Last Blog until after Christmas

Hello everyone.  Welcome to my favourite time of year.  Not because of all the presents I might receive, or the number of cards I might get, or the number of parties I might go to, but because it is the Season For Giving. 

We can give in so many ways, a smile, a hug, a greeting to warm someone's heart.  I love it so much words fail me. 

So have a really happy, peaceful and joyful Christmas and all the best is wished for you all in 2010.  Love from ME!

A message from Neale.

This is a card made for my husband's staff. (One of many)  Its from Joanna Sheen's Enchanted Christmas CD.  I really didn't want to do it today as I was tired from the 10 I made yesterday.  However I remembered "do it now!" so I did it.  Then I received an e mail from my old friend Neale Donal Walsche so I thought I'd share it with you today.  It reads:-
"Life is not going to come down there and sprinkle glitter dust on your shoulders to let you know that you are Good...or that you are walking the Right Path...or
that you are making the Best Decision.

Take the next step. Right now. Stop waiting for a "sign" from the "gods." Your sign is your intuition, wrapped in your desire.


Hesitation is not a stopping place on the road to heaven."

I think we sometimes forget that life is not a rehearsal.  So do it now!

Giving and receiving

Hello all!  Are you all ready for the big day!.  Well I've never been so far behind with Christmas.  But I am sure it will all come together in the end and we will be eating our  lunch some time on Christmas day!  Miss you Mark,  one of my favourite cooks in all the world. ( Miriam is the other one).

Christmas  got me thinking about success and what it means.  To some it the big job, the big house, the flashy car and everything good thing you could wish for materially.  To others its all things spiritual and I guess most of us mere mortals fall somewhere in the middle. 

We often ponder "Why are we here?  What is our purpose?"  I think the answer might be to know ourselves as well as it is possible to do so.  Then to go out there and behave towards others as we would wish them to behave towards us.  There is a quote from St. Francis of Assisi that goes something like "for it is in giving that we receive",  I think we say "What goes around, comes around".  Well , give out as much love, care and consideration this Christmas Season as you can and throughout the whole of 2010 and beyond .  I think you might be surprised how happy you will be!

I wish for you all Joy,  Happiness and Peace

Hello to you all today.  I am sorry I missed the blog yesterday but it was one of my buisiest day so far this Christmastime.  There were cards to make and then write.  Some to post and some to deliver by hand.  Coffee to have with my friend Rita, and put the world to rights of course.  All in all a busy but very fruitful day.  I am still waiting to hear about the Nativity play, I guess it will be tomorrow as Joe and Grace are very wrapped up in their own Christmas social whirl right now.  I hope you all like the graphic.    Some of the images therein are courtsey of aimeeasher.  http://www.aimeeasher.com/  The composition is all mine and I am very pleased with it.

First Nativity Play

This little chap is my  grandson Joseph.  He had his first Nativity Play tonight at school and was a Sheep.  I have not had any feedback yet but no doubt it will have gone very well.  The most important thing about all of it was that Mummy, Daddy and Gracie would be there to see him.  He was so excited when I spoke to him yesterday!

Can't wait to talk to Joe tomorrow and see how he got on.  Love you Joe!

Love Grandma.

Only Love and Respect - A quotation fron Pope Benedict XVI

Our cities are inhabited by "invisible men and women", people who "now and again appear on the front pages or on television screens, and are exploited to the last drop for as long as their news and image attract attention. This is a perverse mechanism which unfortunately we find difficult to resist. The city first hides people them exposes to the public, without pity or with false pity", when the truth is that "each human story is a sacred story and calls for the greatest respect.

The city is made up of us all",  "each of us contributes to its life and its moral climate, for good or for evil. The confine between good and evil passes through each of our hearts". Yet, "the mass media tend to make us feel as if we are spectators, as if evil only concerned others, and that certain things could never happen to us. Whereas we are all 'actors' and, in evil as in good, our behaviour has an effect on others".  People who, "in silence, ... strive to practice the evangelical law of love, which moves the world". They are "men and women of all ages who have understood that condemnation, complaint and recrimination serve no purpose, and that it is more worthwhile to respond to evil with good. This changes things; or rather, it changes people and, as a consequence, improves society.
end of quote taken from the Vatican Newsletter of today.

Oh How I wish we could all respond in the manner described, what a different world it would be.  I say well said Pope Benedict.

Picture courtsey of Scrapgirls.com and is copyright protected.

What will you ask today?

This is a proposition from the writer and philosopher Neale Donald Walsche.

"If you ask an impertinent question, you are on theway to a pertinent answer.

Therefore, never be afraid to ask the question that it seems shouldn't, especially if it has to do with religion or God or spirituality.

 It is when you think you have all the answers that expansion ends, growth stops, and your arrogance begins.

What question do you wish to humbly ask today?"

Very thought provoking I'd say.

Disappointment

I hope you all had a great and happy weekend. 

Today I have been thinking about disappointment.  Usually this is manifested in ones-self as a result of a misplaced trust in another who we feel has let us down.  We could however turn that around and instead of admonishing the other person, or feeling lost and depressed, get some semblance of control over our emotional response.  For that is all it is, an emotional (very chemical reaction) reaction to an unpleasant situation. 

