****December 2010 Focus - Focus Magazine

..... finding balance
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Winter has arrived
once again, painting
gloomy beauty on
the city and sealing it in with a
varnish of rain. The landscape
has dwindled to its semidormant
state and muscled
clouds hang low on most days.
Night falls early, long before
the last tired commuter has
made it back home.
It’s a weary season for the
heart as well: Another year of
time has been used up and still
all the pressing issues, both
local and global, remain as
jammed as ever. Ten years into
the new millennium, we’ve
solved few problems and
thwarted few wars. We’ve
suffered an economic crisis
that continues to hurt everyone
except those who caused it.
Democracy seems to be
eroding in the face of greed,
corruption, and all of the
double standards that are
increasingly bold and commonplace.
As for the environment and its urgent need for cleaning, we
can’t even pick up the metaphorical broom. No wonder the blanket
of bleakness is heavy.
But then something amazing happens. Someone lights a candle,
someone opens an advent calendar or unpacks a menorah, and once
again hope starts flickering somewhere deep inside. So begins a festival
of promise and light that always comes just when the year is at its
most sombre. This is Christmas, along with Hanukah and the many
other spiritual and cultural celebrations of renewal that take place
during this “Christmas season.” This is the month for miracles, and
surely we’re ripe for one now.
The Oxford dictionary describes a miracle as being both “an extraordinary
event attributed to some extraordinary agency” and “any
remarkable occurrence.” While some may find the first definition
uncomfortably out of place in this era of homage to all things provable,
the concept of “any remarkable occurrence” allows for all
possibility including that which comes from within. And therein lies
the first and perhaps most compelling miracle of Christmas, which
is that most of the hundreds of ways in which we celebrate are motivated
by an intrinsic understanding that a groundswell of goodness
can shape the world into a better place.
Also miraculous is the annual resurgence of belief that one person
can make a palpable difference, that a mountain can be moved one
Ripe for a miracle
TRUDY DUIVENVOORDEN MITIC
’Tis the season when the heart softens and the world yearns to be a better place.
cup of dirt at a time if there are
enough people with cups and
conviction. Victoria is full of
generosity at Christmas, evident
in all the well-supported functions
and funds that combine fun
and festivity with the means to
initiate change for both today and
tomorrow. There are parades and
concerts, readings and galas, even
a non-gala hosted by Our Place
this year. There are decorated
ships in the harbour, heavenly
choirs in the places of worship
and brightly lit trees everywhere.
Turkeys are roasted by the dozen
and served in great halls by a legion
of volunteers. Toys and food are
collected and redistributed with
no strings attached. By no means
are we fixing everything, but for
the moment, cynicism, which
alone accomplishes nothing, is
dispatched to the back of the mind.
At a very personal level—and
society is built on life at this level—
wondrous change can take place
when the heart softens, when new
perspectives are considered and new possibilities pondered. Could
this be the year to mend a quarrel or renew a neglected friendship
To listen carefully, speak softly, keep a promise, let go of a grudge,
be grateful, be kind, laugh out loud, make someone laugh, speak out
against wrongdoing, live in the present (the advent calendar can help),
and reach out to someone who’s sad or alone Perhaps this is the
season to discover that enduring change can come out of the most
ordinary activities—an hour spent with a child, the environment
valued, an injustice condemned, a petition signed, and peace always
kept sacred.
In the dark of winter and the light of Christmas, the world
yearns to be a better place. This is the season for miracles, and for
believing that we have the power to make then happen.
ILLUSTRATION: APRIL CAVERHILL
Trudy Duivenvoorden Mitic finds it a miracle that
she can be both an adult and child at Christmas.
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December 2010 • FOCUS