DAY’…what if we have missed the whole point, that it is not about ONE day, but about 365 days of a cycle…a cycle offered to us each year to bring more of a lived brotherhood to our lives and those around us….This can be confronting to consider as it asks us where we sit in relation to that lived brotherhood as a potential, with the potential of ever deepening it. And so it makes it easier for a part of us to set a date, only celebrate family one day out of the 365 in a cycle, and then commercialise the whole event as a distraction from what it is all really about…Quite sinister really…sinister in the sense of taking us away from what is really there on offer. That said, the choice is ours.
Thank you for expressing so clearly Adrienne, reading it today was a great reminder That there is so much more to the word Christmas than we at present choose to celebrate.” The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds.” Nowhere is this taught other that through Universal Medicine and yet it is fundamental to living a true life. We hold dear to family being about blood, when it is so much more expansive than this, we are all One Family, blood, race or culture or borders are all man made to keep us from feeling what true family is. When we begin to feel this for ourselves Brotherhood will be a word used equally as much as family.
Christmas without christ is like soccer without the ball, I guess we make Christmas what we want it to be, but if we were to celebrate christ this could occur everyday, and actually that celebration is in how we live ourselves, how much integrity and simple fun and joy we can bring to each day. It is our own choice how much we want to get drawn into the hullaballoo of the Christmas consumerism, this year I took an even further step back and it was deeply satisfying to do so.
Adrienne, spot on….Christmas is about family, brotherhood and a celebration of what ‘should’ be lived every day, to be confirmed once a year as a celebration of a cycle completed. “Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.”….however, we have much to learn to put this into practice as a society.
Christmas is considered to be a time when we gather with our families, each in our separate bubbles of tight, blood-related families. Yet actually everything that Christ represents should be inspiring us to throwing our doors open and connecting with everyone equally – so even that part of it we have bastardised. And, frankly, knowing the dynamics of most blood families, it’s hardly surprising that it gets a lot worse from there!
‘Being definite in our language invites us to return integrity to our speech and our lives, having words actually match their meaning equally and universally, without distortion or versions, so they may be known singularly by any ear that hears them or eye that reads them’ So true Adrienne and powerfully expressed.
Lived brotherhood on earth – this is exactly what Christmas is trying to remind us of but unfortunately most do not choose to live it yet. It is up to us all to make that choice to live true love.
And enjoy the process…
I am with you, Elizabeth. And Christmas can give us a reflection of our true purpose here, if we are willing to go there together.
… and not to buy into all the trappings just because everyone else is doing it.
Elizabeth you’ve renewed my love and appreciation for this period of the year, I was so against all the build up of commercial exploitation and whilst I enjoyed sharing time with family I’ve not fully embraced the fact its really about brotherhood on earth. Something that is our responsibility to live every moment.
Indeed, what a special time Christmas can be, if we choose to deeply connect with those around us, and feel our indelible connection to the whole. A time to deeply appreciate, treasure and celebrate the relationships in our life and forge the love they are founded upon all the more deeply – whether by ‘blood’ or not does not matter.
And then, from such a marker in our lives, realise that this is to be lived at all times, and not relegated for one ‘special day’…
Exactly Victoria, love is for all year round, not just for Christmas… but try telling that to the retail industry who stand to make millions from our buying presents to buy love and lessen our feelings of guilt about not being love the other 364 days of the year.
Ah, but we must recognise that the industry would have no clout if we did not consume as we do – it is all up to us. Even if the steps towards the expression of true love seem small by compare to what so many yet become caught up in, they are actually great steps, every single one.
You have delivered the clincher at the end here Adrienne – it is our livingness of such words that addresses the gross bastardisations that we see. Without this, for all of our noble intent, nothing truly changes.
Through many of the blogs I have read, I am coming to realise the lack of care and connection to the true meaning of the words that we use. I saw this so strongly studying public health this year, how words like health have been so eroded from Plato’s time when it was body mind and soul in harmony to people now arguing that the WHO definition of health is idealistic, suggesting it is a total and holistic state of wellbeing.
I went to a Christmas carol night this year for the first time in ages. The minister made the point that all the things we now associate with Christmas, presents, dinner etc. area all empty without the Christ aspect. Good point I thought and explains a lot of the feeling of emptiness, suicide and family crisis that are well documented at this time of year.
So what you are saying Fiona, is that whatever we choose to do at Christmas will NEVER be enough, unless the love of Christ is ignited in our hearts, every single one of us.
I must have known what the true meaning of Christmas was long before realising I did. I think it came from my up bringing, I remember my mother always saying that Christmas is not about the food or the presents or some proper gander that was created by a combination of Coca cola and mass consumerism. It was about relationships and coming together as a family. My mother always made sure we all knew that family were simply people in your life that you held dear, that blood did not define them. In this my memory of Christmas was a big mango as our special present and the joy of being with everyone. I truly love Christmas, this year I was appreciating the stillness on the street, the quiet and the worldly purpose of coming together.
