People sometimes ask me how I got to be so smart. I prefer to think of it in terms of ---how did everyone miss this?
Now, it's true that I continued to educate myself throughout my life. I didn't just leave school and never pick up another book, so that is probably part of the story--but, I actually think that it also has to do with a peculiar kind of mindset that is more common among mathematicians and scientists.
Here is an example of it gleaned from the Christmas Card rack:
"Christmas is a strange season. We sing songs in front of dead trees and eat candy out of our socks." --- John Wagner
There's a dispassionate observer in me that doesn't have a dog in the fight. I can just stand back and look. And when you do that, it's surprising what you see both in terms of forests and trees.
This Christmas is going to be different. No big family dinner. Probably no Christmas tree, either. Darn few presents, if any. I just don't have the energy and "heart" and money for it after all that has gone on here---- but Christmas will come anyway, just like it came for the Whos down in Whoville.
Christmas for us is a time to remember the widows and widowers, the elderly, the sick, the prisoners --- all those who feel forgotten and alone and left out. It's a time to make sure children have what they need as they face a long winter, not a time to con them with lies about Santa Claus.
So I am writing Christmas cards to men who are falsely detained and imprisoned, away from their families and friends for no good reason. I am stocking up depleted shelves at the food bank. I am "making my rounds" to the elderly and the sick and the widowed. I am lighting my one little candle in the dark.
Mother Theresa was right. It's not the grand gestures and tons of money that matter. It's the small things done with love that add up, and that create happiness and peace of mind.
So I look at our one tattered string of Christmas lights that are still hanging on our porch rails and which, thanks to my husband plugging them in, are shining their bright colors against the December night ---- and I smile.
It's not just what we do at Christmas, it's what we do all throughout the year. No doubt that is a big reason that I don't feel the stress most people do, and just plod along being pleased with whatever I can do, to smile a little brighter and be a littler kinder this time of year.
That's what I am doing in the midst of the earthquake disaster, and it's what I recommend to all of you. Just call it quits to all the craziness and be at peace. Wait for the season to come to you. Watch for those times when you can be of service and notice all the people around you, some of whom need some extra care.
Last night as I was leaving the grocery store I stopped to stuff a fiver into the collection pot for the Salvation Army. When we had the Miller's Reach Fire disaster, they were the first group that came to help and they were the last to go, and now with the earthquake, here they are again. If I have any change at all in my pocket, their bell-ringers never go without a donation.
The man doing the collection was old and black as coal and he had been standing there alone ringing his bell for a long time, with all the busy, distracted holiday shoppers rushing past him. I was the only one in that whole big crowd to stop and fumble with my purse and smile at him as I folded the bill and stuffed it into the familiar metal pot.
"Thank you!" he said. I paused and looked him in the eye, and said, "Thank you, for being here." He gave me back a tired smile and a look of rapid understanding. He was standing there for you and me and everyone else, doing our good works for us.
That's why when I hear the bell-ringers of The Salvation Army, I don't cringe and look away; in fact, I lift my head and feel a little lighter, as if some unseen yoke shifted off my weary shoulder. There are good people in this world. They might not be fashionable, but they are true, and day after day and year after year, like the Gideons, they quietly serve their mission.
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See this article and over 1400 others on Anna's "Hosted Third Party" website here: www.annavonreitz.com and for Legal Notice and Copyright restrictions pertaining to original Author(s) Natural rights and intellectually protected Property as expressly written and intended as published.
To support the Honorable Works of Anna And the LLF Team Directly through:
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Please make checks payable to: Anna Maria Riezinger, c/o Box 520994, Big Lake, Alaska 99652
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Mae DawsonDecember 10, 2018 at 4:19 PM
What is now Christmas was a move on the part of the historical Church to occupy the pre-christian honoring of mid-winter, or winter solstice. This was a time of respect for loved ones who walked on, tending to those in need, releasing things and attitudes that no longer served and expressing gratitude for the good times AND the hard times of the past year. In that way, there was room for the gifts of the new year that returned with the light. Like the lines of vital force that Anna wrote of in earlier posts and the tidal pull of the moon on the waters, the solar 'tides' of the seasons bring in new Life, grow it to maturity, and descend it into rest. These rhythms have been acknowledged by earth peoples in various ways down through the generations. It wasn't some 'woo woo' thing.. it had to do with the food supply. For a longgg time there was no global food transport. If you were out of rhythm it was a tough winter. If you were lazy it was a tough winter. If a volcano blew halfway around the world, you may not know WHY spring was late but you knew it was and it was guna be a tough winter. Butcher all the extra livestock and be willing to go hungry before you eat the seeds for next years planting. Who eats last when it goes there? The sick? The old? The kids? We have no cultural parameters for these conditions. The guys with the biggest ammo stash get the goods and the women who know how to grow food? A word of kindness and a little generosity goes a long ways. It reaches deeper and travels farther than another pretty/sparkly.
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Yes, Awe-mazing, priceless Insight Shared Mae Dawson, Thank You!!!
