HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE and its MAGIC of THE THRESHOLD

There are moments that happen that change how you look on life and on what is and is not possible.  

  

You are never the same afterwards.  

 The Nativity was one of those times.

 There is even a word for this situation: “Liminality.” 

“Liminality” is the word for the threshold moment: 

from the Latin root limin, meaning the centerline of the doorway.

  

Liminality is the moment of crossing over. 

It describes the transitional phase of personal change, 

where one is neither in an old state of being nor a new, 

and not quite aware of the implications of the event. 

All the stages of life include liminality. 

Life is nothing but moments of crossing over. 

Liminality is why we celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve but not other holidays’ eves.

We celebrate Christmas Eve 

because Jesus is traditionally thought to have been born at midnight.  

And we celebrate New Year’s Eve because midnight is when the year changes. 

Christmas Eve is a threshold moment.

We can choose to stay on the other side of the moment, 

refusing to enter and accept what gifts await us.

After all, for most of the world there is still no room in the Inn for He who breathed the world into existence.

Christmas Eve is the time to reflect on what awaits us beyond whatever threshold we choose to cross ...

to reflect on what thresholds we thought would always be there but now are gone, 

along with the mortal hearts that waited for us beyond them.

Whatever you believe, 

it can be a healing thing to take Christmas Eve to reflect on all the gifts given to you this past year

and on what needs exist in your surroundings that you can be an agent of healing by meeting. 

Christmas Eve revives the wonder of childhood 

where snowflakes sing on their way down to the ground, 

where faeries ice skate on bird baths, 

and magic waits for us to open the door of our hearts to let it in.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE, 

MY FRIENDS!

DEMOLITION MAN is TODAY!

 Ever see 

DEMOLITION MAN?

It predicted so many things warping our society today.  

Hate Speech. Political Correctness that permeates all through society. 

Many More:

1.) Arnie’s political career

 We all laughed in 1993 at the concept of Arnold Schwarzenegger running for any kind of political office, never mind the presidency. 

But after two terms as the Governor of California it’s not looking so un-likely anymore.

 2.) Self-Driving Cars, iPad and Skype

Almost all the cars in the film (with the notable exception of the red oldsmobile) are self-driving. 

3.) Voice Activated Appliances

 Everything from the lights, to the cars, to the automated ticket machine for breaking the verbal morality statute 

has voice controls in Demolition Man’s future. 

We already have siri and Google voice search, how long before they take away our profanity?!

4.) Political Correctness Is The LAW 

HAVE YOU SEEN DEMOLITION MAN?

HOW DOES IT COMPARE 

TO TODAY'S CULTURE?

The CHRISTMAS CLASSIC that ALMOST WASN'T

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

"There will always be a market for innocence."

- Charles Schulz

The only Christmas Tree I have had for the past few years is a reproduction of Charlie Brown's famous Christmas tree.

It is a musical one which I set off when I leave for work each day, 

reminding me to show love to all the lonely souls I might see that day.

On paper, the show's bare-bones script would seem to offer few clues to its enduring popularity. 

Mendelson, its producer, says the show was written in several weeks, 

after Coca-Cola called him just six months before the program aired 

to ask if Schulz could come up with a Peanuts Christmas special.

 Scholars of pop culture say that shining through the program's skeletal plot 

is the quirky and sophisticated genius that fueled the phenomenal popularity of Schulz's work, 

still carried by 2,400 newspapers worldwide even though it's repeating old comic strips.

What makes A Charlie Brown Christmas the "gold standard" 

is that it somehow manages to convey an old-fashioned, overtly religious holiday theme

 that's coupled with Schulz's trademark sardonic, even hip, sense of humor.

While Schulz centers the piece on verses from the Bible, 

laced throughout are biting references to the modern materialism of the Christmas season. 

Lucy complains to Charlie that she never gets wants she really wants.

 "What is it you want?" Charlie asks. 

"Real estate," she answers.

 Parents say the combination of humor and bedrock values is what draws them and their children to the show. 

It does provide a balance, but it's a balance that we as a society seem to have forgotten about.

Yet, when CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it.

 "They said it was slow," executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. 

There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: 

There was no laugh track,

real children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. 

And Schulz's insistence that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story 

 from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus was madness all the experts said.

"You can't read from the Bible on network TV!"

Good grief, were they wrong. 

The first broadcast was watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers!

 "Lee didn't want to use Hollywood kids. He wanted the sound of kids who didn't have training," 

says Sally Dryer, 58, who did the voice of Violet and later was the voice of Lucy.

