8 values of Hanukkah: Light
8 values of Hanukkah we can all recognise:
Leadership, Freedom, Hope, Light, Community, Giving, Resilience and Belief.
Tonight: Light.
It seems obvious to talk about light during the Jewish festival of lights, but we're going to do it anyway, and adding a candle to the menorah each night boosts the light given off. Remembering the rededication of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, Hanukkah is the Hebrew and Aramaic word for dedication. Maccabee comes from the Hebrew word for Hammer. I'm an Aram, and a red Hammer, and i'm a Hannah, and I think i'm a pretty dedicated person, witnessing my tiny flame burning on and on... maybe this is all a process of cleaning up the mess others have made in my temple and rededicating myself to God. They said that when I was born, with my long red hair I looked like a candle, and I think it's a miracle that my lamp/light has burned on for so long with all the violence i've been through, so Hanukkah really resonates with me. Back when I had a family, we used to live in the same home as Florence Nightingale, (another lamp-carrier), and I would sit under the same tree in the garden where she received her message from God, which guided her to become the person we now celebrate. I never got the message, but I find it hard to concentrate, so maybe I just thought it was a bird singing. How is that not God speaking to us, though? I'm one of those naughty angels. Oily little girl, fuckin' up the world... Not Satan, not a devil, as many have repeatedly tried to impress upon me, due to my flaming red hair and names and whatever else they imagine, LOL. Lucifer was an angel, anyway. I'll take the neither way, thank you all the same, and i've written enough elsewhere about quantum theory and light, particle vs. wave etc...
Alexis Pauline Gumbs' (@alexispauline) book: Undrowned, BLACK FEMINIST LESSONS FROM MARINE MAMMALS has a great message for us here. But only if we listen. Thankfully, we are offered this instruction as the title of chapter one...
one: listen
"they had this thing about darkness. the bottom of the ocean, outer space. they were afraid of it, they wanted to penetrate it. they wanted to pretend it only existed in contrast to light, and there was something about not wanting to have their eyes closed. not wanting to go within. lightweight enlightenment equaled mass black death "
Peace be with you.
Tomorrow's value: Community
#hanukkah2020 #Hope #Light #Freedom #Belief #Community #Giving #Resilience #Leadership