radvent day 25: becoming

Posted on 25. Dec, 2011 by Princess Lasertron in radvent

Merry Christmas and I hope you are enjoying the beautiful spirit of today. Christmas represents so much culturally, for our spirits, our relationships with our fellow members of this human family, and for our focus on our own little families and the most precious gifts we have. The holidays all together–between Halloween, really, and New Year’s–offer an electric joy and anticipation to the atmosphere and the ending of the year itself is rich with symbolism. It is a time for finishing business and closing doors. Chances to reset our intentions for better spiritual relationships, renewing our appreciation for family, and considering our own growth. How is your self doing?

We become ourselves moment-by-moment, and sometimes a crucial point of development can pass us by without announcing itself or even happen upon us in a startling, jarring burst of revelation and understanding. Maybe it’s reading something that becomes very emotionally significant, the meeting of a magical new person, or a lifechanging experience. Whether we are “present” in our lives or not, we react to these moments automatically–they change our trajectory and change us forever. That’s why the question of what we will become is always open-ended. The growth never ends.

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I want to tell a story about a time I felt content. A time I felt like I became someone that felt like myself.

When I was ten or eleven, my mom gave me Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s book The Little Prince. She told me that she loved the book, and she first read it when she was in French class in high school. This connection to my mother’s childhood, and her uncharacteristic enthusiasm for me to read it made me almost solemn, reverent, as I planned to experience this book. Should I read it at my desk, studiously, focused under the task light? Should I sit cross-legged in my bed, leaning comfortably against my pillows? Should I read it on the couch, where my little brother and dad and god and everybody could watch me? Should I save it in my nightstand drawer until I knew?

The Little Prince may have been my first venture into literature that struck me in a truly philosophical way, filling my soul with emotion and revelation that caused me to never look at the world the same way again. It is still the only book I have ever read that takes me back to those same emotions every time I read it–the innocence and curiosity of the traveler on his first journey–youth still on the precipice of life’s only journey. The pain of nostalgia, the possibility for all people to have a happy life if you dedicate it to questioning and openness. Enlightenment through exploration. Reading that book, that beautiful work, is what taught me that the world is the same for both children and adults. We live in the same world. One is not better. Some people just wander and are willing to engage the invisible, secret mysteries of the universe. They are there for anyone to unlock and understand.

On my second trip to Berlin in 2007, I traveled in a school group but spent my days mostly alone in the city, without my travel companions who were all following their own plans as well. I talk about this time a lot–I was 20, I was still in school, I had just moved into my own apartment, and I felt like I had everything. I had independence, I had a little bit of money, and I had the promise of any experience I could imagine in front of me. One of my favorite places to go in Berlin was a small bookstore in Oranienburg called Pro QM, and while browsing one afternoon I found a German copy of The Little Prince. This is not a really unique find–it’s an extremely popular book and it’s of course been published in every language–but picking up that book which was so significant in my life and my outlook, and in the language that represented my adult education and maintenance of a habit of inquiry and adventure, felt like a message from the universe: you are in the right place. You are doing the right things. You are becoming the woman you always wanted to be.

Now my daughter Alice has that book and we read it often. She also has postcards with scenes and quotes from the book in her room, which she scrutinizes on her bed as I read them out loud and fasten her shoes. Everyone has a different signpost or symbolic reference in their life that represents a transition for them, that becomes engrained in their identity. Consider today, in the hours after the presents are unwrapped and the children have changed into their pajamas and the wine has been finished, what are the landmarks in your life? What happened to help you become the person you are today? How can you honor that gift and share it with others?

Have a Merry Christmas today. Life is beautiful!

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Are you writing your own radvent responses in your journal or blog? Share the link! They are awesome sources of inspiration for everyone! Radvent 2011 has come to a close with this final entry and I want to thank all of you who participated by writing and sharing posts, continuing discussions on Twitter, and even those of you who read silently and experienced your own reactions, or passed along a link here and there.

xo
meg

Tags: radvent 2011