Publisher's Synopsis
"Each of us is the thin waist of the hourglass through which the past and the future are ceaselessly passing," begins Ali and Michael Malley's A Buddhist-Christian Mother Earth Christmas: 41 Days of Mindful Musings for the Yuletide Season.
In this unique, inspirational book of Daily Meditations - running from Thanksgiving to the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6) - the authors draw upon Eco-Theology, Eco-Spirituality, and melding the wisdom traditions of Buddhism and Christianity to invigorate and refresh our view of the holiday season.
Here, you will find entries about sacrality, eternity, and death, as well as tree decorating, children's books, and Christmas movies. A Buddhist-Christian Mother Earth Christmas offers meditations on Santa Claus, Jesus, mindfulness, the wee creatures, prayer, and our roles as Earth stewards. There is even a spiritual reflection on holiday romance.
The word integrity holds the same roots as integrate. We have all been trained to think dichotomously - to discriminate, dissect, and compartmentalize. To exercise integrity is to move toward "the whole" - to work toward integrating the disparate parts of ourselves and our world. For Ali and Michael Malley, the whole of the holiday season includes spiritual reflection and yummy Slovak Christmas pastries (kolachy); the babe in the manger and Kris Kringle; the ancestors of the past and today's children; touching the holy depths of this sacred season through solitary meditation and playfully singing a rousing round of Jingle Bells with the kiddos. And in A Buddhist-Christian Mother Earth Christmas: 41 Days of Mindful Musings for the Yuletide Season, the integrity of these holy days (these holidays) manifests through an integration of the beneficial teachings of Christianity, Buddhism, and Mother Earth Spirituality.
The Malleys say, "Our hearts and spirits overflow with the full continuum of what the Yuletide season brings... Here is an invitation toward lightness, mindful presence, compassion, contemplation, and joy. May these 41 musings fill your mind and home with the Christmas Spirit. Here, in A Buddhist-Christian Mother Earth Christmas, we invite you to re-sacralize your life, your relationships, your community, our natural world, and the holiday season itself. We invite you to experience the Sacred aliveness that is available - right now, in this moment."
A Buddhist-Christian Mother Earth Christmas is written to fill our hearts and spirits with the full continuum of what this season brings.
