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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

MERRY CHRISTMAS?

Read the latest chapter in LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE UNDEAD:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/117957888/Chapter-Three-love-in-the-Time-of-the-Undead

 
I was Christmas shopping
and ran into a guy on the street.
I noticed his watch and said that it ran slow.
He said, "So does the guy I stole it from."
 
{Hey, the joke was free at least.}
 
 
HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 
Everyone you meet tells you that.
But they don't tell you how to accomplish that sometimes Herculean task.
 
In this chaotic, stress-crazed, unpredictable world,
staying sane is hard, much less staying cheerful.
 
Still, the mind becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts
 
So
 
since our thoughts are one of the few things over we have control
we should take care to herd those critters where we want them.
 
I remember when
Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a cloak.
 
But it warmed more than your body.
It warmed your heart...filled it, too,
with a melody that seemed like
it would last forever.
 
Somehow it never did.
The world is too much with us.
 
But until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas.
All else is outward display,
 
so much tinsel and decorations.
For it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow.
It isn't the tree nor its twinkling lights.
 
It's the warmth that comes to the heart
when we remember why we celebrate Christmas
in the first place.
 
I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day.
We try to crowd into it the long unpaid debts
 of kindness and compassion of the whole year.
 
I like to take my Christmas a little at a time,
all through the year.
 
And so
 
 I drift along into the holidays,
let them overtake me unexpectedly,
 
waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself:
"Why this is Christmas Day!"
 
So today 
it is Christmas!
 
Let me leave you with two prayers:
 
"Father, teach us
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labor and not to ask for reward
Save that of knowing we do Thy Will.
 
“Father, may those who love us love us,
           and those who do not love us,
           may You turn their hearts,
           and if You cannot turn their hearts
           may You turn their ankles
          that we may know them by their limping.”
         ~
Prayer of Victor Standish.


http://www.scribd.com/doc/117957888/Chapter-Three-love-in-the-Time-of-the-Undead

11 comments:

  1. HihanniWaste, Roland, and I wish you blessings throughout the year!

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  2. Lorelei:
    HihanniWaste, Kola! :-)

    Thank you for caring enough to speak a bit of Lakota to me this Christmas Day.

    May blessings and happy surprises follow you all year as well. Roland

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  3. “In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season.

    The Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church.

    The Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue.

    The atheists went to parties and drank.

    People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’

    or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!”
    —Dave Barry

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  4. I love Victor's prayer! Merry Christmas to you Roland!

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  6. "..the mind becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts".

    Mom always said she gave and received gifts all year. That the spirit should not be confined to one day.

    Merry Christmas.

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  7. Heather:
    You have to give it to Victor. He makes you smile even when he prays! May your Christmas be all you wish it to be!

    Gail:
    My mother said the same thing. Your mother and mine probably would have gotten along famously. :-)

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  8. I have to agree with giving "Christmas" all year long. I don't think the spirit should belong to just one month, or one day.

    Have a peaceful day Roland.

    ......dhole

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  9. May your Christmas Day be a happy one, and the New Year filled with sparkle ... oh, and perhaps an agent thrown in for good measure!

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  10. Merry Christmas, Roland, and Merry the rest of the year, too :)

    Cheers and all the best for '13 :)

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  11. Donna:
    I have always given my Christmas presents all year round whenever I spotted something I knew a particular friend would enjoy! The happiest of New Years!

    Wendy:
    Yours, too. And I would settle for HarperCollins Voyager accepting one of the 3 novels I sent them!! :-)

    Mark:
    May your 2013 be the most fun you ever had! :-)

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