I was sitting in the Carpark waiting for one of my children last night and a young family walked past pushing a shopping trolley filled to the brim with Christmas goodies. The mother, harried and stressed, was juggling three little kids probably between the ages of two and six while navigating the trolley and finding their sedan seemingly lost somewhere in the sea of Christmas car parking. The father, proud, calm and face beaming with joy, was sauntering behind them carefully carrying a new born baby. And while my heart was pitter pattering at the sight of the tiny cute little bundle, my head was marveling at the miracle walking past me!
When You Mean Business
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Angel At The Top Of The Tree
It’s almost Christmas and finally my tree is up. Perched on top is the most beautiful angel, looking down over the ornaments collected through the years keeping an ever watchful eye on my 2010 Christmas.
I may have just pulled him out of storage but something tells me he has been perched on top of my tree all year, looking down at all the stories I have collected and keep an ever watchful eye over my life and all the things I wish to change about it.
I may have just pulled him out of storage but something tells me he has been perched on top of my tree all year, looking down at all the stories I have collected and keep an ever watchful eye over my life and all the things I wish to change about it.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Let It Be Remembered
We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds. Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names. Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood.
~New York Times, 25 December 1937, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938, published by The H.W. Wilson Company, New York
~New York Times, 25 December 1937, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938, published by The H.W. Wilson Company, New York
Tis The Season
It’s hard to believe that there are only 12 days until it’s Christmas! For me, the middle of December has always been a magical time – everything looks, sounds, smells and feels different. There is this unspoken expectation hanging in the air that magic is about to happen – a creative tension of childlike wonder and joy – familiar and simply impossible to ignore.
Looking back now from January until December, I see an exquisite and intricate brightly colored quilt sewn and embroidered by the hands of those I have shared 2009 with. Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring have cycled through these months connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting a diverse catalogue of faces, hearts and souls. Standing from this seasonal vantage point, I feel outrageously wealthy with appreciation for the colors and textures that each of you has added to my year.
Looking back now from January until December, I see an exquisite and intricate brightly colored quilt sewn and embroidered by the hands of those I have shared 2009 with. Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring have cycled through these months connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting a diverse catalogue of faces, hearts and souls. Standing from this seasonal vantage point, I feel outrageously wealthy with appreciation for the colors and textures that each of you has added to my year.
Ho Ho Ho It's Magic
It's 4am, I'm hopelessy jet lagged yet am lying awake thinking of Magic so am giving up to sit at my laptop to write. I'll pay for this tomorrow you know!
My third child has given me grief about this trip to London at Christmas for months. He created every possible diversion – injury, illness, rugby commitments and finally resorting to the mother of all tantrums – anything to punish me for ruining his Christmas. So what was he seeing that I was ruining?
My third child has given me grief about this trip to London at Christmas for months. He created every possible diversion – injury, illness, rugby commitments and finally resorting to the mother of all tantrums – anything to punish me for ruining his Christmas. So what was he seeing that I was ruining?
Monday, December 27, 2010
My 2008 Christmas Gift
To my family and friends - old and new:
There is a lovely story of the romance between journalist-playwright Charles MacArthur and Helen Hayes, famous American actress. When they were young and about to be married, he bought her a bag of peanuts, presented them with a flourish, and said, "I wish they were emeralds." Years later, as he was dying, he gave her an emerald bracelet and said, "I wish they were peanuts."
Each year I face the same challenge keeping my peanuts and emeralds in perspective. I loved it when my babies were little and they enjoyed the box more than the toy that box contained. I had been frantically running around trying to find that special gift, within whatever budget we deem appropriate, for that special person for a myriad of reasons. I wonder of the importance of being instead of having or doing and if maybe the best gift of all is to simply BE who you are with everyone in your life that is important to you. Expensive and fancy gifts, even if they satisfy wants, rarely meet genuine needs. Christmas gifts to family can be expensive distractions enabling us to perhaps avoid or postpone the gift of self. I havent seen you all year but here's some chocolate. mmm.........
Its not the money that we spend on the gifts. Sometimes we tend to think that money can buy anything. But it doesn't. Money is a very important tool which we use according to our personal value system.
Nature itself charges us with ambition, which prompts mankind to cultivate, build, establish cities, and to invent and improve all the sciences and arts, which ennoble and embellish human life.
Earning more $ will not give any one of us lasting happiness. It is in our nature that we adapt to improvements in our lives, whether those improvements arise from more $ or other desirable things, so that the additional happiness they bring is temporary. There is much wisdom knowing that the journey is more important than the destination. Human happiness comes from striving for improvements and from the sense of achievement gained by overcoming the challenges we face along the way, not from docile dependence on others. The happiness gained from struggle and achievement may be temporary, but fortunately our insatiable desire for more of life’s good things guarantees that new struggles and achievements are always available for replenishing our happiness. Furthermore, we can take pleasure in knowing that when we struggle to improve our conditions by pursuing $ in an enterprise, we are increasing opportunities for others to improve their conditions as well.
