MONDAY READING
Saturday was the first day of Winter, today is the eve of Christ’s birth, and tomorrow my two children and two grandchildren will be in my house, all together for a few hours for the first time in months. I wish you and them a peaceful holiday and new year. My own spirituality is a mix of insights and values found in all religions. Like our bodies are made up of cells, I believe I am one cell in the body of god and all the answers are within me if I can listen carefully enough.
Here is a quote from Fra Giovanni, a 16th century Italian monk:
I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not;
but there is much, that, while I cannot give, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take Heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take Peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take Joy.
And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
Deep Thought: “Many people do not realize that the snowshoe can be used for a great many things besides walking on snow. For instance, it can be used to carry pancakes from the stove to the breakfast table. Also, it can be used to carry uneaten pancakes from the table to the garbage. Finally, it can be used as a kind of strainer, where you force pancakes through the strings to see if a piece of gold got in a pancake somehow.”
Today I am grateful for: Ribbons
Guess the Movie: “For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph – a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.” Answer: Patton, 1970. Winner: danielglasglow.
Pentagon Tracks ‘Santa’s Progress’By Kyle King
Washington
24 December 2007
President Bush is spending Christmas Eve at the Camp David presidential retreat this year and most of the U.S. government has been given the day off. But one special branch of the Defense Department has been working overtime this holiday season so children around the world can follow one of the most endearing Christmas legends of all time. As VOA’s Kyle King reports from Washington, Santa Claus is being tracked on radar. (Rest of article here.)
