Eight Billion Miracles

By Virginia Beck

Kaua‘i moonset. Photo by Léo Azambuja

Clarence Beck, Brigadier General, and my deceased father told me toward the end of his life, that “expansion of global populations will create more occasions for Love.” He was a Christmas baby, born on the 23^rd, two days before Christmas. This is my birthday present to him.

Remarkable for a man who helped Eisenhower plan D-Day. Who managed the entire United States Army budget for the Vietnam war, billions of dollars. He was a modest man at home. We knew he was important, but children have no idea how amazing their parents are.

December is a month to celebrate the winter solstice and the return of longer days. The solstice is an astronomical event, combining the Latin words sol for “Sun” and sistere for “to stand still.” In reality, the Sun doesn’t stop. It is the moment the Sun’s passage reaches the Tropic of Capricorn, and the arc of solar transit will begin moving north once more.

It is the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, marking the return to longer days, and shorter nights. The return of the light.

All cultures have their version of celebration at this time, for the return of favorable weather to grow things, to hunt, to fish and become more active.

In the cold countries, it was safe to use the winter foods for a feast as the “starving times” would soon be over. Around the world, the “new year” is celebrated differently. Different legends and stories surround the holiday.

The Makahiki in Hawai‘i was one such time. Time for games, feasts, hula celebration and warrior games of skill. Asia had its own such rituals. The Jewish communities have Hannukah, a time of light and different practices. African and black Americans have their own Kwanzaa version.

Sharing food, having fires or candles, trading gifts are common to all.

As the world population now holds eight billion “possibilities for love,” I contemplate what will be the gift we can give the planet. One that honors the many great gifts it has given us. Given and given, and we take and take.

The planet, the land, the ʻāina (as Native Hawaiians call it) has invested much in each of us.

Now we face climate change, endangered oceans and many disappearing life species. Islands are disappearing to ocean sea level rise. Will we become like the polar bears, trying to find a sustainable life?

The greatest gift we can give our families and our children and those yet unborn is to give our best to protect this jewel of a planet, and slow climate change dramatically. Famines and floods cause mass migrations and warfare to control resources. When life is sustainable, Peace reigns.

There is enough for everyone, with no one left out.

I see eight billion miracles out there, and every one of them is a gifted human being who can contribute to the planet, each in different ways. Other people are gifts that we cannot see, because their wrapping paper doesn’t look like the first one we would open. Take the risk.

Here is a gift. I wrote it for you in 1976.

Virginia Beck

“A miracle is not something that happens to you.

It is what you are.

The way a wave is just a wave,

And a star is just a star.”

Give the planet and each other the best you have to offer no matter how big or small.

Aloha includes us all.

• Virginia Beck, NP and Certified Trager® Practitioner, offers Wellness Consultation, Trager Psychophysical Integration and teaches Malama Birth Training classes. She can be reached at 635-5618.