That then leads us to think about 'trust' and what it really is.  As we do not have any control, input or influence (ultimately) over another's thoughts, impulses or actions (as they do not have over ours), then we have to believe that 'trust ' is not something we actually invest in another but is a willingness to give to ones-self.  We often hear the statements "I would trust him/her with my life" or "I wouldn't trust him/her as far as I could throw him/her".  These adages are all about what you would or would not do, not about the other person.  We could amend these statements to something like "I want to allow myself to believe that I am safe with him or her"  or I will avoid giving any of my emotional store to him/her.  I also believe that instinct and intuition could be considered in many situations and we should really listen to them.  I know this is a bit profound but I would appreciate your comments (and patience).

Yes!  I have a big disappointment this weekend but am OK

Above image courtsey of http://www.scrapgirls.com/

Snow and Peace

Silence, Peace and quite and time to reflect on the statement "there is no reality, only perception"

What you see, think and feel is not ever the same as what others see think and feel about the same situation or encounter.  So be tolerant and try to walk in others' shoes a while  before you decide to judge.  For in judging, you define only yourself.

Have a peaceful and happy weekend.

A definite do it now!

Dear all,
 thank you for visiting.  I am grateful.  This morning I am going to see Joanna Sheen at the local Graphicus store/workshop.  I do buy her cd's and love the ones I have.  Messy rabbit is a bit out of my comfort zone though.  However enough!

This morning I was thinking about what we say and how we say it.  What if  our thoughts, deeds and words returned to us!  If we knew this would be behave differently? So think before you do or say anything and think what it would be like to receive what you are about to give out.

Then take this one step further.  Think what you would like to receive and then send it!. Give to another what you would like to receive.  They say what goes around comes around.  This I truly believe. 

So be good to yourself today  and be happy.  Love to you all

Thoughts

I was just thinking how many of us out here realise that our brains are influenced by our thoughts and acts accordingly.  For example, you are going into your local town and you know that car parking is at a premium,  you think "I will never get a space";  well guess what!  you don't get one.  How about deciding to think "My space will be where I want it and I won't have any trouble parking".  Stupid you say!  Not really, because I have tried it on many occasions and lo and behold "The space materialises".  Profound you say.  Not really just positive thinking.  If what you think about expands then be sure to think good thoughts for good outcomes.  Love to you all

A day at the Golf Club

Today I was invited out to lunch at the local golf club by the United Reform Church ladies and my friend Margaret. I have been to the Golf Club dinners before but this was my first lunch there. The food was really good and the dessert was simply delicious. I really enjoyed the company of the ladies and the various discussions. The average age among us was 73.5 (worked out on the calculator) but I was the youngest there. They are a lively lot with diverse views on everything from cookery to religion but all very inclusive and friendly. I would love to be invited again next year. Fingers crossed.

December musings

Good morning to all comers. A new blog is a daunting but exciting thing. I wander in here several times a day to see if anyone has visited. I have one very welcome visitor so far and am looking forward to others calling.

This morning I was thinking about Italy and the shennanigins about the crucifixes. I was wondering with the long tradition of Christianity throughout the whole of Europe, why? why? would the European Judges want to ban a Christian symbol of peace and love from anywhere.
I wanted to send praise and blessing to all the Italian people for standing up for their inalienable rights and doing what I consider to be the right thing. Well done Italy. Now perhaps if further erosion of our customs and traditions is offered to all of us, in whatever guise we will be forthright and speak out and keep our traditions and cultures. Otherwise we will lose our Identity and become "Bland and unexciting Europeans". Perhaps we need to invent our own "Thanksgiving" Day when we express our gratitude for all that is celebratable in our long held traditions.

Enough of that now. Have a very peaceful day. All my love to you all.


This image is courtsey of the Scrapgirls and is covered by their copyright.

Good Morning! Its almost Christmas and I as at this point in time wondering whether I have made enough Cards for all my family and friends. I still have some commissions to fulfill and don't know where I will fit it all in. Christmas creeps up very quickly. Reflections in this last year bring to mind very few sad times and mostly really happy times. Mother was 93 in October and is still going strong (for a 93 year old). I ponder whether happiness is self induced? Methinks it is. So have a very happy day if you stop by here. All my good wishes go with you. As they say in Ireland "May the Road rise up to meet you"

Never on a Sunday

A day of rest and reflection.

New Health drink

Today and for the last few weeks I have been suffering from the after affects of my first lot of anti-biotics for 33 years. Yes it was 33 years ago when I last had them. This body definitely does not like them at all! Unfortunately they were a necessary evil. A kill or cure effort. They cured one thing, the infection but gave me a whole heap of other things. So I discovered that in our porch my good old hubby had a large box of what looked like wine bottles. So I had a good inspect of them all and discovered that they were a health drink! Just what I need! So I started on it today. If it works I will tell you all about it. Apparently it takes about a week to kick in.

Some of my friends in the class of 1966

This is a photo of us, the really wild people of the 1960' Clarendon Street Brownies!

No not the "Girl Guide Brownies". We were Gonzaga's Fearfuls. You all know what I mean. Imelda made up for all the failings so most of the time we were happy. The attached photo is posted in the hope that some of your HFC Brownies out there will get in touch and find the rest of us. Remember you all out there Life Begins Now.!

Finding old friends

Lately, precisely it has been my good fortune to rediscover three old school friends whom I have not seen nor heard from in about 42 years. We have become scattered throughout the world but because of this great innovation called the internet we have been able to communicate as if we have been together yesterday.

We really need to be grateful and celebrate the internet, the computer and all its attendant peripheral accessories.

SKYPE for example is a virtual life saver when it comes to learning how not to spend too much money but still talk the hind legs off a donkey! We girls love to talk.

The instant gratification of the shared photograph is another really useful catch-up tool. The web cam is even better if we remember to dress up and put the pearls on.