A calm, beautiful 2020 to you and your loved ones! (Here are two of mine.)
Archive for December 31, 2019
About Those Apples….
Not all signs on churches are preachy. Well, not a direct warning, at least. I thought this one was clever, humorous, and both a modern and ancient warning.
New Year’s Prep: Fun Facts
Before hitting the New Year’s Eve party next week, bone up on the history of New Years. It will give you some topics of conversation both before and after people stop making sense and establish you as a New Years expert.
Fun Facts about New Year’s Eve will give you all the info you need…or want.
Happy 2020!
A Peaceful Wish
During this month of many spiritual observances by many different believers, I wish our world peace, now and in the future.
A Different Kind of Christmas Gift
Start a new Christmas tradition. Each family member writes down a gift, placing the paper in a special stocking or wrapped box with a slot on top. The gift should be for someone outside your family—a neighbor, another family, acquaintance, person you’ve heard about. And the gift must be of time, not money or goods, a gift of self, not charity. Examples: monthly visits to a nursing home for a year; driving a person to medical appointments until he’s well; helping an adult or child learn English or to read or write; changing the attitude of a prejudiced friend. (I can give you more ideas–let me know.)
Have a very merry Christmas!
Once You’ve Unwrapped Those Gifts….
DON’T BURN THAT GIFT WRAP IN YOUR FIREPLACE! The metals and ink in much of the paper cause many fires each year and send harmful particulates into the air we breathe.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Why Give Pets to Prisoners?
I just read an article about various prisons running programs in which neglected, abandoned, or abused dogs are assigned to the care of prisoners rather than being housed in shelters. These people foster the animals, caring for them, training them, and teaching them to trust humans again. Eventually the dogs are ready to move on, into loving adoptive families.
There is a corollary to the successful rehabilitation of the dogs. The prisoners, many of whom are felons due, in great part, to the fact that they, too, grew up neglected, abandoned, or abused, have a revival of their compassion and sense of responsibility. In that way, they are being rehabilitated, just like their waggly wards. Isn’t that what the prison system is supposed to do? Many of these individuals, once released, find jobs in dog grooming, training, and care. Others have refreshed their work ethic and determination to find and do well at a job.
These programs at any prison are small (maybe 20 pup/prisoner teams) but effective. Unlike some other people, I don’t consider this being soft on crime. Rather, I think it’s taking what is good in a person who has done bad and putting it to a use that is beneficial to our animal friends while giving him or her a fighting chance to reintegrate into society rather than re-offending. I, for one, think that’s a good thing.
Forget Successful People
In today’s Thursday Thought quote, the Dalai Lama puts success in its place and tells us what we really need.
The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. – Dalai Lama
Really Get into the Christmas Spirit
Found this in my news feed. 12 days of Holiday Kindness–what a great idea! Sure, it’s only 9 days until Christmas, but why not double-up some days?
An Autumn Thought
Here’s an Autumn idea for this week’s Thursday Thought.
