We come together this day,
This evening,
This morning to fall in love.
To fall in love with ourselves.
To fall in love with life.
To fall in love with humanity.
It is an act of service that we are here.
This is not a selfish time.
This is a time of service to humanity.
With us having been tapped on the shoulder to bring ourselves,
Our souls,
Our minds,
Our bodies,
Our spirits to this conversation.
And for each of you and anyone who will listen,
The soul of life says thank you.
As do we to that sacred being.
How many of you have a Christmas tree?
Oh,
This is even more perfect because it's all about Christmas trees.
Now I don't know about you,
But I have this,
I don't have a traditional Christmas tree.
I have a white birch,
You know,
Artificial tree with lights on the ends of the branches that I have put ornaments on.
And I have carefully placed each ornament.
And I wanted to be sure that those ornaments had a special message for me.
They weren't just random everyday ornaments.
They have a really special message for me.
One is a crystal heart that I've had 40 years,
40 years.
And one is an ornament I got yesterday that says,
Snowmen melt your heart.
But it just melted my heart when I saw it.
And when I look at my tree,
I admire it.
I don't spend time saying what's wrong with this tree?
What do I need to fix?
I'm looking up because I see it right across the room from me.
I just take it in and appreciate it.
I hope you are the same way with your tree.
And what I'm inviting all of us to do tonight,
And we'll talk about it further the next two weeks,
Is I'm inviting you to consider you are the Christmas tree.
And all I want you to do is admire it,
Bask in its beauty,
Take in its opulence,
Take in its simplicity.
Just take it all in.
I'm asking you,
I'm asking all of us,
Myself included,
To do that for ourselves,
That we make nothing wrong about ourselves,
That we just love ourselves up,
That we just bask in our glory.
And I'm actually asking you to do this until January 1st.
So I hope you don't put your Christmas tree away too soon.
And I certainly want to give you permission to come January 1st if you want to go back to judging and evaluating and fixing and criticizing yourself.
You're welcome to.
But I invite you to give yourself a break and literally just treat yourself like a gorgeous Christmas tree and just bask in your own presence.
Isn't it time we give ourselves a break?
Isn't it time you've worked so hard?
You've been fixing yourself all these years.
What about a couple of weeks of just utter delight?
I think it will bear much fruit.
Since this came to me last evening about this time a little earlier,
I've been just sitting on my couch kind of looking at the tree and saying,
Oh Kim,
You are so beautiful.
Each part of you is special.
You have so many messages to share.
Just let me love you.
You don't have to do anything.
The tree doesn't have to do anything for us to love it.
Does it?
No,
It's just there.
It's just there.
And this might be a stretch,
But I actually invite you to invite someone else to do this along with you,
To do this for them,
To do this for them,
Or however you language it.
I think it could give us each a magical Christmas,
A magical holiday season,
Because the more we love ourselves,
Remember this is fall in love with you,
The more we love ourselves,
The more people are going to want to be around us.
The more they're going to want to have what we have,
The easier life can be.
I remember when for many years in my marriage,
I used to get a Charlie Brown tree.
Do you guys know what a Charlie Brown tree is?
It's like the ugliest tree you could find.
So I'd go to the Christmas tree place and I said,
Show me the trees nobody else wants.
And they always had a pile.
And so I would,
You know,
They would stand them up for me like the guy does at the place.
And I'd say,
Oh,
No,
That's too beautiful.
That's too beautiful.
No,
That I need something that's really a Charlie Brown tree,
Like,
Really that no one wants.
And inevitably,
I would get one.
And I would go home and do my best to make it beautiful.
Now why might I have wanted a Charlie Brown,
Charlie Brown tree?
Why might I have wanted the tree that nobody else wants?
I didn't feel like anybody wanted me.
So my,
I took it on like,
If I can love and make beautiful the ugliest tree at the,
Out of hundreds of trees,
Maybe there's some hope for me.
So now I don't need a Charlie Brown tree.
I can have the most beautiful tree or any tree that I have,
Like this one.
I didn't even plan this one.
I can make beautiful.
I can make beautiful and love it just the way it is.
And loving myself exactly as I am and exactly as I'm not.
Can you love yourself?
Every aspect of you,
What you like about yourself,
What you don't.
Can you love yourself unconditionally?
That's the muscle,
So to say,
That we're going to be exercising from now till January 1st.
And if you,
Of course we're going to,
You know,
Our mind does what our mind does.
And sometimes it will run ragged saying,
Oh,
I don't like this.
I don't like this.
Just shh,
Go on your way.
Go on your way.
This is Christmas.
I'm the Christmas tree.
Now I don't want to get too far into religion or anything,
But you could also imagine that you are indeed the Christ child,
That you are that little infinite,
Little infinite.
You are that little infinite infant born to be a gift to humanity.
That's why Jesus was born to be a gift to humanity.
And I consider that each of us are daughters of something,
Whether you call that being God or not,
Or soul or not,
Or whatever.
But there's so many reminders in this season for us to give ourselves unconditional love,
To hold that baby close to our hearts,
To let it look up at us with big eyes and coo and smile.
So many opportunities for self-love this Christmas season,
This holiday season.
And one more,
Every time you see a light,
Whether it be a little twinkling light or a candle light or even a headlight,
That can be a reminder.
I am the light of the world.
I bring light into the darkness.
My light is a gift to humanity and a gift to me.
Now let's talk about sugar cookies.
Let's talk about all those sweets.
And some of us want to resist them.
Oh,
I can only have just one or,
Oh,
I can't have any or,
Oh,
Oh,
Oh.
I invite you to own your own sweetness.
I invite you to own your own deliciousness.
I invite you to own your own crisp,
To own your own soft,
To own your own savory,
Then yes,
To own your own sweetness.
I just want to let you know I've never,
Ever,
Ever said any of this to anybody before now.
So it's not like I was in some room dreaming this up.
I'm just being with you and allowing the soul of life to speak through me to you and to myself.
You are the light of the world.
Yes,
You,
Dear one.
Yes,
You.
You were tapped on the shoulder,
Center earth,
And asked to bring light into the world.
And all these years in all kinds of ways,
You have shared your light,
Spread your light,
And been the light.
And so from now to January 1st,
I invite you to let your light shine on you.
Let the light of the world shine on you,
Fill every crevice,
Every cell,
Every atom,
Every wish,
Every desire,
Every hope,
Every dream.
Let your light shine.
Please,
Let your light shine.
And the heavens,
The angels,
And all of humanity,
Past,
Present,
And future,
Say thank you.
Thank you.
You are a Christmas tree.
Bask in the glow.
Bye for now.