That’s awesome Sarah, if only the other 99.9% of people living on planet saw Christmas this way. My treat on Christmas morning when I was a child, was finding a satsuma in my stocking hanging on the bottom of my bed… simple pleasures eh.
Our complacency to the gradual bastardisation of words is what fuels the erosion of truth that is so deep seated amongst us today. The light of Christ lives within us all. It is the fiery flame of love that lives deep within our inner hearts and when we re-connect with this we re-ignite the love we have for so long been living in separation to. If there was a true meaning to the word Christmas it would simply mean to live this light in full with all, no matter what religion, race or creed they belonged to, for it would be the light of Christ lived en mass, hence the word ‘Christ-mas’ – a gathering of love.
As it stands this word has been highjacked by religions that have no truth at their core and as such willingly pollute such a term so that the original and one-unifying meaning is buried beneath a rubble of idealistic beliefs and dictates that has one either subscribing or reacting to them. To compound the issue, consumerism has then picked up what is left and gone to town on fuelling people’s separation to their true self by promising to fill the emptiness we all feel when we do not live the love within our hearts and by further espousing lies at great expense to a simple truth that still dwells deep within us all and that is that no matter our background we are all here to resurrect the Christ light in each and every last one of us, each and every day until we shatter the illusion that there can ever be any walls that divide the many sons of God that we in-truth all are and have always been.
Liane, such pure words of wisdom, and nothing more to be said really, I couldn’t have put it better myself!
I love the way you have called this word to account Adrienne. Especially at this time of year, we can be sucked into the false ideas and use terms without there being a clear meaning behind them. What is super powerful about what you present is the fact that bastardization and corruption of true meaning applies throughout life and not just to this term. If we just sat and considered what the one unified meanings were for our most common words, I feel our world would change in a huge way. What you share here feels like a true Christmas present to me.
Fantastic blog Adrienne, and I echo your statements… “The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood – we are all each other’s family, regardless of physical or legal ties, in essence beyond physical bounds…” and… “How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are?..”
It is inspiring to have these exchanges taking place as a result of your blog Adrienne – each of us are reflecting not only on the true meaning of Christ in Christmas but what is really happening to the true meaning of words today. Thank you for this blog that has truly deepened my awareness and questioning of things I have allowed without questioning – very deepening
When I read these words about Christ at Christmas and this time being about brotherhood, it makes sense why everyone likes to come together so much and to celebrate life in groups.
Reading your blog, Adrienne, it feels like a penchant for bastardising the true meaning of words is a perfect example of our ‘irresponsibility’. Our determination to stay comfortable, to make life the way we want it to be rather than wanting to understand the truth of why we are here. We shirk our responsibility and make life about our selves and in the process have created a terrible mess, the consequences of which are being shown loud and clear, but will not be truly felt until we choose to stop and make life about truth.
Thank you Adrienne. I have avoided the ‘Christ’ in Christmas by purposely writing or typing ‘Xmas’. I can feel that I did this is reaction to the bastardisation of Christ by the church, but with no honouring of the true meaning of Christ.
We put a lot of effort into carrying on the ‘Christmas traditions’, money being spent on gifts, food, alcohol, decorations. It’s no wonder there is so much exhaustion by the time Christmas Day arrives. Yet, maybe the real reason for the exhaustion is, as you say, Adrienne, we have bastardised the true meaning of Christmas, we are championing something that, in essence, is no longer true, we have made it into something it is not. This is a tremendous drain on our bodies.
One of the ironies of Christmas is that it’s for Christmas, not for life. So all the bonhomie and goodwill to all men that is in fact totally natural to us only lasts but a few days and then the world is back to its collective grindstone. It’s a bit like ‘dress-down Fridays’ – you can be yourself once a week by the way you dress but the rest of the time your apparel must be in line. So where do we go for that majority of time that we’re not being true to ourselves?
I had completely overlooked the Christ in Christmas. For me Christmas has long been just a commercialized craziness and empty and I never made any effort to celebrate it, but never really considered empty of what. That’s how removed I was from the true meaning of this word. “Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness” – this feels absolutely beautiful, and is something totally worth celebrating. It’s just like the word ‘religion’ – I disliked and avoided any association with it, and now knowing the true meaning of this word – re-uniting with the Divinity – I can feel its truth in my body and appreciate what this word offers.
What a super powerful blog. I love words! Whenever I talk to children, I can feel the importance of words and how easy it is to go into complication or in an explanation that comes from an ideal or belief. Christmas is one of those word. Celebrating Jesus’ birth is celebrating his innate love for people a a one unified race. It’s amazing how this actually still is carried into modern times, only that we’ve bastardised it into a blood related family celebration. We’re to care for all of us in a way that honours them. I am to love all other women just like I love my partner, my mother, my daughter, my sister. And this is for all the men I know equally. How different would life be if we would live Christmas every day?
‘Moreover, the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.’
This is a very powerful statement as words can bring much separation if they are not used from their true meaning or can hold the power of bringing us together in unity.
Sadly, Christmas could be a time where we are reminded that it is truly about the celebration of ‘Christ’ as Adrienne so beautifully expressed – about love, brotherhood and our connection to each other. But this cannot be celebrated on the one day if we do not live it everyday, bringing this sense of family and love into our everyday lives with everyone we meet, not only saved for our families but our colleagues, our shop keeper and so forth. Christmas season exposes to us how we are really living all year round, the commercialisation of Christmas shows us how we may be ‘commercialising’ our own lives without even realising that we are. The True present to anyone, the greatest gift that is beyond a moment of satisfaction or disappointment is LOVE. When we are met in love, it stays with us, we feel appreciated and cared for and that moment lasts forever.
I do like that many are starting to return to a much more simple version of Christmas and not buying into the hype and marketing but returning back to making it a time of coming together and cherishing each other. Still a long way to go in making this a lived way but the tides are turning.
Simply put, Christmas – A commercial holiday.
I am glad we finally speak about this, not necessarily Christmas, but the words and livingness of those words being explained.
Simply because there is so much in life we are talking about, yet meaningless often as the words are not being connected to in their original meaning. So there exist another version. So it is important to come back and feel the truth of words – and live by it, so we walk it!
Words are often used to mean quite the opposite than what they truly represent. It is a joy to reconnect to the energetic quality and reflections they offer us. Christ and religion are such words.
“Moreover, the more we live with such integrity, the more we will insist that our words reflect this lived quality whereby Christmas is a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.” Amen to that.
I havent celebrated Christmas for several years now because of the falsity it has become – including the hype for months beforehand, the commercialisation and consumerism; people suddenly greeting each other/speaking with each other, and being ‘cheerful’… when joy, vitality and loving connection can and should be an everyday way of living and being with one another.
Wow, this is something to truly and deeply consider…as Christmas being “…a lived celebration of the Christ, the Brotherhood we know, not in theory, but in the everyday way of our livingness.” That one day of celebrating in this way could have the potential to change the world.
Christ is about brotherhood – this is ironic, sad and a strong indication of where we are heading as humanity and our care for each other – as Christmas can be the loneliest time of year for many.
It’s interesting to to observe the effect that having no meaning has on everybody too. Something that I was feeling from my observations was that there was something missing. This has been there for a while, but my feeling was that this was very palpable this year (2016). It was like most people I spoke with were much more simply looking forward to the break away from work (which not everyone gets). There are also countries that don’t wish each other a Merry Christmas, but happy holidays, or the word Christmas has been reduced to Xmas (Crossmas). So the word as you have said has been reduced in meaning for a long time. I am please you wrote on this for I know for me that I have reacted and withdrawn this time of year, rather than conisider what this time has really meant and then return that meaning to my own life – beyond presents and holidays.
There is such a lovelessness and emptiness in how we celebrate nowadays and especially Christmas and as you’ve shared so far away of the true meaning and purpose of connecting in equality. And yes lets pose your question once more; ‘How different would this annual festival be if the word Christ was known and reflected in our celebrations of how we live, connecting deeply with each other as One Family and as the Brothers we equally are?’
We have so many public holidays in Australia and it seems that few have much meaning for any of us anymore, and they have become ‘holidays’, and are seen as time away from work. We have the typical Christmas and Easter holidays, but also have a public holiday for a horse race (Melb Cup – the race that stops a nation – quite literally), the eve of a football game (Grand Final cup eve) and the Queen’s birthday (even the UK doesn’t have this day as a public holiday)…to name just a few. These days have no meaning to so many people so I ask why we need a day off for them.
What a beautiful blog Adrienne. I’ve not been into what I call the commercial side of Christmas for many years now as I couldn’t feel any meaning behind it, but have always felt strongly to be with people I care about. This year was no exception, spending a no fuss day with friends, being together, preparing a meal together and enjoying being together.
When I first started reading this blog I was wondering where it was headed but by the end I understood. The realisation or awareness of where and how we use words is an important topic among other things this blog is highlighting. How far have we strayed from ‘Christmas’? and are we willing to bring it back. Christmas is quickly being diluted into a commercial competition and while people get to have a holiday very rarely are they feeling truly fulfilled what what this time of year brings. As we would know this time or anytime of year is just reflecting to us the bigger part, whatever Christmas brings to us is all that is happening during the year.
One of the troubling things about losing integrity in words is that we do not question the lack of integrity in our lives. The Christmas example you offer is a good one. We do not question where is the essence of Christ in our lives. Not really. We can easily do the odd charity thing to make ourselves feel good, the cards and presents as a token of being generous and all the activities that we deem make us a good upstanding citizen, yet we never get to consider what does Christ actually mean and does our life reflect it?
