Okay…I’m over the scrooge phase. We are well into Chanukah now, actually half way through. I did manage to get out some of the decorations, although our new house (we’ve been in it a little over a year and a half) doesn’t have as many good places to put my little Chanukah candles and music boxes and such. I miss my house in Illinois at these times. It was so much larger, and, therefore, had many more options for putting little knick knacks around. California houses are too expensive to be large…but I put out a few decorations, placed a festive table cloth covered with dreidles and Chanukiot on the dinner table, and took down our chanukiot. I put some chocolate gelt into a few dreidle-shaped bowls, and, miracle of miracles, my house began to be transformed in Chanukah space and time. Not quite sacred space, but close.
I have to admit, though, I haven’t had much time to sit and meditate on the candles or to send out my invitation to the Shechinah. Maybe over the next few days with no school or work pressures – the kid’s winter break begins today. At least I’m in the mood, the house feels festive and the table has become a misbeach, an altar, where each night we light our candles, say the blessings and then eat dinner together as we bask in the light of four — yes, four — chanukiot.
On Chanukah we not only remember the Jews’ fight against assimilation and for religious freedom, but also the miracle (myth?) of the one little jug of oil left in the desecrated Temple that once poured into the Temple lamp burned not for one day, as expected, but for eight. Truly a miracle – God’s hand in human events. I really want to focus on miracles for the next four days. I’ve been told by my “local Kabbalist” that the energy of Chanukah opens us up to receiving miracles. However, I firmly believe that focusing our attention on the miracles we want or need most puts us in synch with that energy. We need to know what we want, imagine having it now, offer gratitude to God for bringing it to us, and then open ourselves to the energy of these eight days (well…four now) so the miracles can flow to us. We need to stay positive and feeling good so we can allow in that which we desire.
I’ve been working so hard and could really use a miracle right now…in the middle of this miracle season. I’d like to see a pay off for all that I have done.
On good days, I feel that miracle coming. On bad days, my confidence wanes. So, I keep plugging on, moving forward, acting “as if” I’ve already received that miracle. Some days I fail at this miserably. While I know it is inevitable that I will have a bad day, I try to have as few as possible. I know that feeling good, remaining positive, keeps me open to the energy of miracles. Thus, I keep visualizing myself having what I want. I keep acting and praying “as if.”
Why? Because, just as Greg Braden (The God Code) explains, when we “pray for” something we affirm lack, but when we “pray” something, we affirm abundance. In other words, we don’t want to “pray for rain.” We want to “pray rain.” How do we do that? We visualize ourselves already having what we desire, becoming what we want to be. So, I act “as if” my miracle has arrived and I am enjoying it to the fullest extent possible.
Some days, though, it’s a miracle to be able to stay in that mental space. So, maybe the small miracle is to “be that which I want” – and really feel like it is true – for the next four days so I open myself to really becoming it.
So, when you light your Chanukah menorah, join me in remembering that this is the season of miracles. Pray “as if” and know the miracles are on their way sent upward and outward on the light of the 5, 6, 7, 8 candles. Let’s take the time in front of our personal Chanukiot to ask for the miracles we want and to know that all that we want and need in our lives is now coming to us for the highest good of all concerned. (That’s a great statement with which to end any petitionery prayer, by the way.)
Ken yehe ratzon. May it be God’s will.
