Today's entry is from my youngest sister Juliet Kinkade Black. She is 10 years younger than I am and so much wiser than I am. I love her to pieces. She is also very good at picking wives. She chose Rebecca Kinkade Black and based on that she has a 100% success rate. She also opted not to write about why I am the best brother. Go figure. This is her take on 2020.
2020 has been a dark year. Because of the global pandemic that continues to howl outside the doors to our homes, we have been separated from our friends, our families, our loved ones. While this virus rages, we continue to fight other battles, as well, battles with family illness, death, poverty, wide-scale racism, and a general unrest. In my daily work as a marriage and family therapist and the director of a children’s advocacy center, I see the scars from these battles every day.
Because of all this darkness, the December holidays are more important to me than in years past. Christmas is a time to celebrate new birth, hope, joy, and love; and the star that led the wise men to a stable in Bethlehem to meet the Lamb of God is, for me, a symbol of hope in all the darkness.
Hanukkah, similarly, is a celebration of the miracle of the light in the darkness. After a clan of Jewish freedom fighters won a battle to recapture the Holy Temple, they found a lantern inside the temple with oil enough for only one night, yet it shone brightly for eight. That light shining in the darkness is, for me, a call for hope in miracles, for renewal and rededication to fight for what’s right, to choose joy.
This year I have found a new tool to help me look toward the light in the darkness: the Nurtured Heart Approach. It is a way of being that invites each of us to identify our own intensities as our greatest qualities and strengths. As I have held Zoom trainings with therapists, parents, teachers, and community members, I have talked with them about how normal and familiar it is for us to focus on the darkness, on the pandemic, the racism, the loss we have all experienced this year; and how much of a miracle it is to be able to see the light in the darkness, to hold out hope for miracles, and in fact, to see miracles occurring in the small molecules of what is going right in the moment.
So here is my list of miracles in the molecules. I hope you will add some of your own miracles to this list, so that we all shine our lights in the darkness this holiday season.
My wife loves me more than anyone has ever been loved before
my wife and I get to work together from home every day (because of the pandemic-related shut down)
There is an abundance of Christmas movies to watch
The local radio station has been playing Christmas music since July
It snowed in October, and we’ve had a few snows since then, and every time, the world is filled with magic
My sister sent us gluten-free flour so my gluten-intolerant wife can eat Christmas cookies this year
My dad continues to recover from heart surgery and is making great, steady progress
Authors continue to write amazing books, artists continue to create beautiful art, and creators all over the world are inspired to bring their own light into the darkness
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