REAL LIFE SANTA ENCOUNTER?

    I was in my bedroom on December 22nd at 4:30pm, getting my Kindle off of the dresser. Suddenly I saw something very strange out of the bedroom window. A Santa-like figure slinking through the woods in the back of the house. I grabbed my Kindle, pulled up the camcorder app and ran to the backdoor. I opened the door and started filming this person/entity just meandering at the edge of the woods; when suddenly he spots me, the camera app froze for a second, and then came back on and the being was gone; vanished into thin air. There was also a rush of static like energy that permeated the air and I could hear it crackling all around me... that's when I quickly shut the door. Real Santa Claus encounter or something else? You be the judge...

CHRISTMAS AND COMMERCIALISM

    The commercialism of the holiday season is greatly overdone, and sadly eclipses what the true meaning of what the celebration is supposed to be about. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Yule or some other winter holiday; it should be a time for personal reflection, spiritual growth, goodwill and charity towards others. That goodwill and charity can be in the form of feeding the homeless, taking a name from a wish tree and getting some meaningful gift for child whose family is in need. We can give to a reputable charity or even just light a candle and say a prayer for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We cannot all afford to give money, but we can give of ourselves in other ways that are just as meaningful and important. A simple smile or an act of kindness can truly go a long way in another person's life.

     For those of us who like to buy gifts at this time of year, we should not let it become about the greed and spirit of want. But rather, it should be about showing our love and appreciation for those people in our lives that we love the most. I think it is human nature to want to give something or do something meaningful for those we care about deeply. I think it is a wonderful idea to have a time of year where we can celebrate and give to those who give to us all year round simply just by being in this world and enhancing our lives by being so. Those gifts can be big or small, many or few it does not matter. What matters most is the act of giving from our hearts. This giving should never be in the spirit of competition or greediness.

    Whether we call the great spirit of the universe Jesus, Osiris, god, goddess or any other name; I believe that we all commune with the same Divine Spirit. Labels are just the way in which we humans identify with something that we do not fully comprehend. But nonetheless, we should all honor that Spirit by having contemplation, prayer and reflection in its presence at this time of year, and honor one another as brothers and sisters in this world. Let love, kindness and the true spirit of giving be the light upon your path during this holiday season. And let the empty/shallow illusion of commercialism fade into our past like a vapor of smoke that should have never been conceived.

BE A LIGHT TO THE WORLD, EVEN WHEN IT TRIES TO BLOW YOUR CANDLE OUT

    Sometimes when we share our wisdom, experiences and heartfelt feelings, others will sidestep or minimise them. This can naturally make us feel like we want to take our candle out of the window, and leave the world around us to grope around in its own darkness. But at these moments we have to consider this: Even those who refuse to listen or are ungrateful, God keeps extending his grace and love to them everyday. He never tires of blessing them and reaching out to them, even if they sidestep his goodness or minimize his existence. In the same way, we need to continue to be a light in the world even if we sometimes feel unappreciated.

BE THANKFUL

    If you believe in yourself and have faith in a higher power, there is nothing you can't do. Every prayer and every effort may not turn out perfectly the way you planned, but it will make some level of improvement in your life. Don't grumble or feel disappointed if you only reap 30, 50, 60 or even 20 percent of your goal...Be grateful, count your blessings and thank God for what you do have; chances are, you probably have a lot more than many people around you.

DON'T PERPETUATE THE PAST

    Everyone has had things happen in their past that was not pleasant. We hear many people say that they have never gotten over some event from their childhood or an abusive relationship. The past can haunt us all, but we cannot let it define who we are today. This is like letting the people who have hurt us shape and mold our future. No one has the power to set the course for your life but you. It doesn't matter what someone did to us in the past; this is a new day and you have the opportunity to be whomever you choose to be. Most often people who abuse others in one form or another are very jaded and miserable individuals. Those parents who have neglected their children often felt neglected in some form themselves. The old saying that misery loves company rings true throughout the ages, because those who are unhappy in their own lives will generally try to make everyone else unhappy as well. Why perpetuate this brooding lifestyle? Take control of your own life, leave the past behind and be free to pursue your own dreams. Think about it, do you really want to be like the person that you resent the most? When you carry the past around with you, always letting it weigh you down and influence your life in negative ways; you are in a sense becoming a copy of the person who put that burden on your shoulders in the first place. And you will ultimately place that burden on the shoulders of others. End that cycle now, it may take some hard work on your part but it can be done. Today is the day of your own salvation.