During the year, I played The Prosperity Game. You set up an Accounting Package - QuickBooks or MYOB or Excel spreadsheet or just print fake deposits and cheques for your PROSPERITY BANK ACCOUNT. Every day for one year, the Universe makes a deposit into this account. $1000.00 on the first day, then $2000 on the second day, then $3000 on the third day and so forth until on the 365th day the deposit is $365000.00. Each day you have to spend the entire amount of the deposit. I think in total it is $66Million. You can do daily or just do as much as you can each day until you spend one years worth. I got to day 87 and became qiote disheartened as I realised that the $ would not buy me what I truly wanted. Love and Relationships. It’s the people in your life that money cannot buy. It’s the YOU in your own life that money cannot buy.
It is in the taking a little time out from our daily stuff to appreciate how much we have achieved already and how blessed we are that we are most wealthy. It is in the seeing that we already have everything that we want and need. It is in the gratitude for our lives just as they are that we truly are rich.
So in the spirit of the Solstice or Christmas or whatever you choose to celebrate, I cannot give you anything for you already have everything in abundance. You already have my love and friendship and gratitude. My gift to you is the reminder of what you already have that money most definitely cannot buy.
Childish Wonder
Community
Contentment
Dreams
Family
Friends
Health
Hugs
Intelligence
LOVE
Nature
Perfection
Respect
The bit of you that is YOU that no one else can see – your feelings, your thoughts, your ideas, your YOU.
Time
Talent
Sunrise
Sunset
Patterns in the Clouds
Tomorrow
Today
Yesterday
Your breath
Your Life
Enjoy the box these gifts come in...................
There is a lovely story of the romance between journalist-playwright Charles MacArthur and Helen Hayes, famous American actress. When they were young and about to be married, he bought her a bag of peanuts, presented them with a flourish, and said, "I wish they were emeralds." Years later, as he was dying, he gave her an emerald bracelet and said, "I wish they were peanuts."
Each year I face the same challenge keeping my peanuts and emeralds in perspective. I loved it when my babies were little and they enjoyed the box more than the toy that box contained. I had been frantically running around trying to find that special gift, within whatever budget we deem appropriate, for that special person for a myriad of reasons. I wonder of the importance of being instead of having or doing and if maybe the best gift of all is to simply BE who you are with everyone in your life that is important to you. Expensive and fancy gifts, even if they satisfy wants, rarely meet genuine needs. Christmas gifts to family can be expensive distractions enabling us to perhaps avoid or postpone the gift of self. I havent seen you all year but here's some chocolate. mmm.........
Its not the money that we spend on the gifts. Sometimes we tend to think that money can buy anything. But it doesn't. Money is a very important tool which we use according to our personal value system.
Nature itself charges us with ambition, which prompts mankind to cultivate, build, establish cities, and to invent and improve all the sciences and arts, which ennoble and embellish human life.
Earning more $ will not give any one of us lasting happiness. It is in our nature that we adapt to improvements in our lives, whether those improvements arise from more $ or other desirable things, so that the additional happiness they bring is temporary. There is much wisdom knowing that the journey is more important than the destination. Human happiness comes from striving for improvements and from the sense of achievement gained by overcoming the challenges we face along the way, not from docile dependence on others. The happiness gained from struggle and achievement may be temporary, but fortunately our insatiable desire for more of life’s good things guarantees that new struggles and achievements are always available for replenishing our happiness. Furthermore, we can take pleasure in knowing that when we struggle to improve our conditions by pursuing $ in an enterprise, we are increasing opportunities for others to improve their conditions as well.
During the year, I played The Prosperity Game. You set up an Accounting Package - QuickBooks or MYOB or Excel spreadsheet or just print fake deposits and cheques for your PROSPERITY BANK ACCOUNT. Every day for one year, the Universe makes a deposit into this account. $1000.00 on the first day, then $2000 on the second day, then $3000 on the third day and so forth until on the 365th day the deposit is $365000.00. Each day you have to spend the entire amount of the deposit. I think in total it is $66Million. You can do daily or just do as much as you can each day until you spend one years worth. I got to day 87 and became qiote disheartened as I realised that the $ would not buy me what I truly wanted. Love and Relationships. It’s the people in your life that money cannot buy. It’s the YOU in your own life that money cannot buy.
It is in the taking a little time out from our daily stuff to appreciate how much we have achieved already and how blessed we are that we are most wealthy. It is in the seeing that we already have everything that we want and need. It is in the gratitude for our lives just as they are that we truly are rich.
So in the spirit of the Solstice or Christmas or whatever you choose to celebrate, I cannot give you anything for you already have everything in abundance. You already have my love and friendship and gratitude. My gift to you is the reminder of what you already have that money most definitely cannot buy.
Childish Wonder
Community
Contentment
Dreams
Family
Friends
Health
Hugs
Intelligence
LOVE
Nature
Perfection
Respect
The bit of you that is YOU that no one else can see – your feelings, your thoughts, your ideas, your YOU.
Time
Talent
Sunrise
Sunset
Patterns in the Clouds
Tomorrow
Today
Yesterday
Your breath
Your Life
Enjoy the box these gifts come in...................
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