Letting Go and Opening

I like this one from Doug at Footprints in the Wind

I need to let myself go and open to whom I might be.

Happy Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice

What a joy it is to celebrate our love for one another, giving and recieving gifts from the heart. Don't you love how this time of year brings out that spirit!

I would like to honor the many ways that YOU give to others all throughout the year. I celebrate the gifts your soul has to offer, the ways in which you love and share your love with the world.

The greatest gift you have to give is your unique self. So please, don't hold back, keep sharing your expressions of love, keep shining as the beautiful human being that you are.

Empowered by our passion, let's share with one another, giving from our wide open hearts.

Letters to Santa

From the Houston Chronicle "The Letters to Santa program is a Houston holiday tradition, gathering and publishing area children's letters to Santa, in their original form, mispellings and all." (Dec. 11, 2005)

Dear Santa,
Christmas is coming and all the children are waiting for you! I would appreciate if you let everyone get want they want because I want it to be the best christmas ever. Please let my brother get some books, and let my friends get Bratz. I would like horse stuff and a pad. But most of all please let the poor people get supplies and what they want too. Please let everyone have the best chrismas ever!!!!
Your Friend,
Avery

Dear Santa claus,
I want a toy house and a boll. And I wish I can see you in teh roof of my house. If I ever see you in my roof I wish you will come to my house and eat cookis and milk. I wish that you wher my gift and a litter bear so I could hug you. You Santa claus you ar my best firend in the whole world
Raquel

Dear Santa Claus,
I know that you been busy making all those toys for the kids. How have the reindeers been? I love your reindeers. Santa have you gained weight. How is Rudolph doing. Do you know that I love deers. Reindeers are also cute. Santa I really belive in you. Last year the present that you gave me I liked because that is what I wanted. How did you become Santa and how did you get the elves also Why do you like cookies so much. Santa I no what I want. I want pajamas, cloring books and colors, games that is all I want. I don't want to much things.
From friend,
Kayla

Dear Santa Claus,
I want you to et a vacation for my mom and dad. My mom works days and night sometimes. My dad is working hard to pay the bills If only they had vacation wihtout thinking about our house and jobs they would have a relaxing day. Please don't give me any presents if you could give it to my sisters or my dad and mom.
Love
Roland

Dear Santa,
It sure feels like I haven't talken to you for years! I remember alot last year we use to send each other letters. (a bunch!) It is cool to be able to speak to you! I may have not seen you before, but you sure sound great! There is alot of stuff I would like to have, like new furniture for my new room, and more! Thanks alot for the good stuff from last year.
Sincerely,
Marriah

My name is Lazaro I am a second grater from ___ elementary This year I have been a little good. I have done some of my homework. I need to pay attention to my teacher and try to finish all my work. Cold you bring me a skateboarod and a video game?
Thank you,
Lazaro

Dear Santa,
Can you please get me a play station? Can you please get my mommy a house? Can you please give the home-less people a home and car? Can you please mak this a better place? Can you give my Nene a better job? Can you please get the Iraq people swimming pools? Can you please give people better choices in their life's? Can you let God know that I Love him?
Love,
Tailor

Recycling Rules in Seattle

From Seattle Public Utilities

"For the past year, garbage haulers and Seattle Public Utilities inspectors have been educating residents and businesses about Seattle's recycling requirements by leaving educational tags when they incorrectly put recycling in the garbage.

Starting January 1, 2006 garbage collectors will not pick up household garbage cans that contain large amounts of recyclable paper, cardboard, as well as aluminum, tin, glass and plastic bottles and jars. They will leave a notice on the can and the resident will need to remove recyclables from the container before the garbage will be collected the following week.

Don't worry if someone accidentally puts a can, newspaper, or bottle in your garbage. Garbage haulers will only 'tag' folks who dump a lot of recycling (more than 10% of the container) in their garbage.

...

Apartments, townhouses and condominiums whose garbage containers are filled with more than 10% recyclable paper, cardboard, aluminum and tin cans, as well as glass and plastic bottles and jars will be tagged with warning notices... and after a third notice, a $50 charge will be added to the garbage account.

...

Business will receive a $50 fine if large amounts of recycleables are repeatedly found dumped in the can or dumpster."

What a proud resident I am!!

Hidden Fear

  “The greatest barrier to love is the secret fear that we are unlovable.”


My how sneaky and controlling those hidden fears can be. How do you remind yourself of the truth?


thanks for the quote, Rick.

The Bridge Between and Voices

I found myself reading last year's Dec. 4th post this morning. I enjoyed reading it. A part of me wonders if readers here get tired of hearing me write from the same voice. I could easily have written that post today, wording it a bit differently. And yet most of me smiles so radiantly in recognizing that voice. I feel so excited to be living from that space and for cyber communing, face to face communing, and all the various forms of subtle communing that grant me opportunities to share and connect with others, celebrating this voice. Here is the 1 comment posted by Andy... It's offerings such as this one and reading eyes such as yours that keep me writing even while part of me is wondering.

Maybe wholeness is a word that would fit in place of happiness in that quote? Wholeness in the sense of being at one with what you've called our Radiant Selves. I'm slowly beginning to learn that much of my own angst comes from nothing more or less than a disconnection from(or an incomplete connection with; a lack of recognition of) my own core being. Wholeness, completeness, an ongoing process of fulfilling purpose, happiness, peace - these seem to be related, not in a linear cause-and-effect way, but in a circular way that reflects that they're really all aspects of the same thing: love, the very thing that can only become complete, be fully expressed, in the world of reality; the bridge between the spiritual and the physical.

Thanks, Ashley - I only just realised as I was typing: that was the link I'd lost.
andy

Thank you, Andy.

friend ship

friend ship

my friend paul has boarded his ship and sailed away and back to southafrica. he was part of my family for over a year and now leaves behind a vacuum, an empty space, which is stubbornly present in our lives.

friendship - what a funny word.

why is this bond connecting people called friendship? what on earth has a ship got to do with everything? we have a saying in german: „we’re sitting in the same boat“ when people share a similar (mostly negative) experience. maybe it’s the same in english, i don’t know.

it is preferable to sit in a ship with someone you like. or maybe you start to like someone just because you are in that same bloody ship together. dependence can do stranger things to you. the smaller the boat, the more crucial friends become..

whatever. paul’s back in capetown.
and i miss him.

Comments:

Dear Jan,

I sit here with the all too familiar feeling of reverance that leaves me incapable of finding language. Jan, this post ellicits so much raw and genuine emotion within me. Recognition, understanding, celebration, appreciation, gratitude, and a welling sense of love. I find myself resting upon that still, parting water, feeling the color of the setting sun upon my body. I am filled with reverance.

. . . and I can't help but notice a pattern, the frequency of reading words of yours, often inquiries into ordinary matters of life, and then feeling engulfed in a deep and sweet sense of reverance. What a gift that is. Thank you.

And a tangential gift that I carry with me into the night is the invitation to make friends with those stubbornly present empty spaces in our lives. It feels to me like this writing of yours is a beautiful example of deepening intimacy with What Is -- inquiring into it while accepting it and letting it be.

Thank you.

With love,
ashley | Homepage | 12.02.05 - 8:12 pm | #