By Sharon Ray
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun for me this year, so it’s a little curious that a new question popped into my brain just as I sat down to recover from all the visiting and activity: “What is the value in doing all this?”
In truth, there is none, unless I apply love to everything I do, cook, and say. That is the only true value.
St. Paul might of said of Thanksgiving, “If I cook a perfectly delicious meal and yet have not love, I have done nothing. If I decorate the tables with flower-stuffed pumpkins that delight everyone, but I have not love, then I am nothing. If I speak to everyone in the room so that all feel acknowledged, but have not love, then I do not profit in any way.”
So, now Christmas is coming. Yogananada said that whenever we feel joy, no matter what the source of that joy is, we should cause it to expand from our hearts outwards until the joy is as big as the Universe. So, let there be joy in preparation for Christmas. Let there be love in all the shopping, the wrapping, and the giving. No “bah humbug” for me. I’m happy that the most wonderful time of the year to love is upon us!
