Why hello! Nochebuena to you and to all you hold dear in your heart! Oh, maybe you haven’t heard that word before, Nochebuena. You see, Nochebuena is a Spanish word referring to the night of Christmas Eve and celebrated on December 24 every year. For Latin American cultures, it is often the biggest feast for the Christmas season and is the annual Spanish tradition. Nochebuena is the Spanish word for Christmas Eve.
Christmas eve. The night we all wait on Santa Claus, reindeer, family and loved ones, and whatever angels you accept in your life. Yes, I’m working hard with that last sentence to keep us on the same page, I’m not trying to create a conflict with that sentence. 
But I’m interested, what’s on your mind this night? How are you doing tonight? It has been a difficult year for most of the world. Many of us care enough about other people and are “maskers” and “social distancers”. Many others feel every day needs to be explored in ways that don’t permit social distancing.
Whatever your situation, the world has changed. And whatever you have gone through this year, if you are reading this, I care about you.
What’s on my mind? Why thank you for asking! Golly, that is such a complex question.
Well, you see, I’ve been thinking about west coast this Christmas Eve. But not the one that everyone knows.
I’m thinking about the people who aren’t having a night that is good. I’m thinking about the hundreds of millions of human beings on this planet that need your prayers and meditations, but need so much more than that The people who are trying to make it to tomorrow. I’m thinking about “The Invisibles”.
They aren’t thinking about Santa’s sled. They are thinking about their children who they are having an impossible time feeding. I’m thinking about the children who are starving in this country — and other countries in this world. Those children growing up malnourished and with fear every day, if they even make it to adulthood, are going to carry baggage in their hearts and their souls that I will never understand.
I’m thinking about the west coast, but not the one that everyone knows. And it isn’t just those people on that coast. I’m thinking about every human being who has been marginalized, every human being who is hungry, every human being that doesn’t have even basic healthcare.
And I hope you will spend just a moment considering them as well.
Here’s the west coast I’m thinking about. Thank you Paul David Hewson for the powerful lyrics in this song to remind me how blessed I am.
“A refugee is a person with ‘a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.’” ~ The UN refugee convention (1951)
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