December 11, 2023 Newsletter
“During this time, the Holy Days Season, people tend to look back,” the Grandmothers said, “they want to look back. They want to remember other times they’ve idealized or fantasized about. How life was when….” they said, gesturing dramatically with their arms. “How much happier I was when…. How much easier life was, how peaceful, energetic, etc. I was when…” Shaking their heads in bewilderment, the Grandmothers said, “People tell themselves so many things in these stories of the past.. Oh! The nostalgia!
“But there is nothing of the truth back there,” they said, with puzzled looks on their faces. “Truth doesn’t live in memories,” they shook their heads, “it doesn’t live in the past. Memories are just stories,” they said, “stories you piece together and tell yourself…. over and over again. But these stories have no life in them,” they said, “no surprises, nothing new to show you.
“You can’t go backward in life,” they said. “You can’t go back anywhere. You can only plunge into this now time and from here, move on with the rhythm of life.” Nodding encouragingly to me, they said, “Follow the rhythm of life and let yourself be carried forward by it. Truly,” they said, “that is what it is to be alive. Openhearted to life and to one another. To really live now, to be alive now—that’s why you were born.
“When you wake up tomorrow morning,” they said, “ask, ‘what is life bringing me today? What’s here with me in this now moment?’ And then turn and face that. Be curious about this day. Be open to what is present with you. That is life,” they said. “Honor that. What is here with you now?
“During this holiday season, please celebrate being alive. Celebrate being here on earth at this time. Leave nostalgia behind with all the other dead things and then put your heart right here, right now. Put your heart in the center of your life, let your heart be present each moment. And let us be present in your heart with you. Start now,” they said, “and go ahead and kiss the past good bye!” Then they laughed and threw their arms around me.
A reminder: These messages from the Grandmothers are spoken through me to you. Please take this one as your ‘present’—just for you.
Love, Sharon