WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. " ~Charles Dickens

For my part, I always want to remember the great moments of Christmas, that the moments that mean the most in coming years will always be ones filled with hope and gladness. In years to come, I want to mark Christmas 2014, as the year I truly gained a new respect for the true meaning of Christmas and hold that close to my heart all of the days of the coming year.

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! " ~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

Received an email yesterday that make me think of more to say on the subject of Christmas and how one must get into the mood.:
1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-
depressant.2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.
3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to
__________ today.'
4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured IN
plants.
5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli ,
almonds & walnuts.
6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.7. Don't waste your precious energy on energy vampires, issues of the past, negative
thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive
present moment.
8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed
out charge card.
9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good!
10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.12. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
14. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
17. Forgive everyone for everything.
18. What other people think of you is none of your business.
19. GOD heals everything.20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
Stay in touch!!!
22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following
statements: I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished _________.
24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
25. Please send this to everyone you care about

Mind, the lovely lady who sent on this, is in the business of getting into your head and finding out what is wrong..........sounds to me as if she does it rather well, and the advice forwarded can apply all the year round.

"It is my hope that our paths will cross again soon. Till then it is my hope that your days with filled with peace, truth, and love, that you may continue your wonderful service to our community, the world we live in!!"

My dears, we shall meet again, the lovely lady and I..........need all of the help given to bring me back down to earth.

'Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish. Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself. ' ~Francis C. Farley
 

My dears, Got Bless you, one and all!

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
ROBERT FROST

The promise of Robert was vitiated by past and family. Both played an equal part in what happen. As if the whole community conspired to deliver the worst of the worst to the doorstep of. Mind, the whole world had passed judgment on Robert and it followed that many looking to be less than brilliant came to believe that he was the perfect person to do harm to.

Life is not a one trick act. What passes for normal one day could well be less than in the future. It is a constant changing experience and to deny that one had to adapt to, is right daft.

It is not enough to change behaviour, one must also break off relationships with folks who hold one back. However lovely they be, or regard held in, if there is to be improvement, one had to value the cost of that relationship, and move on if the cost is too great.

More's the pity that some known in life do not have the good grace to move on with their lives when it is clear that their actions are causing harm.

Never understood how a bad friend feels let down when the ax comes down and removes from a position of trust. OR refuses to learn how to do better. Seems quite natural for past friends to place blame on the friend who moves on and not selves. They refuse to move on and stay close to cause grief to, in hopes that more will join the campaign to sully the reputation of the past friend.

The old geezer may well not be the best friend,  there have been moments in the past when friendship was not as highly prized as it is now.  Many missed opportunities.

I like to think of self as a work in progress.  Quick learner.  Long gone are the dark periods when I beat up on meself.  Have long since learned that there be folks who think kindly toward and like having me round for a spell.

There was a great deal of anger felt toward some members of me family met late in life.  I went out of me way to let them know how I felt.  Along with the anger was blame placed on.  That was most unkind.  Truth be told, there is little doubt that the actions of me birth mother ruined more lives then mine.  They, like the old geezer, had to find their own places in the world, deal with own let downs.

I do not know the other children my mother had, have no clue what lives they live or what there hopes are.  They are no more a part of my life than I am of theirs.  I have created my own sort of family, made up of folks who have taken the time to discover who I am and what I am made up of.  They have shared the good times with me as well as been there during the rough patches.  You might well say that in the end I came upon the family I deserved.

My dears, the road taken never looked brighter.