We focus on Christmas being a time for ‘goodwill for all men’ but what happens the rest of the year?
Interesting blog Adrienne, in the UK they have now started calling Christmas Holidays, Winter Holidays so it is not offensive to some religions. For me irrespective of the word I have found the holiday period to be an amazing time to reconnect with family and friends – to have the space to be able to do is a real blessing. Or we can fight and argue and eat copious amounts of food!!! Obviously we have a choice but to actually use the time to reconnect with others I have found especially this year to be a lovely experience – one I know I will repeat again.
Same here James, past Christmases used to be about having parties, getting drunk and over eating but now none of those things come into the picture – now it is all about getting together with people and not just blood family.
And what a difference it makes when we simply get together to be with each other and do not make it all about the food and presents.
Utterly beautiful Adrienne, engaging and a joy to read. “using words and language in the fullness of their true meaning so that we may mean what we say and say what we mean, deeply, fully, clearly and truly.” What a beautiful example this blog is, of that.
I love that this blog invites us to return meaning and integrity to our words and language… and to our lives.
I have been acutely aware of how empty Christmas is as well as so many other ‘rituals’ or ‘celebrations’ we keep going these days.
It feels to me that we use ‘holidays’ as a comfort or relief; as the lowest possible denominator for which they could be used for… what about feeling into the true meanings which lie beneath the thin shells we have made so many things to be?
What I keep feeling is that the world is suffering from a lack of quality, purpose and meaning.
To bring back the true/full meaning into language and into celebrations makes sense to me as a way to bring the fullness of life back into our days so we wont ‘need’ to rely on the watered down or even ‘meaningless’ or empty ‘fun’ to ‘get by’ or feel that life is ‘OK’ or ‘enough’ when really, we can feel we are missing so much more of who we are and so much more that could support us to be more of who we are…
…such as with the meaning of the word Christ, as felt and defined by the author in this blog: “The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family, not by blood, but by Brotherhood…”
For many years now it has been so obvious to me, and to many others, that the true meaning of Christmas has been buried by a tsunami of commercialism; the drive to make as much money as possible out of one single day in the year. In fact there are businesses that are created with one reason only and that is to make money out of a day that, as you write so wisely, we have lost the true meaning of. To put the true meaning of Christ back into Christmas would re-introduce the long lost essence of Brotherhood back into a world that currently exists in isolated fragments that are becoming more isolated every day.
“The word Christ actually refers to our connection with each other as One Family” – many people are living this definition of Christmas without knowing what the word means. For many the focus of Christmas is about getting together and being with family and friends. It is a time of year when people seem to open themselves to others and simply enjoy humanity. Even at the boxing day sales, people are out saying hello to each other.
I agree Adrienne with the true meaning of Christ that you present – that it is a love that is all-encompassing – a brotherhood energy not bound by blood or culture or skin colour etc but that recognises us all as equal brothers. And that certainly is something worth celebrating.
Thank you Adrienne. As a child born to Christian parents I grew up with Christ at the centre of Christmas and I loved it. As I grew older I was less interested in Christ and far more interested in presents. Your blog blows all previously known definitions of Christmas out of the water. Brotherhood on earth is worth celebrating.
So true ,Adrienne. There is very little “Christ” in Christmas and our families are often about our blood families and are not encompassing of the all.
I love this blog – the lost meaning of words and their true origin have always fascinated me – I am always looking up words in the dictionary and researching their original latin meaning. Its amazing how much words can deviate away from their original meaning, so that you can now use words to talk about things totally different and sometimes opposite to what they are meant to mean. And now, we have contested meanings to words like love, freedom, politics, equality – there is no longer a universal understanding, and therefor a universal way of being free, being equal or doing politics.
‘How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives?’ – Superb question Adrienne and something we all need to ask ourselves. Do we ever consider the true meaning of the words that we use?
Wow – powerful words indeed: ‘the hollow emptiness of our language and the growing façade of words, whose substance has been rotted away like houses eaten through with termites, appearing solid but crumbling into nothingness at the touch.’ This is true of many of the words used today where phrases and even whole sentences become meaningless. We indulge in greetings and conversations that are more to do with being polite than actually connecting with the person we are addressing. We play safe, and avoid any in depth conversation that might lead to our greater understanding and thereby to our evolution.
We have learned to speak words, but lack much in communicating how we truly feel, and expressing the beholding energy of love.
Making Christmas about enjoying coming together with family and friends is what makes for a rich Christmas.
I worked on Christmas for the first time in my life and it was a beautiful experience, For the first time it felt like all colleagues and team members had a sense of lightness all day, and it was very pleasant to work and appreciate this. I pondered on the situation and thought that this felt like family, and work should be like family EVERY day – hence the Christ- which equals true family energy, then I smiled when I realised it was Christmas and the true meaning of Christ I understood.
