Christmas, New Year and New Life

I have nothing of particular interest to comment to the blog this week. I have simply been very busy, moving, getting ready for Christmas and my birthday, reorganizing my life in some ways and meeting new people (thanks to my very generous big sister and brother in law). It will definitely take some time to adjust to my new life up in Northern California. There are many things that I may have to change about how I have gone about living my life of late and perhaps that not such a bad thing. Many of them were not exactly benefiting my in anyway.

As we approach the New Year I think that some time spent reflecting upon how I have been behaving and moving through my life to this point is, maybe not necessary but probably a good idea. This is not to say that I have been a bad person or anything to that effect. It is simply to say that there could be a better way of looking at it. In any event I shall write more about it when I have come to some firm conclusions, since for the time being I have no real insight into this.

I would just like to say a very special thank you to my two best guys in my new/old home ;0) for coming out to San Francisco for my birthday. Thanks guys I know that you didn't have to but it would not have been the same without you! I would also like to say thank you to my big sister who has just been an angel. Thank you for sharing your friends with me, since I really don't have any that live really close! I am really glad to get to know them and to be able to spend more time with you. I know we haven't always got a long but I think now that we are older and understand each other a little better we have gotten past that and for that I am very grateful and very happy. There is no one like family and so you are extra special to me.

To everyone else I hope that you have all had a very happy Christmas and are planning great things for New Years Eve and the New year!

Temple of Forgiveness

Below is a short story that was sent to be by my aunt. It got me thinking about somethings and prompted me to write the following.

It is one of the hardest things to do in life, which is probably why we do it so rarely and avoid it whenever possible. It is much easier to retain the anger or grief than it is to let it go. Forgiving someone for wronging you or for being part of something that no one could control is a very difficult task. It takes more courage and bravery than pretty much anything else that any of us will ever do. On top of that it is one of the numerous things that we all have the off chance of being part of at some point. But why is it so challenging for us to forgive? I can not say that I rightly know the answer to that question or that there is even an answer for it. But it is worth thinking about.

In all truth forgiveness is probably one of the best gifts that you could ever give to any person. In fact forgiveness can even be used as a weapon against further injury. For example if someone robs your house and you find out who it was and you walk up to them, look them in the eye and with your whole heart behind the statement say "I forgive you," you maybe surprised by the outcome. It might just have more of a positive effect on their life than you ever even imagined.

I am sure that at one time or another someone has forgiven you for something that you had done to them. The release of emotions that comes with being forgiven for something that you believe or know that you should not receive such an act of kindness for is earth shattering. But being forgiven by someone else is merely an act of kindness, the key is to be able to forgive yourself. This, at least in my opinion, is even harder than forgiving someone else. One reason may be because you in your heart still feel that you should not be forgiven that you must pay some higher price but honestly that is not for you to decide. Letting go of the feeling that you should not be forgiven is not easy and I am not sure that there is any person in the world who could tell another how it can be achieved. It is simply one of those things that you must figure out how to do for yourself. Perhaps another reason why forgiving yourself is so tremendously hard is because you are afraid that even if you forgive yourself that the other party may not be so generous.

In any case forgiveness is beautiful and heart warming act, as long as it is true, genuine and without motive. To do such a selfless thing without reservation, without the idea of gaining anything for it, just for the pure and humble belief that by doing so you will make someone else's life a little bit better (and possibly your own as well) is a true gift of the heart. The person receiving such a gift will probably never forget what you have given them.

So since Christmas is near and the holiday season is a time for good will towards men (as is so often quoted in those cheery holiday songs we all dearly love) if for no other reason than it is Christmas, try forgiving someone if you have someone whom you need to forgive. You maybe surprised at how much better you feel about yourself and your life.

And now the story that prompted all of this:

True story. When we lived near Oceana Naval Air Station, we considered jet noise the sound of freedom. Just two days ago here in San Diego, an F-18 Hornet lost its engine after takeoff from the carrier. Unable to land back on the ship with only one engine, the pilot tried to make it to the tarmac at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Just blocks from the runway, the pilot lost his second engine. He tried desperately to make it to open space beyond the neighborhood (which, by the way, was seriously encroaching on the runway), stayed with his bird until the last possible second, ejected, and the jet landed up in a residential street and slid into a house, setting it on fire. Inside the house was a young mother, her mother, and her two children (2 and 15 months of age) - none survived the impact and the fire that immediately engulfed the home. The devastated father/husband/son-in-law gave a press conference yesterday, where he said, among other gracious and thoughtful things, that he forgave the pilot, saying that he knew he did everything he could to get the jet to safety, and that, as a member of the military, the pilot was a treasure to our nation. The man is a recent KOREAN IMMIGRANT. I don't forward this to make any political statement on the present or future administration, or the wisdom (or lack thereof) of our involvement in Iraq. This story and the one below simply speak to the true patriotism of those who love this country and appreciate those who died in service of it.

