I do like this time o year. The sun heads south. I’m watching a particular morning shadow creeping west on the
building next door - I presume it will begin to return east after Dec 21. The days have shortened and I compensate
for the diminished available deck time with decorations and a post-harvest indoor gratitude.
I‘ve buttoned up the windows with clear vinyl n flipped on the heat. Cooking is in, and every few days the kitchen smells great.
The year is winding down and this last month - with all its wrap-up business - cards, shipping, loads of etc. - really flies by.
After all the year end chores, what is left in hand - what ends up important - is the same each Holiday Season - our Hearts.
Our fellow passengers on this rock - kids, friends & critters are the center of our lives - the other souls on our impossible planet.
(Just too many random factors contribute to our existence - I’m sure we’re engineered -
this link decided me. Go to minute 1:44. That complicated a machine
doesn’t just happen.)
The "Stuff" of celebration - the lights, music, gifts, etc. reach out at us from all directions. The merchandisers pray for a
good season and to that end, open their doors earlier and with more fanfare. We see news reports of shopping stampedes
and think "What is wrong with these folk?" They are just a little bit short sighted - focusing on the form of the "Stuff".
Stuff is not bad - it is great! It can Lift the Spirit. It reflects back the beauty of our own perceptions and the
reasons we might think we love our stuff (Form) is that it triggers a pleasing of the soul - lovely perceptions, happy memories
and beautiful projections.
These Inner Light Events (Essence) are what our objects satisfy.
That’s our inner love, represented by outer things. It’s cool. Heck, it’s wonderful! (preachy section over)
I vigorously intend for all of you - the love you want, the fuel that powers our personal vehicles, Hearts & Souls
- It is all there really is.
Bless all ya’ll!.
(I’ve recently been corrected in my mt. vernacular - "y’all" can mean 1 or more individuals - "All Y’all"
always includes the entire entourage. (I keep a larnin’))
This month finishes my first full post-rescue health year. Though drastic, the medical traumas of 2013 are still the
best thing that ever happened to me. I was given not only life back but a brand new one. A fresh outlook that is better
than I can remember.
I must be terribly dense for the "powers that be" to send such a dear lesson but it did get through.
I am happier, way more appreciative and have a pretty positive outlook - things I need come to me much more easily - definitely better.
The more I realize the universe is supportive - the more so it becomes! Leads to questions I won’t chase here but
I am thinking on what I call Pre-Emptive Gratitude - seems to be working.
Filling my time gracefully as it flies by with Companionship, Tai Chi, Music & Work. It all goes way too fast.
Sometimes the music box in my head plays the tune "Cinderelly"(like the Disney mice sang it) only the words go "troppo presta,
troppo presta, alla time its troppo presta." I need to slow myself a bit sometimes and watch it go so fast. I do love it.
I have two book recommendations - "Shifting" by Paul Krapfel retitled "Seeing Nature - Deliberate Encounters with the Visible World"
Link here and
"A New Earth" - Eckart Tolle.
Link here
I did the audio CDs - I can "get" his meaning better if I hear his inflection. Both of these volumes "found me" this year
and I am very grateful for the thoughts they engendered. You might like ‘em.
The kids are doing great. Byron & Taylor are thriving in old Arkansas. Staying busy & playing music (hmmm?)
My youngest is a true kitchen master and he’s still cooking at Chili’s as far as I know. Byron, call your dad, dude.
His Band "Fortune & Flames" has quite a showing on FB & YouTube. Here are a coupla links - go dude!
I’m not wild about the music but I’m so pleased he’s doing it and having fun.
(I think I was young once and grups thought the same about my music.)
Camille down in Queretaro MX, is taking on the leadership of some new and forward looking programs at her
school - Very Impressive.
Here’s a link to her school and below, an excerpt from her announcement re. the new jobs.
"Hi - Two new jobs added to my plate, I am the middle school leader for the Humanities Dept. in the Middle Years Program
implementation of the International Baccalaurate. Also, I will head a committee for our entire school's
re-accreditation with Advanc ED, the US curriculum that the school uses.
In Model UN news, the kids are preparing for a debate when we get back from Christmas vacation. Topics are:
Promoting and Guaranteeing the Human Rights of Migrants, Cyberwarfare: International Security Concerns, and
Protecting the Right to Public Assembly. Pretty cool, huh?"
Ben is at Lawrence Livermore National Labs near San Ramon.
This is where Starfleet Central will be built. Check the link above - all the equipment is already there.
Firstborn is doing a job he can’t tell me much about. I did hear he is "bullet proofing" some software by trying to make it fail.
They will love him. He can do that - always had a knack for alternate approaches.
The California Casses sent me a photo of their Thanksgiving dinner - 4 gorgeous Dungeness Crabs. When speaking to him later
that day I acknowledged the photo by asking, "Did you eat those crabs ?" (silly Q:) and Ben replies, "You mean as opposed
to setting them free?" (great A:) (Har! Har!)
I couldn’t be happier with or prouder of my progeny - they’ve all grown up into fine self-sufficient critters
indeed (in an amazingly short time) contributing in their own ways to The Light of the World. Thank You so Very Much My Dears!!
(We don’t, by any means, own our kids. They are entrusted to us as parents for a little time and frankly, they
do most of the work of growing up. If we don’t get in their way too much - it is usually pretty OK (hindsight)).
Friends, enjoy this time, the wonderful season of fellowship & compassion. I truly love the steadily increasing
volume of the joy that finishes the last days of the year. I pray you do too and wish you all - the best possible 2015.
To my dear Scrooges and NaySayers (I know & love a few). I say Nay!
Yes - it is Hoopla - but its persistence
is supported by what we all know in our hearts - the mystery and magic is real!
So Join us - throw your Hoop in the air and sing "La!!"
It will try to dopple away soon enough.
Let all of us keep the Spirit alive in the New Year.
