We've been watching the snow fall for days now here in Tahoe–one of the biggest winters I've seen since moving up here almost 5 years ago. In fact, we had so much snow on the night of our "Pray for Snow" book event for my book "Spiritual Adventures in the Snow," that it nearly was "snowed out!" We are grateful for this precipitation because it means that we'll be able to provide this part of the country with all the water necessary come next summer. Yes, the snow we ski on is sustenance for a lot of people. Interconnection...
The interconnection I experienced yesterday at church was one of two worlds and three religions connecting. I went to church at the United Methodist Church here in Truckee and my friend, pastor Jeff, preached a wonderful sermon on the 4th topic of Advent: Love. Shortly into the sermon, he surprised and delighted me by pulling out part of a poem by an award-winning Jewish author, and my friend and colleague in an improv company in the SF Bay area, Alison Luterman. I had even heard her read this poem at one of our company practices, about being a Jewish girl who loves Jesus because his command is simply "to love." In it she says it reminds her of the message of a Buddhist teacher, except "Jesus" is a lot easier to say (especially when crying out in an emergency!) than this Buddhist teacher's name.
I was so delighted (and a bit weepy) to have these two friends, the poet and the pastor, connected in this world through their art forms, but also through me (which they didn't know, of course, until now). I am so sure that this happens more than we could ever imagine–that we are interconnected via the people we know and the passion we have for things like... well, love.
So my Christmas prayer is that you will close your eyes and imagine all the interconnectedness that is surely there whether you know it or not. Connections that cross boundaries of place, religion and time. And that you will feel deeply loved and will risk loving deeply.