TEACHING OUR CHILDREN A BETTER WAY

    I hate to blog on such subjects, but there are more racial crimes in the news. A couple from a Bosnian community in Missouri took a wrong turn on their travels, and was beaten to death by five teens with hammers in a predominantly black neighborhood. So what has happened here; five teens waiting around for someone in a car with the wrong skin color to enter their neighborhood? We have to teach our children better than this... What is the world coming to when we are waiting around just to attack someone who is different from us in something as insignificant as skin color. We are letting the hate talk of the media turn us into hateful monsters. What will we do next, gun one another down in the supermarket? Have water fountains and designated places to eat for those of different skin tones? Will we all hate each other so much that we begin to draw battle lines in our small neighborhoods? We are all human beings, we are all expressions of the Divine Spirit. We need to educate our children and deprogram them from the nonsense that we see on television and from the media. We also cannot let the government be the spokesman on these issues. We need to take responsibility for our own children and our own lives and stop this hatred before it is too late. Might we cause our own bloody apocalypse if we continue to feed the beast of racism?

Full story on hammer attack here- http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/12/01/black-and-hispanic-thugs-are-beating-victims-with-hammers-in-st-louis-one-dead-162442

THAT HUMBUG TIME OF YEAR

    It's that time of the year when we can see a mixed bag of emotions and reactions from people on the streets and on the Internet. Some people are very happy and cheerful, excited at the prospect of the holiday that is to come. Others are sad, gloomy and mutter derogatory statements about the season we are in. Many people get a case of the humbugs this time of year because they sadly misinterpret what Christmas is all about. For some, this is a time to worry about their finances and bemoan the fact that they may not be able to put as many gifts under the tree as they would like. For others, it is a time to visit the ghosts of Christmas past and mourn for the good old days and those dear to them who have passed on. All of this is a poor way to interpret the Christmas season. What this time of year truly stands for is our own spirituality and our personal relationship with the divine. These are the things we should focus on at Christmas time and give ourselves the ultimate gifts of peace, faith and a higher consciousness. If these are the main things that you choose to concentrate on during the Yuletide season, you will never have a blue Christmas again.

FAITH, REASON AND ARROGANT SPECULATION

   The person who says that there is no God, and claims that science has all the answers is speaking from a very foolish platform. This would be like a man claiming that there is no such thing as a cold virus, and yet he has a cold. He rejects something just because he cannot see it and does not understand the science of micro organisms. The world we live in is but one tiny speck in an infinite universe, and yet the unexplained mysteries that exist here are numerous. Now, if we think of all the mysteries contained in the cosmos far beyond what we can see; it becomes very apparent that it is extremely arrogant for man to claim that he knows all the answers.

    Who then is living in a fantasy of their own making, the person who believes or considers that there is something greater than us beyond this life? Or the person who scoffs at such ideas and is egocentric enough to claim that he or she knows the ultimate truth for us all. After all, the person of faith is actually thinking very scientifically by looking beyond his limited existence and hypothesizing that there is something more than what he sees. But the nonbeliever claims that he has all the answers, based on limited information and refusing to take an honest look at evidences they could possibly upset his viewpoint. So, the next time you encounter someone who says you worship a Santa Claus in the sky or the tooth fairy, know that they have created a Santa Claus of their own. They have done this by neatly wrapping their pet ideas in shiny paper and refusing to consider that there might be more gifts under the tree that they know not of.