The Wild Reed: Hope and Courage

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Hope and Courage – Christmas 2024

I don’t know about you, but I’m struggling to feel much “holiday cheer” this year, given the horror that continues in Gaza . . . and the fact that my tax dollars are helping pay for the Israeli government’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

Writes Abby Zimet:

The death toll has passed 45,000, two thirds of whom are women and children, many (unfathomably, still) shot in the head and chest by Israeli snipers. Also killed are at least 1,000 health workers, 200 journalists, and many hundreds of teachers and writers. . . . Health care and homes are decimated, Israel’s brutal blockade has left most Gazans without power or water and starving or at least hungry. Nearly 107,000 have been wounded or maimed, untold thousands of dead remain rotting under rubble.

Almost a year after international jurists declared Israel is committing genocide – ungodly news an indifferent world met with thunderous silence – Amnesty International has just released a meticulously detailed, 300-page report confirming that yes, it is. They added, “Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity.”

It can all feel so overwhelming.

One way I choose to respond to by remembering the true meaning of Christmas – that we are called to birth the light of love, of Christic consciousness, through our thoughts, words and actions here and now.

This deeper mystical understanding of Christmas heartens and sustains me, and can be worded and expressed in as many ways as there are people in the world. After all, We all have our own unique ways of being divine light- and love-bearers, of embodying the liberating truth that, ultimately, “love’s the only dance.”

One way I embody this truth is by “showing up,” by being willing to bear witness to injustice and stand with the oppressed in whatever way I can. This led me to participate this past Saturday in a vigil and rally in downtown Minneapolis against U.S. support of the Israeli government’s “genocidal project” in Gaza and beyond.

For my Christmas post this year at The Wild Reed, I share some images of this event and do so in a spirit of hope and courage. Hope for an end to the genocide and to violence and war everywhere, and courage that I may continue to be an active participant in the realization of this hope by continuing to speak out against such loveless things. May courage also be kindled in the hearts of others as they join in hope in such efforts and in advocating for justice and peace.