I Wanna Wish You A Merry Christmas

Thanks to Foam, I now know that the "embed" code for the Playing For Change video I tried to post doesn't work, so here's a link (in case you're interested).  Thanks, Foam!  Trying to fix this, I got the opportunity to boogie to the song again.

How can this not produce the biggest smile? Musicians from all over the world coming together and singing from the bottom of their hearts.

Overwhelmed With Joy

I have received one Christmas card so far this year and it's the best card I have ever received.  On the front, a photo of a dog that looks an awful lot like my boyfriend.  And inside, this message:  "May you be overwhelmed with joy this holiday season."

Overwhelmed With Joy!

Yes!

May everyone be overwhelmed with joy!

No matter what their circumstances.

Photo from the wrong season, considering Christmas is now only 17 (yikes!) days away and considering that everything is white outside right now (in Colorado, anyway).  But joy is joy at all times of the year!

The Best Christmas EVER!

On second thought, maybe the best Christmas I've had in my life so far.

Well...  maybe the best Christmas since my son and daughter were little.

Anyway...

Today, twelve of us silently stood on the street corner for PEACE.  Four people were visitors from Sweden. 

How special that Christmas would fall on Saturday, our vigil day!

It felt so unifying, meditative, peaceful, so very, very RIGHT.

And near the end, a little piece of rainbow appeared in a cloud.  Auspicious???

I hope your Christmas Day was the best EVER, too!

What I Love About This Time of Year

I love ice.

I love perfectly smooth ice

and artful ice.

I remember a time when I was hiking next to a pond and the ice started singing.  I'm not kidding.  It sounded like angels were humming all around me.  (You may say that it was all in my head, but I had a hiking buddy who heard it, too!)

I am not a cold weather type of person, but I have to say that I love this time of year (don't ask me about January and February).  

I love that people come together, they think about each other more, and sometimes they out-do themselves with kindness and giving.

I love the sounds of bells and laughter and music.

My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night.

This little girl does a beautiful job of singing it (and I like her little girl faces and moves).

What do you love about this time of year?

What is your favorite Christmas song?

Lost in Space

I know today is Tuesday, but I don't know the date. I'm not going to look at the calendar to find out, either. It doesn't matter.

I was to be in Gaza right now, but I'm not. I'm in a big, blank square on that calendar on my shelf. There is nothing written on that square because I reserved the day for visiting Gazans, and the vacuum left by the cancellation of the trip has not sucked in any new activities.

It's two minutes until noon and I haven't dressed myself or combed my hair. I did make a gluten-free, sugar-free dessert because the fruit that was thawed for it would go bad pretty soon if it wasn't used.

I've also been thinking about what I am going to say at this Thursday night's vigil which will be held in solidarity with those who are in Cairo attempting to get through the border into Gaza. I thought about it yesterday evening and during the night when sleep left me looking at the ceiling. This morning I read an email and, like that (she snaps her fingers), I knew what is asking to be said. I guess it takes awhile to prime the pump for these things...

Hmmmmm... I wonder if I should go take a nap now. I'm likin' this empty calendar stuff. Whoever it was that insinuated that it's good to be busy and productive at all times had to be a very sick person.

Before I go, here are photos of some very cool Christmas presents I received:

From my super awesome in-laws.

A three-record set. RECORDS! Not even recorded in stereo!
My son finds the best stuff.
I haven't been able to find anything about this album on the internet.
All I know from the cover is that it was recorded in 1969 and the cover art was done in 1973 - I'm assuming '73 is the year the album was created.

Good thing I still have my old turntable!

Principles of Christmas

Dave Beldon writes on Tikkun Daily:

Mimi teaches the principles of Christmas — that it’s about giving

This is a story for Christmas about an extraordinary Jewish woman: Mimi Silbert, who founded the famous Delancey Street self-help drug rehabilitation center.

She lives on the job:

Many of Silbert’s roommates have bottomed out after an average 12 years of drug addiction and four trips to prison. Delancey dwellers spend an average of four years rebuilding their lives, learning values and a trade in one of many Delancey enterprises: the Christmas tree lots, the restaurant, the moving company, or wood furniture making.

My wife and son and I buy our tree each year from the Delancey Street lot in El Cerrito. The service there is something special: you know that everyone has a story and you see the hope in their eyes and their energy.

