Thanks Frances!

The decorating is done, the parcels are purchased, wrapped (for the most part)and mailed (when necessary) and the food is purchased. The farther into the festivities we get the more difficult to remember why we drive ourselves so hard every holiday season. So tonight as I sat exhausted in front of the computer trying to get my brain to finish the last of the Christmas cards and letters and pondering this question, I aimlessly began to look through my Christmas file. I found something that reminded me of exactly what the season is about.
This card from a dear friend with words of friendship and caring was lovingly made and sent to me a long time ago. Tonight it made me realize that friendship and caring and love are "the real reasons for the season"

This Christmas...

This
Christmas
end a quarrel.
Share a treasure.
Seek out a forgotten.
friend. Write a love letter..
Dismiss suspicion and replace.
it with trust. Give a soft answer..
Encourage youth. Manifest loyalty in.
word and deed. Keep a promise. Find time..
Forego a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen..
Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand..
Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think.
first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind. Be gentle..
Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Learn to love yourself..
Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express.
gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart.
of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of each moment..

Speak your love...
Speak it again...

O N L Y L O V E
P R E V A I L S

(Unknown)

A Bird's Eye View

On Saturday, in between bottling wine and shopping for Christmas gifts for those last people on my list that are so difficult to buy for, I stopped at Rocky Point Park for a breath of fresh air. I discovered this bird sitting on top of the light standard. I decided right there that next year I would like to be a bird and sit upon a light standard on a sunny cold day mid December. All us silly people below racing around trying to create a perfect Christmas day when all you had to do was look around you to see that perfect had already been created by the Creator and no amount of buying or decorating could ever match the beauty this bird could view all around him.

Snow

It is the first snow of the season. I am not ready for it. I try to see the snow as something of beauty - something pleasant. Instead I merely see it as something to be endured.






Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway." Maya Angelou