There are times when our society has the opportunity to stop, connect and celebrate that connection… it is wonderful when these opportunities are felt and responded to.
It is our responsibility to bring back the true meaning of words by living them in full.
It has been obvious for many years that Christmas has become a commercial opportunity for stores to get a boost in their sales of goods and people to get a couple of days of holiday. It is a great opportunity for us all to choose to reflect and understand the true energy of brotherhood that Christ brought us and take stock in how we live our lives.
How many times in my life did I try and make up, change, swear, bastardise, slur, shorten and use colloquial slang so that I would not be expressing from a loving place. I feel to many for me to count. Thanks to you Adrienne, for opening up the discussion about Christ and a true interpretation that this is bringing to all words.
“To put it into perspective, it would be like the Olympics without sports, soccer without a ball, motor racing without cars, fashion without clothes, music without sound, royalty without the royals.” It really hits home how much we have bastardised the meaning of words when expressed in this way. Yes Christmas is a great example of this, but as is written here, it’s far from being the only one, for example look at how far we are from the true meaning of Love.
This is a powerful reflection for us all, encouraging us to consider what words we use that are devoid of meaning because they are not lived in truth.
The way words and how we use them is portrayed here gives us a moment to pause and consider if we hold the words we speak with the grace all deserve. Thank you Adrienne.
Thank you Adrienne for reminding us of the true meaning of the word ‘Christ’ and filling it again with a livingness. What you describe here is exactly the reason why people feel so empty and many think life is meaningless, we are not encouraged in our society to fill our lives with meaning and the fullness of who we are, in fact many have forgotten who they truly are and what their purpose in life is.
This is exactly like ‘Easter’ which has been bastardised and made a chocolate feast for many and an escape for others with plenty of holidays and vacations taken at this time. Easter has been made into something of a commercialisation and also a bastardised meaning of what this time is really about. There is something special celebrated at this time and it relates to the truth of what the ‘resurrection’ is all about. The resurrection has nothing to do with Jesus rising from the dead and ascending into heaven per se. It is more so symbolic of the rising ourselves out of our self-indulgent and self-centred ways back into living the love and full-ness that we all naturally are inside.
The words we use are so often removed from their true meaning. But what you share here brings it back in such beauty and grace, that connects deeply to how I am experiencing Christmas over the last couple of years. It is all about brotherhood, being together in union, showing us the way we can be always.
I agree that Christmas is entirely meaningless and baseless, there’s nothing true and loving and whole about it, and I suspect most people don’t even truly enjoy it. And any day without love and without truth is like “the Olympics without sports, soccer without a ball, motor racing without cars, fashion without clothes, music without sound, royalty without the royals.” It’s a day that is missing something VITAL!
Reflecting on your words I realise that I have seen very little of ‘Christ’ in Christmas in cards, wrapping, etc. This reminds me that we have many words that have been allowed to stray from their true meaning and this has happened so subtly over time many have not noticed. This is a reminder that we can choose in our own lives to ‘choose our words carefully’ and truthfully and bring back the grace and integrity they deserve.
A powerful reminder of the lost meaning of words and language through which we can lose so much from which there is much on offer. Ironically I was having a conversation with my immediate family whilst sat around the meal table yesterday (Boxing Day) regarding the hypocrisy of Christmas and many of us ‘celebrating’ it but with disconnection to its essence.
Thank you Adrienne for bringing an awareness to how little we truly live the word Christmas anymore. Christmas now is like an empty word that means very little other than a festive time to spend copious amounts of money on presents and food. Working in a supermarket, the trolly loads of food are almost obscene, but for many this is what Christmas now means, a moment where we are given permission to indulge and eat to the point of exhaustion. We need to bring the truth back to Christmas, religion has bastardised its true meaning and we have through the ages continued until there is little if any truth left. “It is ironic and masterful at the same time that we can so publicly, commercially and socially share in, promote and support an event that is void of the essence of its very name and the origins of this globally popular word.” Absolutely,
This is such an important blog. Words are often used without considering what the true meaning of them is. We celebrate with Christmas but it is a great point, what are we celebrating and do we consider that? Christmas looks to me more as a big eating party instead of a celebration of a way of life that the Christ lived.
Interesting topic Adrienne. To me words come with a very definite feeling that carries an essence. Mentally, we can make words mean pretty much anything we want them to – but when we turn to our feelings we cannot so easily bastardise them. A good example of this is the words ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ which often get bandied together – as if they mean the same thing. But when I feel into the words rather than think about what they mean – they are vastly different. Spirit has a ‘flighty’ feeling to it, whereas soul is absolute, solid, consistent and unchanging. Feelings offer us the opportunity to return to the deeper essence in a word – if we are willing to go there.
