And…. it was the week before Christmas! I had so much to do! There were cookies to bake, parties to prepare, gifts to wrap, and service to give.  I was stuck on the couch with an elevated, iced foot.  

I then realized the true gift of having a body with all parts working together to help me accomplish my goals.  It was a personalized Christmas gift just for me.

What is more, it seemed like since my ankle hurt, my leg was sore.  And with a painful leg, my back hurt. I even wondered if that back pain was contributing to my pre-Christmas headache.  Who knew that an ankle could be so significant and affect so much?

It’s because of connections.

Have you ever heard that old skeleton song- “The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone. …the leg bone’s connected to the knee bone…. the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone….”?   You know the one.  

In the song, everything is connected.  As it turns out, everything is.  What happens to my ankle affects my back or even my shoulder.  Communities of people are connected too.

We are connected to the people and world around us for better or worse.  Sometimes I wonder about those connections when they feel heavy or doubtful, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are all connected.  What happens to one of us really does affect all of us, good or bad. I am connected to my family.  My family has a connection with my neighbor.  The neighbor is connected to the community.  The community is connected to the state- the country, and the world.

The joy or judgment of one affects all.  It is a genuine connection.

Because you are not the ankle but the eye, does that make you not good enough or wrong in some way?  Should you put away a message of hope and light because it discounts the seriousness of a situation or most current disparaging concern?  I don’t think so.

Your light is the gift you were given for your purpose here on the earth, and a body without an eye of Heartlight is no body at all.  A body won’t live if it is missing Heartlight.  Light matters.  Your individual light is vital to our connected community.

Your light can shine on the parts of our collective community body striving so diligently in the darkness.  Sometimes the night can seem disparaging and serious.  It is then that your little light will have a magnified impact.  Think about shining a single LED in a pitch-black room.  It lights everything.  That’s you, my friend, and your individual light.

Boundary lines are another important consideration, as is respect.  Here too, your light has the potential to soften boundaries enough that they don’t become battle lines.  Your gift will make a difference.  

Our differences can become strengths as we embrace and welcome our connecting influences and strengths.  We can shine our collectively different lights and create vibrant colors to define and beautify our world.

We are different by design.

Connection is vital to life.

No Man is an Island.  

What affects you affects me.

And my ankle.

Let that light shine, baby!

All my love,