Light in the Midst of Chaos...

In so many ways, Christmas brings the potential for pain and healing. Both coexist. Fevered with excitement, families go crazy. We suffer when we lose groundedness and contentment. Holidays such as Christmas bring opportunity to rest and be grateful, at ease, to express and feel love.

Mythically, Christmas celebrates the birth of the sun, winter solstice a time of new emergence and potential for growth. We can rest, relax, love, and heal during the holidays by returning to nature, our nature. We are creatures of the earth and require settledness so as to witness light coming out of darkness.

No matter what has happened during the past year, no matter the crisis or trauma, there is hope. Light breaks forth from dark places and cold times. Reflecting on the sufferings of the year is not a bad thing. Light rising out of the midst of chaos calls for reflection, seeing into the nature of the year's crises and pain, then allowing our eyes to open to bright rays and the birth of the sun.

As a psychotherapist having engaged in a full year of helping to heal crisis and trauma, I reflect on the words of a fellow depth psychologist who wrote,

"A dream is brought to me with the expectation that I will in turn say something meaningful to the dreamer. It is in the nature of the relationship that I must represent a small light in the midst of chaos -- though I may be equally in the dark. I must therefore choose my words as best I can, and, depending on my sensitivity and skill, communicate one thing and not another.

"What matters is the creative interpretation of what one sees -- to communicate to the suffering person precisely those elements that make it possible for a healing process to start."

~ Excerpt from The Spiral Way: A Woman's Healing Journey by Aldo Carotenuto available in soft copy and ebook Inner City Books