And to ALL a Good Night........

Well, Ricky brings up a good question about our lives and the new year. He asks what will we do to change our lives in the coming year to make it better. I, for one, believe that is the question to ask yourself each and every day of your lives. We only have this second to live and that only one at a time. You know, I have been reading some of the "thinkers" of the last 2 centuries, and have come to the conclusion that the reason there were so many brilliant and creative people then, was the fact that they had and TOOK the TIME to think, contemplate, read, have meaningful conversation with neighbors and friends, they took walks and breathed fresh air and were okay with being "quiet" with themselves. No boys, this is not one of those SBC "throw your T.V. in the trash" speeches, but you would do well to watch your family more rather than the telly! I can remember one of the "pass time" things I would do with my grandmother in Stillwater in the summers I spent with her, was just sitting on the porch, greeting neighbors as they walked by. Talking with them, actually LISTENING to what they were saying and hearing their heart when the words didn't come. We are SO busy, so burdened with our "jobs", schooling, etc....that we have lost the art of living....of thinking....of sharing....of true conversation, of really caring about ourselves, our souls and about others we come in contact with every stinking day! We are bankrupting our own selves in our complete obsession with the things that won't and don't really matter. I don't want to just change something for this year, but change something for my life in whatever is left over of its entirety! Change, as those of us who have done it know, is very difficult and in itself, takes time. But I have never worked hard on changing myself to look back and say "wish I hadn't done that". May your year be filled with change...in yourself....and may it then touch others lives to inspire change. Shalom.

Merry Christmas to ALL !!!

" Who knows what the facts of Jesus' birth actually were? As for myself, the longer I live, the more inclined I am to believe in miracle, the more I suspect that if we had been there at the birth, we might well have seen and heard things that would be hard to reconcile with modern science. But of course that is not the point, because the Gospel writers are not really interested primarily in the facts of the birth but in the significance, the meaning for them of that birth just as the people who love us are not really interested primarily in the facts of our births but in what it meant to them when we were born and how for them the world was never the same again, how their whole lives were charged with new significance. Whether there were ten million angels there or just the woman herself and her husband, when that child was born the whole course of history was changed. That is a fact as hard and blunt as any fact. Art, music, literature, our culture itself, our political institutions, our whole understanding of ourselves and our world - it is impossible to conceive of how differently world history would have developed if that child had not been born. And in terms of faith, much more must be said because for faith, the birth of the child into the darkness of the world made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living life."

SPAM

Only one of the many reasons I am moving into the Apple world as of January 9th!!!! I had 965 emails in 10 days, I have 12 family members, NONE of which use this email, I have 5 friends who never email me anyway, and I don't "subscribe" to any sites!!! Here is but a sampling of the incredible waste of time and energy on the part of some people...
"time for a change"
"want to be a hero in bed"
"Sheik-Abual-Aziz-al-Sheik-the kingdoms grandmufati"
"went out his garden to the Gentiles"
"extra-large johnson"
"drunkard upon a tabernacle"
"astoria"
"istisct"
"Greetings from boston, MASS"
"Re:ferral'

I OUIT!!!! I GO TO APPLE SOON! I HATE SPAM!!! ON THE INTERNET OR ON THE TABLE!!

SNOW!!!!!!

Yep, yep, 10 1/2 inches worth!!! Beautiful snow!! It has closed down all the turnpikes and I-44 for the first time ever! They issued a "blizzard" warning last night for the first time ever! It amazes me how with all our "high tech" stuff in this fast paced life we live, where we live in the "illusion" that WE are in control, that we are NOT and that only a little precipitation from our Creator can wreak such havoc!! I LOVE THAT!!!
"He gives to the earth snow like a blanket of wool; He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes. He casts forth His ice like crumbs; who can stand before His cold? He sends out His word and melts ice and snow; He causes His wind to blow and the waters flow."