Over almost four decades, Delancey has grown to a $30 million foundation following an each-one-teach-one philosophy – Silbert has never taken a dime from the government, given herself a salary or hired anyone. The residents do everything – from answering the phones to teaching the academic classes to building the dorms and counseling one another.

Silbert gets business suits as Christmas presents for all her residents.

“We don’t do things like other places,” she said. “We don’t boo-hoo in therapy sessions about broken childhoods. Blaming leads to acting out to guilt and a cycle of self-hate. At some point, you gotta cut it out. Everyone has the ability to sink to the worst or rise to the best of themselves.”

Playing Santa

On Dec. 25, Silbert, a former high school cheerleader with a doctorate in criminology from UC Berkeley, will dress as Santa and pull sleds of the boxed and wrapped suits into Delancey’s gathering hall.

In years past, after watching the uncomfortable newcomers try to slip away to be in private with their foreign gifts, she now insists residents model their new clothes on the spot. The suits have to fit, and they have to be in textures, shades and designs that make the wearer feel good.

“Everyone says, ‘Ooooh, aaaaah!’ as you turn around,” said resident Robert McCormick, 30, who experienced his first Christmas at Delancey in 2008. “It’s an amazing feeling. I finally felt what it must be like to have a family.”

Going from rags to Brooks Bros. was such an uplifting experience for Sean Cronk, 34, that he can’t contain his tears remembering it.

“All of a sudden people perceived me differently,” he said.

Once, while at a hospital, the staff mistook him for a doctor. That moment of respect left a lasting mark on his soul.

… “Mimi teaches the principles of Christmas — that it’s about giving,” said former resident Mike DeLane, a San Francisco fire captain. “She’s like the mother nobody around here ever had.”

For Cronk, it isn’t about the stuff in the box.

“It’s about being in that room on Christmas, to finally actually feel loved by people who are going to go through the hard times with you and truly love you no matter what,” he said.

The way Silbert sees it, everyone at Delancey is an immigrant to mainstream society, just like her parents who fled Eastern Europe to escape the Nazis during World War II. They settled on Delancey Street in New York, pooled their money and eventually moved to a better flat in Boston, where Silbert grew up learning to share resources with her extended family.

***

A Jewish woman giving family and dignity to her human family at Christmas and always. THAT'S what that man came to teach us so many years ago.

Merry Christmas to you this beautiful winter day.

Christmas Commercials I Grew Up With

This explains a lot!

The 12 Days Before Gaza: #2

On Christmas Day I will arrive in Egypt, a country that is building an impenetrable steel wall at the border with Gaza which will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 meters below the surface. According to the BBC,

"The Egyptians are being helped by American army engineers, who the BBC understands have designed the wall. The plan has been shrouded in secrecy, with no comment or confirmation from the Egyptian government."

From yesterday's Irish Times (whose article indicates that the Egyptians are now confirming the building of the wall):

Over the past year the number of tunnels has doubled from 750 to 1,500. They carry essential goods, household appliances, fuel, medicines, fertiliser, seeds, clothing, motorbikes, and even the occasional car.

If the flow of goods is impaired or interdicted, the 1.5 million Gazans would be reduced to reliance on the ration package containing flour, pulses and tea distributed by UN agencies.

Time Magazine recently ran an informative story about the importance of the underground tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. They are the lifelines for people who have been shut off from the rest of the world by the Israelis. From the article:

"There is only one economy — there's a tunnel economy," says John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip. "You have zero exports and zero commercial imports through the [Israeli-controlled] crossing points. All that is allowed in is humanitarian aid and supplies ... In terms of economic activity, there is no economic activity other than the tunnel economy."

Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel:

"The tunnels are the lifelines for Gaza since the international community agreed to a blockade of Gaza to collectively punish the citizens of Gaza for their having elected in Parliamentary elections in 2006 sufficient Hamas Parliamentarians that Hamas became the government of Gaza. The United States and other western countries have placed Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations.

The underground steel wall is intended to strengthen international governmental efforts to imprison and starve the people of Gaza into submission so they will throw out the Hamas government."

