When I was in the Amazon RainForest at the Yachana EcoLodge, we were taken to the Water’s edge to observe the Natives of the RainForest panning for gold. I had always imagined that panning for gold involved lifting the pan from the ocean floor and discovering large Gold Nuggets.

Nope…

It turns out that the actual panning process involves way more hours of intensive labor for a relatively small return, panning for tiny pebbles and then rinsing them through a kind of sluice box with a cloth on it. Then the cloth is transferred to a bowl of clear water, hoping it will release miniscule flecks of gold that have been washed downstream from the mountains, across the ocean floor. It is just a few flecks. But they shine like the Sun.

We were told that these people labor eleven hour days in the hope that by week’s end they might have accumulated a single ounce of gold to trade at the market.

Christmas can be like that.

It’s a lot of work… A lot of preparation… A lot of family dynamics that one might more successfully avoid at other times of year… But amidst all this, and by the time it has all gone through the sluice box, one cannot deny that there are flecks of gold… a few Good Laughs. Joys. Moments of Delight. Perhaps a soupçon of Elation…

The Magic of Christmas doesn’t mean that hardship and challenges suddenly evaporate. But it does mean that if we look very closely, there is inevitable Bliss… even if only Flecks of Gold, they can Dazzle like the Sun.

Merry Second Day of Christmas!