Health & Fitness
Christmas Bells Lift Spirits
How the bells on Christmas Day can help lift your spirit.
Last night, while at my office, the church across the street rung out one of my favorite Christmas Carols, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I love it because it shares the broken heart of its author. Let me share the three most popular stanzas.
I heard the bells on Christmas day, their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet words repeat of Peace on Earth Good will to men.
And in despair I bow my head, “There is no peace on earth.” I said “For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth good will to men.”
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Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, “God is not dead nor doth he sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail with peace on earth good will to men.
This was written during the American Civil war by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, after his son being severely wounded in a battle. He also lost his wife in an accidental fire just a few years earlier and that took him years to recover. The loss of his wife almost drove him insane.
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The anguish of the man is in his poetry. If you get into the feeling of the words it is like he is shaking his fist. And then listening to the bells further he comes to a truth when he remembers his belief in God.
Perhaps I’ve loved this song since I was a child because it is a good model for our personal search for peace. In today’s world there is so much unrest, we have wars not just on foreign land but among ourselves.
Look in your own life, who you are not at peace with. Is it a spouse? A parent? or a child? Very often it is turned inward and we are angry at ourselves which comes out as a form of depression. We want to live at peace as much as possible, but we live in an ego filled society which gets us in all kinds of trouble.
The answer to resolving these issues involves looking at the bigger picture as the first step. Longfellow looked to God’s picture. He recognized three of God’s attributes that He is alive, awake and on the side of the righteous. The key here is that there is an active force caring for those in the right.
I know many believe only in a universal consciousness, look to that for the bigger picture. The situations of our lives are happening as a ebb and flow of the universe’s design. In harmony one must have good and bad as equal and opposite forces. That harmony is alive, active and must play out its dance of life. As for the side the universal consciousness is on, that is something you will have to decide in your personal belief system.
As we go into this holiday season, I wish you warmth and love to you and your families. Perhaps you too will look to the meaning and history behind your favorite holiday song.
Linda Bender is a metaphysical doctor trained as a medical intuitive. She uses over 20 life coaching and touch therapy techniques from Reiki to personal training to help you reduce stress and pain so your body invokes its natural healing ability. She is at on Church Street in Phoenixville. See www.BenderHealing.com or call 800-706-1354 for more information.