When I was a child we did wait on Christmas for the Christ Child to come and bring some gifts. The Christ Child was imagined looking like a little angel with golden hair and its essence felt very innocent, pure and sacred. One small bell did announce that it did arrive and my sister and I can now enter the room. And even this is more sweet than a fat old man with a white beard who is a creation of the sugar-food-industry – it is a tale. But what if there are some true gifts waiting for us while Christmas time? What if the true gift and the true room which is opening up is a coming together as a family, to celebrate and deepen our relationships in the knowing that we are all one family on this planet?
Recently I saw a reportage about Jews who are buying a Christmas tree because it is so cosy and fun to have one at this time… and I was wondering why to put trees into a living room anyway? Do we know why we are doing things? It is normal, everyone does it. We are sold a Santa Claus version from Coca Cola and do not question it any more. The original was the holy Nicolaus, a bishop who was coming from present-day Turkey, who did share his wealth with the people in need. And now we are far from ‘sharing what we have’ to buying things nobody needs in real. Is it not very interesting how our life is influenced by the selling industry? One illustrator for an advertising campaign choose to create a picture of Santa Claus which than does enter all countries and households. In fact this picture does enter all our heads and consciousnesses. This is alarming! Our creations create ideas, beliefs and realities which are not true and the more we accept this, the more we get lost. We change the original stories and we change the meaning of words – but why? We disconnect more and more and suffer under this disconnection. To come back to the true meaning of words is not just important, it is essential for us! It is coming back to connection again, something we are all deeply longing for and what should and could be celebrated on Christmas.
“What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” So true Adrienne, something i have watched and observed over the years that i have known Serge Benhayon is that he does not say anything he has not first lived and hence truly understood. In many ways Christmas like many holidays and festivals has come to represent a period of relief & distraction from the function of all the days in between, this is where we get it so wrong for it is the consistent obedience to the wisdom within these words that brings their meaning to a lived expression.
Maybe we celebrate Christmas the way we do because we don’t know any other way. History wise there are so many words that has changed their meaning to now mean something completely different that we are not sure how to handle things. Many words such as God, Universe, Love, Truth, Intimacy, Tenderness, Christ all have a specific meaning which is not changeable and we know it, but they are now used not in their true meaning which I think confuses us on a very profound level and in the wake of that we show behaviours that is often not so rational.
Great questions you ask here Adrienne. What if Christmas was a celebration of the unity and equalness and harmony of the whole human race instead of the celebration of individualism and escape and indulgence it has become?
“To put it into perspective, it would be like the Olympics without sports..” your example really nails the commercialism and lost meaning of the word “Christ-mas”. The connection to and celebration of Christ is defiantly missing at this time.
Adrienne thank you. This is a wonderful blog. It is both a wake up call and a celebration of what is on offer to all of us through the true meaning of words.
By honouring the true definition of a word we restore our own integrity.
Great blog Adrienne. It struck me this year more than ever just how commercialised Christmas is…how it’s all about Santa, pre-Christmas sales and presents. I’m not trying to say I’m Scrooge here, but I guess I’ve noticed and agree with what you’re writing about.
Dare we mention Santa, an icon appropriated from Europe by a soft drink company in order to boost more product and simultaneous threaten and reward children? How did this come to be associated with the Christ? It’s all back-to-front – not ‘ho, ho, ho’ but ‘Oh, oh oh…’ accompanied by a very sad emoticon.
I found myself pondering the word ‘Christmas’ the other day too. I’m assuming the institutionalised religious meaning signifies the day on which a mass for Christ – a Christ-mass – would be held to commemorate his birth. As expressed here, this meaning would now be lost to most but the practicing Christian. And it’s probably quite likely the celebration was an appropriated and pre-existing day of (so-called) ‘pagan’ worship, seized upon by a vigorous Roman church eager to set its rule in place. I say forget Christmas, tune into what Christ really represents as suggested here and celebrate that – every day of the year.
Thank you Adrienne for a very astute summation of how we have allowed the real meaning of words to be eroded. What strikes me most is that this hollowness of language arises when we humanity, let go of our core inner principles, true Brotherhood being one of them. I have personally been on quite a journey with the whole festivity, firstly rejecting it outright and then allowing myself to re-connect to it based on my inner integrity and knowing. The more I have restored my connection to my inner Christ, the easier it has become to celebrate the Mass, all of humanity every day, not with presents and cards but with a heartfelt open connection, feeling ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed” and engaged in life once more. One of the many miracles of choosing The Way of the Livingness, embodying an integrity that puts the real meaning back into every aspect of life including the words us have so flagrantly abused such as Christmas, Religion, Love and Truth.
This one example just goes to show how we say one thing and do another, the results it brings and the possibility that walking our talk my bring different results. Making Christmas about family and connection over and above the gifts, food, whats on TV etc in the last couple of years has felt so much richer than any amount of gifts or chocolates/food or cards I could ever receive which always came with an aftertaste of emptiness.
“What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live.” The truth of what you have written, Adrienne, is demonstrated by the fact how lost humanity is.
