Cross-Training Body Mind Emotions Spirit | Rachael R. Resch

I’m not ready for Hanukah

I imagine the Jews of the second century BCE weren’t ready either.  Just like now, it was the darkest time of the year — the new moon closest to winter solstice.  It was the darkest time spiritually, too, for the eternal flame in the temple was about to go out.

What does that mean to believe the eternal flame is about to go out?

It means that there are times when the precious temple of the body, the holy temple of the psyche, the beating temple of the heart, the winged temple of the spirit are sputtering, afraid, under-nourished, trapped in scarcity — and that the body, mind, heart and spirit are, like those old time Jews and like all our ancestors at some point, fighting a civil war among themselves, lost in that which we call darkness, searching for home.

But the light came in, whatever that means, and it came in during the darkest times, and the light kept expanding.  And so the temple, whatever that is, was rededicated.

This Hanukah, as I light the candles, first one, then two, and so on, I illuminate the intent to receive during this dark time the expanding light within the holy temple of my being and within the holy temple of the whole world, and to rededicate myself to life and to the mystery — whether or not I am ready.