On Christmas Day I will be in Egypt. People in the U.S. will be celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace while their tax dollars pay for bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and other places around the globe. Americans will wish for "peace on earth, goodwill toward men" while their country supports much suffering all over the world.

AND on Christmas Day, there will be peacemakers from all over the world traveling to Gaza to give voice to what is occurring there. There will be doctors and nurses in every country who will be tending to the illnesses and injuries of others. There will be people stopping to help the person in front of them because they see a need.

How does a heart hold all of this???







I Believe In Father Christmas

They said there'll be snow at christmas
They said there'll be peace on earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin's birth
I remember one christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that christmas tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

They sold me a dream of christmas
They sold me a silent night
And they told me a fairy story
'till I believed in the israelite
And I believed in father christmas
And I looked at the sky with excited eyes
'till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at christmas
They said there'll be peace on earth
Hallelujah noel be it heaven or hell
The christmas you get you deserve

The 12 Days Before Gaza: #1

How did this all begin? It was a tiny seed and now the seed has grown into that huge tree. It's morphed into something not even similar to what it was when it began.

Months ago, my teachers told us they were going to Gaza and we were invited.

I have been invited to go to many places. I have said "no" many times. I don't like to fly for more than three hours. What was I thinking when I decided to go?

I definitely didn't know what I was getting into.

Going to Egypt and Gaza at Christmas time???

Doesn't win brownie points with the family. Doesn't help the busyness of the season to add trip planning, a gazillion conference calls, and calls to senators and representatives to the list of things to do.

And then there are those who express their fears about a trip like this. At first I was thinking,

"I don't need this!!! If you are afraid, be afraid, but don't share it with me. I need to go forth with confidence."

Now I have decided to interpret their doomsday concerns as meaning:

"I feel afraid when I think of going to that part of the world. I am a little afraid for you, because I care about you. I want to tell you to do what you can to be safe, but I already know that you are smart enough to do just that! So have fun!"

Through participating in the conference calls, I am humbled by the experience of so many of the people with whom I'll be traveling. MANY of them have worked extensively in the Middle East. Many have been to Gaza or the West Bank. (And they are still here to tell about it!) I will be traveling with seasoned Middle Eastern activists. I'm a part of the Interfaith group. I will be in the presence of a lot of wisdom. I want to soak it up!

I want to be changed by the experience. That is a loaded "want". Change can, at best, be fun. At worst, it can be debilitating.

But I can't afford a life unlived.





In other news...

Look at what my sister-in-law's family sent us today!



Our first holiday decoration for the year. And it's perfect.

Wishes of peace to you and all of the world.

How the Grinch Stole My Family

My daughter was in town. My parents, my son, my daughter, Mr. CFP and I would have Thanksgiving dinner together. Beforehand, I wanted to find something fun to share. But what??? My dad will turn 90 in May. His mind and body have changed so much... he would not be able to participate in any games or activities. What to do???

I remembered a video that a family friend made of me, my son and my daughter when I was a single parent - when Mr. CFP was merely a dream in my mind, a glimmer of hope in my heart... (wait until he reads THAT!) I looked and looked for that video of my kids singing Silver Bells with accompanying gurgling. One young'un would sing while the other gurgled water -

Silver bells glug glug glug.
Silver bells glug glug glug.
It's Christmas time in the city. glug glug glug glug.


Can't you just hear it?

Great stuff, huh?



I couldn't find that video.

But I did find the video of Christmas 1991 - it was great entertainment!

We were all so young back then! Young Man Peace did some good boogeying (Michael Jackson must have been learned from him) and Young Lady Peace was her usual cute self.

My dad was... how do I say it? My dad was a different person from what he is now. He was my dad. I mean, he is still my dad, but there is somewhat of a role reversal now. I am now the one who knows how to find my way in the world and who can help him.

I had FORGOTTEN what my dad used to be like. I've been so much in the present, accepting who is here right now, that I had forgotten how things used to be. He used to be the person I called for advice when things broke. He was the man who could fix anything. In a sense, that man in the video is gone.

But the Young Peace-ettes are gone, too. They are both adults now, living on their own. Sometimes I even forget what they used to be like. (Hell, I always forget what I used to be like!)

When I think about it, it's actually humorous that we ever think we can define anyone. We're all, it's all, always changing.

Who are you again???