Holidays always come on too strong.

Not all lights guide us. Holiday lights, as magical as they once were when we were younger, can somehow overwhelm us into a deeper despair—especially those of us carrying wounds.

Holidays trigger the most complex and dynamically charged emotions, as so many of us experience dysfunction in our relationships, and the year’s end naturally serves as a time for us to confront this.

All of us who follow the Gregorian calendar share similar emotional arcs as they relate to time. But what if we could direct this emotional charge onto things that diffuse our explosive energy? Studies and history have shown that the brain has a difficult time processing imagined fear or obeying “no.”

But what if we changed our focus, so that when we are triggered, we can use every dip in energy to propel us to a higher state of being?

If the holidays are a tough time for you, may these words be of benefit:

I wish you every day filled with light, and

every night filled with stars.

Which may seem like

I’m wishing for

nothing

out of the ordinary.

Yet how often do we live in darkness

under broad daylight?

Blindfolded

by things that do not serve us.

How often do we surrender

our gaze to the stars,

when the moon is

the talk of the town?

They say to shoot for the moon,

as if stars

are conciliatory.

But my mother always told me

to be the star instead.

Because the moon might be more

romanticized,

but it can only be seen

as a reflection

of the sun.

The moon itself does not light up.

Cannot light up.

No one can thrive off charity

or leftovers.

But the stars,

each star,

no matter how tiny,

how insignificant,

each star emits its own light.

And the darker the night,

the brighter they shine.

Always there,

always shining,

whether we see it or not,

whether our regard

stays with the moon or not.

No one is born

knowing where to look

or where to go.

But the stars?

They guided the earliest of

explorers.

They don’t ever forsake us,

whether we are rebel

or hero

or fallen,

and in the darkest of moments

they illuminate the sky.

And what lights up the universe

cannot be wrong.

If we were stars,

we would light up, too.

Light travels faster

than sound

so it must also travel

faster

than doubt.

~