“The real problem with Christmas is not that it is Christ-less but that it is meaning-less; that is, the actual meaning of the word Christmas and what it has come to mean, in reality, are no longer the same thing.” How quickly this has happened and it is quite shocking to contemplate just how meaningless it has become.
We venture into the world rudderless when the integrity of words is lost. I attended a christmas day church service for the first time in a tiny rural village. Even in so-called religious buildings, the true meaning of christmas can be absent and replaced with a service of empty words presented robotically, with little heart or meaning.
I’ve observed real confusion over Christmas, how to relate to it and especially in christmas cards I’ve received. This year I did not receive a single card was in celebration of Christ. One had no mention of christmas at all, in fear of offending other faith groups. As you say ‘The real problem with Christmas is not that it is Christ-less but that it is meaning-less’
A great blog Adrienne for exposing the lack of the ‘living wisdom’ that is in our use of words when devoid of their true meaning. When there is connection with our inner wisdom, there is an embodiment of the truth which then expresses through our daily living way and all our movements.
“How much living wisdom have we lost in the cracks between meaning and reality in the words we use in our lives? What gets lost and buried is us when our words and our lives don’t match, when our words are not embodied in the way we live”.
Once upon a time, and still the case today for most, Christmas is synonymous with manic shopping, overspending, partying with alcohol and then — the emptiness felt of that one day so built and pent up, ending just like any other day.
Now, Christmas is simply about the celebration of family, of being – no angst, no overspending necessary. It’s about celebrating my commitment to brotherhood and the depth of richness in relationships that this brings.
The meaning of words seems to be about as lost as the true meaning of Christmas.
Such a great discussion Adrienne and one of much value. It is the value that we have lost in society and as you say we have lost sight of what certain words mean and what they represent. This bastardisation has been going on for thousands of years…. its a bit like Chinese whispers – the more it is repeated the further it strays away from the truth and integrity that it originally comes from.
This is a blog that should be re-posted on the 1st of December until the celebration of Christ is a daily part of our lives.
Maybe even from this day forward until the true message about the true meaning of words gets through. Thank you Steve, Adrienne and Serge Benhayon for words and the energy they come with is changing lives
I agree Steve… until the true celebration of Christ is part of our daily living.
Your description about words being universally known by any ear that hears them or any eye that reads them is such a graceful and beautiful description of true brotherhood. Unfortunately it is a zillion miles from what we have right now where even the single word Christ can split countries, cause riots, and induce wars. How insane is that? How far from the true meaning of Christ have we come?
Great point you are making Otto, we are under the perception that Christ is exclusive for Christians and that other faiths are not part of it, which is so utterly wrong and not in the true meaning of the word Christ at all as Adrienne has shared and you have reiterated here.
It’s amazing to ponder what would happen if all of humanity were to agree and connect on this one simple fact – the truth of Christ – how then, the whole edifice of separation and conflict dissolves. EVERYTHING changes. Literally everything. The scale of this seismic shift and the fact that this is the absolute nucleus of our woes, shows me that it is the truth.
Great point Otto. I had previously only associated Christ with Christianity and an indoctrinated way of being that I didn’t want any part of. When the true meaning of the Christ is revealed it is immensely powerful as it reminds us all of our responsibility.
So far away – we have to numb the truth and reality with so many distractions, package it all up, dress it up and literally stuff ourselves up with food to not feel, see or be distracted by what’s going on around us.
These words have purpose – they are there to support us, to inspire us, to accelerate our evolution. We should treasure them and appreciate deeply the proper use of them. They are so much more than just words.
Yes absolutely Otto, all words have purpose and true meaning, which is actually what they are intended to reflect. Phrases like ‘words are cheap’, ‘it was just words/empty words’, ‘she said all the right things..’ etc. shows that we do know it too. The real question then is why do we accept and often embrace such emptiness in some of these words that are actually, when used in truth, powerfully inspiring and uplifting words? Could we be willingly hiding the fact we are not living the truth of those words ourselves, and there is comfort and safety in the crowd who is doing the same thing?
I had to look twice, nay thrice as this sentence: “The very essence of Christmas – Christ – is absent from the mass of Christmas products drenching stores and media for the past few months.” For a moment I wasn’t sure whether ‘mass’ was spelt correctly until I realised that ‘mess’ would be just as valid.I used to work in a post office and couldn’t believe my eyes how some parcels were cobbled together and dumped on the counter; and all because people are exhausted and don’t really feel to do what they are doing but do it anyway because that is what you do or what is expected. This mass of lovelessness and obligations is a real mess indeed!
True Gabriele – we have turned it into a Christmess.
I agree Eva. When you observe what christmas has become you feel deeply the mess humanity is in. We have totally lost the true purpose of life not only christmas.
No suprise that you could see the word mess in Christmas Gabriele. Without connecting to the true meaning of Christ and the brotherhood it represents we are left with the mess that is everything that is not brotherhood. And then to take it further, the ‘mess’ is now what we describe and refer to as life. Yes, it is indeed a mixed up mess!