 The show was also novel in that it used no laugh track, an omnipresent device in animated and live-action comedies of the era.

Schulz strongly believed that his audience could figure out when to laugh.

 Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the show has been its score — 

a piano-driven jazz suite that was absolutely unheard-of for children's programming in 1965.

 The driving tune that the Peanuts children keep dancing to in the special, called Linus and Lucy,

 has become a pop staple that's been recorded countless times in the intervening decades.

 To me, the reason it's endured is because of its simplicity and its very basic honesty to real life.

 Who would have thought this would last 50 years? 

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE REASON FOR ITS POPULARITY?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT FROM THE SHOW? 

Beware the HOLI-DAZE!

Ratatoskr conked out on my dash as I do a blood run!

The Great Mystery's Light visited our world in the human form of a tiny infant.

Take a moment to reflect that that very Light might reside in the hurrying body of the person next to you, 

that very Light formed the stars and the seas and the birds of the air.

Breathe in deeply and pause to soak in the wonder of His caring for the sparrows of the field ... 

and you  ... and what it cost Him.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MT8DNLY

 2.) SLOW DOWN AND SMELL THE MISTLETOE

And the cinnamon and the chestnuts and the turkey 

and all of the other delicious smells, beautiful sights, and familiar sounds 

that have become symbols of the joy of the holiday season.

Enjoy it in the way it was meant to be enjoyed, 

by relaxing and sharing quality time with family and friends. The rest is just window dressing.

3.) SLEEP

Don't allow the hustle and bustle of the season to cause you to sacrifice sleep. 

It's normal during the holidays to have more on your to-do list than usual, 

but that shouldn't result in cutting SLEEP from that list!

Sleep is restorative. 

It's the time when your body replenishes itself at a cellular level 

and repairs itself from the damage of mental stress, physical strain, infection, sun exposure, and pollutants. 

Without enough sleep, 

our minds and bodies don't function as well as they could, which makes us less productive.

And sleep even aids in LOSING WEIGHT!
http://www.webmd.com/diet/sleep-and-weight-loss

SO SLEEP MORE & WEIGH LESS!!



4.) AIM FOR PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION!

When you expect perfection in your holiday preparations, 

expect a lot of added and unnecessary stress and fatigue as well. 

No battle ever went as planned -- 

ask Napoleon.  

And Christmas can be a BATTLE!

If you're planning to host a party, why do you need to prepare a major feast? 

Why not try an assortment of easy-to-make side dishes or appetizers? 

Or why not consider sharing the load by making the event a pot luck? 

Most holiday guests feel compelled to bring something anyway, so why not let them bring a dish?

5.) PLAN A SILENT NIGHT

Block it in your calendar as if it were a visit from the Pope.

Plan a night for just you.  

Listen to your favorite music no matter if it is POLKA!  

Dance by yourself if the whim takes you.

Whatever would heal you in your down time, do it.

Even when you are alone, 

you are not alone 

if you love:

 6.) ELF YOURSELF

Or your boss.  Or your friends.  

Laughter has been around for awhile now.  There's a reason for that.  

Laughter heals!

Mark Twain has young Satan ask:

"Will a day come when your race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them--and by laughing at them destroy them?

 For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably only one really effective weapon--laughter. 

Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,--

push it a little-- crowd it a little--weaken it a little, century by century: 

but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.
 
- "The Chronicle of Young Satan," Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts



7.) START AND END WITH GRATITUDE

In a sense THANKSGIVING starts the HOLIDAY season and there is WISDOM in that.

If you are not grateful for what you have,

 you will soon find yourself with even less.

Remember:
Somewhere in this world someone is happy with less than what you have.

The way to start and end the day is 

to pause and list the things and people that have made and make your day better just by being in your life.

You may have lost some things, beloved persons in your life -- give yourself permission to grieve.

Take ten minutes to feel shitty.

Then 

THINK OF HOW LUCKY YOU WERE TO HAVE THEM AT ALL --

HOW DIFFERENT A PERSON YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN WITHOUT THEM.

Decide then and there that at least for Christmas, 

you will be a healing presence in at least one person's life -- 

even if it is only to let some harried driver in the crowded lane ahead of you.

MY PRAYER FOR ALL YOU,

 MY FRIENDS,

THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

HAVE A HEALING, PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS!

Ratatoskr just rolled over and told me to ask you guys:

"What do you call Batman when he skips church?

Christian Bail!"

Great!  

You groan at me, and Ratatoskr is fast asleep!!

My Christmas gift to you: