Go search the skies, the landscapes, our inner minds for the markings and indications of something meaningful, answers, life and you shall be making a trek. Lifelong perhaps? You can be a wise man and you may also enjoy a nap in a manager surrounded by animals. I like to enjoy frankincense, myrrh, and gold myself!

But as we draw near the winter solstice, I want to share what the holiday means to me. It is the Christmas season, and that is the name of the national holiday that businesses close for whether you celebrate the Christian holiday or not. Christmas is about the winter solstice: the longest period of darkness (night) in the year. And on the next day, the promise of LIGHT returns and days become longer again. The holiday symbolically represents the return of life when the seasonal tides shift gears in the upswing yet again. It is about renewed hope and honoring the continuing cycle of life.

The color red is the color of the root charka. Red symbolizes life, vitality, strength and the physical plane. It also represents heat and fire. Our spiritual evolution (of the current earth walk) begins at the root charka when we are in utero. It is also the base of kundalini energy later if we develop spiritually in that way. It can be a very vibrant energy and certainly placed around us in the holiday season it is meant to counteract the cold winter, the long nights when mother nature lay dormant.

But where are my presents? Abstaining from gift-giving as a moral superiority and anti-capitalistic/anti-materialistic high road is laughable at best. Giving a gift, no matter how small, is the only way to receive. It is the law of attraction at it’s best. Give love, prosperity, hope, joy, and any multitude of blessings this holiday season. If that package comes in the form of a new coat, gadget, or otherwise, that’s fantastic! It is always best to give freely with the best of intentions. And this holiday season when nature gifts us with the return of more light, we too can give. Anyone speaking to the contrary has missed the reason for the season.

My take on the holiday is more abstract: red and crosses.

RED X © 2013 NATE METZ