Thank you Adrienne! What you say here I too have been contemplating. What is the true meaning of our Christmas, is it an empty shell of something that had substance in the past? To bring back into focus the true meaning of the celebration we call Christmas would also bring back the quality of Love and Brotherhood to humanity.
This is a great point, I am so glad to see this being written about. I do feel that although many people make Christmas about presents, we do all subconsciously seek a sense of connection with other people and wish to share that with others in the more accepted openness that the ‘festive season’ provides. The CEO of a company will use the season to meet with employees and greet them or pass on gifts, but shouldn’t the importance of connecting with all others be felt at all times and not just for a few short weeks of the festive season?
While we in our busy minds forget about the true meaning of words, our bodies do know and in that are in the stress this duality brings. Our body knows the truth and in our minds we dictated our body to do differently, and therefore has to deal with the ambivalence that is brought to it. And we do this not only with the word Christmas but also with words like religion, love, brotherhood, family, father- and motherhood to name a few. In essence these word all have a true meaning but are at the cost of the wellbeing of our bodies, bastardised by our minds to keep us unaware of the grandness and grace we are part of.
Adrienne so true, no-one talks about Christ being a part of Christ-mas except Christians going to church… well that’s what I’ve found anyway. There are many words thrown around that don’t have an ounce of truth still in them. Could it be that Christmas has been void of Christ for so long so as to keep it superficial, all about excitement and stimulation, and have a ‘break’ from every day life…. whereas if Christ was a part of Christmas then there would not be the separation that there is now and Christmas could be a time of deepening relationships, responsibility and connection.
Thank you Adrienne Hutchins for bringing the reality of Christmas during the Christmas Season. There is so much about Christmas that has me pondering on the Christ like way of our livingness. Our words and expressions are truly felt when we are living what we know is true. It is no wonder that the lines “Merry Christmas” shared around the table, in the workspace or in our daily interactions are often blown over and hold little to no depth for the receiver. This blog is a powerful jolt back to understanding the power of our words and the integrity it holds to the listener that brings a deep level of appreciation of others and a gentle reminder of the simplicity of brotherhood that is celebrated during this time of the year.
This is so eloquently expressed Adrienne and for me reading this what I felt was how Christmas is just a reflection of how our lives have become day in day out throughout the year … that is meaningless. This may sound a bit harsh and is not meant to be a blanket swept across everyone as I know for many people this is not the case, but for billions if we were honest it would be. The lack of purpose, vitality, joy, love and meaning of why we are here (on earth) in the first place has been replaced with commodities, products, shopping, Monday – Friday feeling, ‘whats next’ mentality in the way of next day to celebrate like Valentines Day. Its as if we are on automatic pilot going through a tick list of events over and over again every year. Maybe if we made it about true connection with ourselves and each other we would no longer want to fill the emptiness or void with commercialisation! Good question have we made ‘Christmas’ a more powerful word than ‘Christ’? And if so why? What is it that we are trying so desperately to avoid?
To acknowledge the truth in any situation we must acknowledge the roots in which the situation has grown.
It’s quite interesting to ponder just how much Christmas is geared towards material items and not the aspect of true togetherness and family. Christmas has become a very stressful time of year for many, I see it first hand from many customers who come into my store, trying to buy the best gifts for people and there is a real sense of anxiety in the air too. When we return to the true meaning of Christmas and brotherhood we can see how truly simple and beautiful family can be. It all starts with us and how we choose to connect and live from our bodies and not allow ourselves to be consumed by expectations and demands that we ourselves put in first place and we negate the truth of who we are.
“To put it into perspective, it would be like the Olympics without sports, soccer without a ball, motor racing without cars, fashion without clothes, music without sound, royalty without the royals”……….Life without love, which is even crazier because there is no-thing that is not made of love and yet for all intents and purposes it feels like we’re living in a loveless world, even though there is no-thing that is not spun from it’s threads.
Well said Adrienne, the corruption of words is far more insidious than we care to look and see. It is everywhere and two of the most corrupted words are love and religion. Unimpededia – http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia is all about bringing truth back to words and language and bringing awareness to the great harm in bastardising them.
Words of wisdom Adrienne! Christ-less-ness at Christmas is throwing the baby out with the bathwater and creating something out of the bath which does not have any resemblance of its original purpose or meaning.
Adrienne you have such an understanding of what is at the base of the predicaments we find ourselves in. How to bridge the crack between the two now very separate meanings of Christmas is truth for sure. If we want to celebrate with a day that has ‘all the trimmings’ then lets call it something truly appropriate that clarifies the purpose of the activity. Then the word Christmas can also remain true to its origins and essence.
You are so right Adrienne, I could feel each time I said, Merry Christmas to a relative, how awful and meaningless it felt in my body, and didn’t reflect in any way, the truth of us all.