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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Not Caught Up In The Holiday Spirit?

Christmas Day is the day the Christian world celebrates the
Birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the compassionate teacher
Who brought to the world the message that
God is Love.

It is also the time of year for Chanukah celebration,
For the solstice and for Kwanzaa…and other celebrations

I found this online:

Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all; plus... A fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2000, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to the race, creed color, religious, or sexual preferences of the wishes.

Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.
(Another version of this greeting here:
http://www.nightscribe.com/Entertainment/pc_holiday_greeting.htm)

"Not caught up in the holiday spirit" Makes me think of the Grinch.

Just before Christmas I rented and watched
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
And remembered the Grinch
Who was not at all caught up in the season.
It stressed him out.

Somehow this season is often accompanied by a lot of stress.
I had forgotten it was Christmas season and wet shopping for a vacuum cleaner.
It was frightening.
And then I remembered the pepper spraying shoppers I read about.
It wasn’t pretty.

And yet it is a season intended to celebrate
Community, Compassion, Spiritual Renewal and so on.

I got to thinking about the Grinch,
And the stress that he felt because of how much the people of Who-ville
Were enjoying the spirit of Christmas… which he hated…

You may already know the story
About how his reaction against the merriment of the season
Caused him to want to just squash it and destroy it
So he planned to steal Christmas
From the people of the village below where he lived

It is a great story about life
About not fitting in
About ruined expectations
Continue Reading...

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Reality Radio? Chris Michaels

I have a love-hate relationship with reality TV.  I confess to watching The Bachelor now and then.  I don’t understand why it is so compelling.  It seems so fake, scripted and unrealistic—yet something about it (or me) makes me want to see that next totally predictable step play itself out.

Now my friend Chris Michaels tells me he is going to do Reality Radio!    I think that is a brilliant idea and I can’t believe no one has thought of it before.

Raw, unpredictable and completely unscripted weekly steps in the life of four people who interact with Chris live on the air about their progress, obstacles, wins and losses.  I’m nervous just thinking about it!.   Urgh.  I’m probably going to become a fan.

Continue Reading...

Saturday, December 24, 2011

My Christmas Story


A long time ago, a very, very, long time ago, in a land called Judea, lived a young woman by the name of Mary.  She was a loving person, a good person, a nice person to be with.  Everywhere she went, she felt like she was part of All That Is.  And she would express this by saying “God is with me.”  When she walked into a room, people would say that it felt like a breath of heaven had come into the room.

Actually, we don’t really know how Mary was, or what she used to say.  Nobody does.  But I like to tell the story this way to remind me to let Love live in me.

Oh, by the way, not all of the details of this story make sense.  Not all the parts of the story are even possible.  But that’s what makes a good story – it inspires us to go beyond the possible and dream.  A good story should help us walk through our own challenging times.  A good story ought to inspire us to feel, like Mary did, that something wonderfully, powerful, is within us.”  I hope this story will help you feel that way tonight.

I can’t know what the story of Christmas means to you, or whether you have heard it before…I do trust that if you listen with an openness, as if you’re hearing it for the first time, that you will hear something wonderful, just like Mary did one day when, as we say, an Angel spoke to her. We think of angels as messenger of Divine Mind, and one told her that
Continue Reading...

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