English for the insane!

My Aunt sent this on to me and I thought that it was entertaining and too true at the same time. Take the time and read it, whoever wrote this makes some great points .

You think English is easy???
Read to the end . . . a new twist
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce .
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row ..
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?
You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?
We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!
Oh . . . one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U-P

What Does That Say???

Sorry about the spacing on that last blog. I don't know whats wrong with the program but I did try to edit it, add in more spaces between the paragraphs it just has decided not to show up. If its unreadable I will take it down and re-post it at a later time. Let me know.

Holiday Halabaloo

As the Christmas season approaches and your stress levels soars from trying to find that perfect gift or identify the ultimate Christmas tree that will make you the envy of the neighborhood decoration competition for the fifth year in a row, here are some things to keep in mind and perhaps to help lower your blood pressure.

No matter what your kids or family say, even if you make them a home made gift instead of a store bought one, they will love you. Chances are, in fact that they will appreciate the effort and thought that was put into the self made marvel that they will cherish it more than that high powered digital i-gizmo that they will loose, break or forget about a month after receiving.

As an aside, I love the holidays. I adore everything about them the lights and the cold air (if you are anywhere above Los Angeles), the smell of a freshly decorated Christmas tree and hot apple cider heating on the kitchen stove. I love the cheerful music (which is rare because I usually enjoy more melancholy tones from my musical selection) and the feeling you get around the Christmas season. Similar to Thanksgiving there are so many things to be thankful for. The fact that you can buy someone a present if you wish to or for the more adventurous or slightly more talented, the ability to make a Christmas gift. be thankful for being able to be near your family, or if you can not that you can pick up a telephone and give them a call, tell them that you love them. The fact that you can build a fire and heat your house, without you electricity bill going any higher than it already will be since your whole house is lite up like the Olympic beacon to name just a few.

Just after Thanksgiving I was contemplating the idea of the Christmas/holiday/Hanuka/Kwanzaa/whatever season and came to the realization that we all take this beautiful festival for granted. We are so consumed in what to get everyone and whether or not they will like what we pick, if we got the best price and whether someone was already going to get that gift for them, that we forget why we even bother in the first place. The furry of the holiday shopping scene and the anxiety that occurs when the store has run out of the high definition large screen jumbo-tron television set that you had been planning on buying that special someone for the last 3 months, is in my mind what really ruins the festivities. I will say again the truth is that if they person really love you, and if they are your family they do (if not that is another issue entirely and I have some special advice for that as well), then they honestly wouldn't care if you got them a pantomime pony or a Polaroid picture, an iPhone or an iLoveyou (I - Love - you just the words for those of you who didn't quite get that one). So when you stress level begin to raise as you shop for your loved ones, remember that it really is the thought that counts and if you have kids, they wont remember next year or even a few months from now what you bought or did not buy them for Christmas. In fact, and possibly most especially since this year has been difficult financially for a lot of families, try softening the blow for the little ones early by telling them that "Santa" had so many new children to send presents to this year that he might not be able to get them everything that they want for Christmas (or if you don't celebrate Christmas an equally fitting statement would do just fine). For the older kids, tweens and teens just explain that it might be or is going to be a meager Christmas as far as presents go. They will understand. If perchance you need consoling because you have just realized that you can not buy yourself or your significant other that lovely shiny something you found in the store months ago, tell your self this, that the day after Christmas it will be at least 20 times less expensive and/or that if you still want it 6 months from now then you will buy it then; that gives you another 6 months to save up for it and if you really want it you will scrimp and save so that you can buy it.

You may ask what I am doing this Christmas or perhaps saying if I am such a big advocate of producing homemade goods why don't I set the example? My answer to you is, I am being the example, I am making homemade gifts for all my loving family. However, because I love to buy Christmas presents for people as well, I am also buying everyone something small to go with their gifts so that I have covered both ends, there by making my Christmas especially non-stressful and taking the time to enjoy the Christmas season.

So as we get closer each day to the season of giving, forgiving, groveling, singing, loving, embracing, caroling, and general merriment having remember to enjoy yourself and enjoy those around you and those you love.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy holidays, Happy Christmas, Bonne Noel, Weihnachtstag, and for those of you who do not celebrate any of these or whom I have not listed you winter holiday Merry December Nights!