"These rhythms have been acknowledged by earth peoples in various ways down through the generations. It wasn't some 'woo woo' thing.. it had to do with the food supply."
This IS precisely HOW the Dark "LORD" of Man's mind Divides and "CAPITALIZES" on WORLDLY "TEACHINGS" and "FALSE WITNESSING" through "COMMERICIALIZED" Churches and Governments "SYSTEMS OF BELIEFS" for complete Dependency and complete control OVER Mankind's minds and living lives. No original Innate Intuition from Soul-Spirit Heart-mind Allowed or it's Stereotyped and Labeled by these DEAD ENTITIES AS BAD, BAD, BAD and "Spiritual Woo-Woo" lol!!!! Its time to See this Clearly Now and Grow a Pure "Pair" to Clear ALL this Smoke and mirror illusions and all the dark spirited conditioned emotions based IN FALSE FEAR leading us into this faithless "MASS theft/Destruction" of our Organic True Power and Pure Wisdom Within Now!!! Its Time!! Let Go Of the "Commercial Worldly Masks of "Limited" Beliefs" Once and For ALL!! We Got THis!! So Grateful Now!!
Tis Now the Season to Spread Awareness and Assist In Clearing others to Awaken Within:
Christ-Mass-Awakening 2018
I Love You
I'm Sorry
Please forgive
Thank You
Repeat +++
Much Gratitude, True Awareness, Unconditional Love and Plentiful Peace Be For All Now
http://LivingSoulsNow.blogspot.com
LivingSoulsNow Blog
See this article and over 1400 others on Anna's "Hosted Third Party" website here: www.annavonreitz.com and for Legal Notice and Copyright restrictions pertaining to original Author(s) Natural rights and intellectually protected Property as expressly written and intended as published.
To support the Honorable Works of Anna And the LLF Team Directly through:
paypal acct: avannavon@gmail.com or via Snail Mail:
Please make checks payable to: Anna Maria Riezinger, c/o Box 520994, Big Lake, Alaska 99652
________________
Inspired Insights Shared as Comments Posted as Originally expressed on Lincoln County Watch Blog:
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Mae DawsonDecember 10, 2018 at 4:19 PMWhat is now Christmas was a move on the part of the historical Church to occupy the pre-christian honoring of mid-winter, or winter solstice. This was a time of respect for loved ones who walked on, tending to those in need, releasing things and attitudes that no longer served and expressing gratitude for the good times AND the hard times of the past year. In that way, there was room for the gifts of the new year that returned with the light. Like the lines of vital force that Anna wrote of in earlier posts and the tidal pull of the moon on the waters, the solar 'tides' of the seasons bring in new Life, grow it to maturity, and descend it into rest. These rhythms have been acknowledged by earth peoples in various ways down through the generations. It wasn't some 'woo woo' thing.. it had to do with the food supply. For a longgg time there was no global food transport. If you were out of rhythm it was a tough winter. If you were lazy it was a tough winter. If a volcano blew halfway around the world, you may not know WHY spring was late but you knew it was and it was guna be a tough winter. Butcher all the extra livestock and be willing to go hungry before you eat the seeds for next years planting. Who eats last when it goes there? The sick? The old? The kids? We have no cultural parameters for these conditions. The guys with the biggest ammo stash get the goods and the women who know how to grow food? A word of kindness and a little generosity goes a long ways. It reaches deeper and travels farther than another pretty/sparkly.
-
Yes, Awe-mazing, priceless Insight Shared Mae Dawson, Thank You!!!
"These rhythms have been acknowledged by earth peoples in various ways down through the generations. It wasn't some 'woo woo' thing.. it had to do with the food supply."
This IS precisely HOW the Dark "LORD" of Man's mind Divides and "CAPITALIZES" on WORLDLY "TEACHINGS" and "FALSE WITNESSING" through "COMMERICIALIZED" Churches and Governments "SYSTEMS OF BELIEFS" for complete Dependency and complete control OVER Mankind's minds and living lives. No original Innate Intuition from Soul-Spirit Heart-mind Allowed or it's Stereotyped and Labeled by these DEAD ENTITIES AS BAD, BAD, BAD and "Spiritual Woo-Woo" lol!!!! Its time to See this Clearly Now and Grow a Pure "Pair" to Clear ALL this Smoke and mirror illusions and all the dark spirited conditioned emotions based IN FALSE FEAR leading us into this faithless "MASS theft/Destruction" of our Organic True Power and Pure Wisdom Within Now!!! Its Time!! Let Go Of the "Commercial Worldly Masks of "Limited" Beliefs" Once and For ALL!! We Got THis!! So Grateful Now!!
Tis Now the Season to Spread Awareness and Assist In Clearing others to Awaken Within:
Christ-Mass-Awakening 2018
I Love You
I'm Sorry
Please forgive
Thank You
Repeat +++
Much Gratitude, True Awareness, Unconditional Love and Plentiful Peace Be For All Now
http://LivingSoulsNow.blogspot.com
LivingSoulsNow Blog
