HAPPY HOLIDAYS

MERRY CHRISTMAS

FROM THE EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND

MAY YOUR HOLIDAYS BE FILLED WITH GRATITUDE AND WONDER

AND MAY THE COMING YEAR BRING YOU PEACE AND JOY

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Merry Christmas to all of my great friends in the blogging community!  Your names are too numerous to mention individually, but you know who you are.  Throughout this year, you have lifted my spirits and enriched my life with your words, your images, your ideas, and your creativity.  Staying connected with you has been nothing less that soul-work for me, and I am deeply grateful for your stabilizing presence is a world that often seems to be imploding.

I extend my heartfelt wishes that you and your families will find great love, peace, and joy during the holiday season.  May you reap the abundant treasures envisioned by John O'Donohue in his fine blessing, For Equilibrium:

                             Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,

                             May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

                             As the wind loves to call things to dance,

                             May your gravity be lightened by grace.

                             Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,

                             May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

                             As water takes whatever shape it is in,

                             So free may you be about who you become.

                             As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,

                             May your sense of irony bring perspective.

                             As time remains free of all that it frames,

                             May your mind stay clear of all it names.

                             May your prayer of listening deepen enough

                             To hear in the depths the laughter of God.

PEACE AND JOY,

HERE AND NOW!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS

With all of my children and grandchildren coming home for the holidays, I will not have much time for blogging until after New Year's Day.  Before signing off, however, I want to wish everyone a very, Merry Christmas.

I also want to send a special note of gratitude to my good friends in the blogging community.  Your postings throughout the year have always been inspirational, informative, and thought-provoking, and your comments on my site have been unfailingly generous and insightful.  I am truly blessed to have such friends.

May your holidays be full of peace and joy; may you eat well, laugh well, and love well; and may you enter the new year with unbounded hope and an open heart.

*

In

 this

 season

of renewal

I give thanks

to this ineffable

and divine mystery

that is the ground of all

being, all love, and all hope;

that has overseen my uncertain

walk through some sixty-eight years;

that has lifted me up when I could not walk, 

pushed me forward when the direction was unclear,

sustained my confidence in the darkest hours of doubt.

T

HA

NKS

The Gratitude Tree

PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY
PEACEANDJOYANDPEACEANDJOY

Happy, happy Christmas,

that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; 

that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth;

that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away,

back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!

Charles Dickens

  O
O
O
SANTA
CLAUS
SANTA
CLAUS
SANTA
CLAUS
CLAUS
SANTA
CLAUS
8888888888888888888888
88888888888888888
888888888888

My very best to everyone!

George


and Derry, the Zen Master