A Charlie Brown Christmas

Tonight was the "Charlie Brown Christmas Special" on TV. I know you remember the one... it was the one we all waited for as kids.... and ran to the TV... it was a "special event".

My kids are a bit more jaded. After all, their generation has Boom, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, etc., etc.

Somehow, though, it still retains its magic.

So, there we were, snuggled up together under the quilt, watching Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Pigpen, and the whole gang get ready for Christmas. My kids thought it was hilarious that every time Pigpen would sing a cloud of dust would rise up. :-)

When Charlie Brown and Linus went to the Christmas Tree lot and picked their way through all the shiny, metal, over-processed Christmas trees, and selected the one sad little tree that just needed some love, I thought "Hmm... are my kids going to 'get' this....?"

Later on, we were getting them ready for bed and my 11 year old son said "Mom, I've decided what the 3 best things about Christmas are." (I fully expected to hear: PS2, Nintendo, and X-Box). He shocked me when he continued: "Jesus is first. Spending time with family is second. And then presents are third." I smiled, nodded through my blurry, tear-stained vision, and kissed him goodnight. I guess he did "get it" after all.

Spices for Mulling

Not literally, of course.... but below are little snips from an aforementioned book, The Pursuit of God (one of my very favorites..)

It's good stuff. All about the nature of God. Enjoy mulling it over.

"That which is real has being in itself. It does not depend upon the observer for its validity."

"Now by our definition God is also real. He is real in the absolute and final sense that nothing else is. All other reality is contingent upon His. The great Reality is God, the Author of that lower and dependent reality which makes up the sum of created things, including ourselves."

"Imagination is not faith. The two are not only different from, but stand in sharp opposition to, each other. Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; it simply recknons upon that which is already there."

"God is eternal. He antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change."

"The highest love of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is Spirit and only the spirit of man can know Him."

"God is so vast that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterioius and deep as that nature is. "

Happy Birthday, Jeff Buckley...

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a huge Jeff Buckley fan (my husband would say 'fanatic'). Jeff's one and only studio album, "Grace", is, in my humble opinion, the best album of all time.

Today, November 17, 2007, would have been Jeff's 41st birthday.

As a sort of "birthday tribute" to Jeff, I wanted to post a really great BBC documentary about Jeff that I located online. Link is below.

Rest in peace, Jeff. Thank you for the incredible, soul-stirring and beautiful music you gave us.

UPDATE: The original link I had on this post is no longer functional. I finally found another link for this documentary.... who knows how long this one will be good for. The documentary is GREAT though.

Here is it is. Scroll halfway down the page and you'll see it. -HWHL 6.12.08

November Light

So yesterday afternoon I was with my kids, driving home. It was a gorgeous Fall day, late in the afternoon. The sun was just beginning its slow descent towards the horizon and the clouds in the sky were tinged orange and pink. The sinking sun made the Fall leaves incredibly brilliant. I glanced over to my left and suddenly had the whole palette of Fall colors right in front of me. Everything from a dazzling red maple to some unknown tree which had the most fiery orange leaves I had ever seen. And then on to a beautiful golden maple, and countless other shades in between. Even the simple tall stalks of grass were bathed in the warm afternoon light. And then, as if on cue, 5 geese flew above the treetops, towards the setting sun, their feathers soft and golden in the November sky.

It was just a moment, mind you. The whole scene unfolded in 10, maybe 15 seconds, tops. No one else on the little two lane road seemed to notice or even care. Certainly not my children, who were bickering in the backseat. But, in that moment, the beauty of the creation that is God’s gift to us, day after day, was so profound and amazing; so graceful and good; that I was left with a deep serene thankfulness in my heart and in my soul to the Creator-Artist who made it so.

The Pursuit of God

Below is a link to the online version of The Pursuit of God, by A. W. Tozer. This is an exceptional book, full of profound insight, beauty, and wisdom.

http://www3.calvarychapel.com/library/Tozer-AW/PursuitOfGod/0.htm

The Power of One Kind Gesture

See below for a lovely short movie about the power of one kind gesture, and its "ripple effect". Enjoy, and realize that your everyday actions, no matter how small or insignificant you feel they might be, impact the lives of others.

Click Here To View The Movie!

Beauty and Benevolence

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." -Psalms 19:1

My favorite passage from all of fiction

As we walked homeward across the fields, the sun dropped and lay like a great golden globe in the low west. While it hung there, the moon rose in the east, as big as a cart-wheel, pale silver and streaked with rose colour, thin as a bubble or a ghost-moon. For five, perhaps ten minutes, the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting on opposite edges of the world.
In that singular light every little tree and shock of wheat, every sunflower stalk and clump of snow-on-the-mountain, drew itself up high and pointed; the very clods and furrows in the fields seemed to stand up sharply. I felt the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of those fields at nightfall. I wished I could be a little boy again, and that my way could end there.
We reached the edge of the field, where our ways parted. I took her hands and held them against my breast, feeling once more how strong and warm and good they were, those brown hands, and remembering how many kind things they had done for me. I held them now a long while, over my heart. About us it was growing darker and darker, and I had to look hard to see her face, which I meant always to carry with me, the closest realest face, under all the shadows of women's faces, at the very bottom of my memory.

Flicker & the Fringe

Happiness

I believe happiness which is derived from external circumstances will always be elusive and fleeting. True happiness must come from within, and must be regardless of external circumstances in order for it to be lasting and of any significance.

Below are a few quotes I've found regarding Happiness, Contentment, Joy, etc. Some are serious; some are humorous. All of them will make you think. Enjoy. :-)

-HWHL

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.

-Chinese Proverb

There is nothing more beautiful than cheerfulness in an old face.

-Jean Paul Richter

Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

-Mark Twain

When we cannot find contentment in ourselves it it useless to seek it elsewhere.

-La Rochefoucauld

The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right.

-Anonymous

In the depth of Winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible Summer.

-Albert Camus

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.

-John Berry

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.

-Willa Cather

Joy is not in things; it is in us.

-Richard Wagner

Look and See

This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew
to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back
of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.
The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say, was
laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over
our house was casually scratching
its stomach of white feathers with one
pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we
only look, and see.

A Father's Unconditional Love

Thoughts on Love

When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Autumn

After rain after many days without rain,

it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees,

and the dampness there, married now to gravity,

falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground

where it will disappear - but not, of course, vanish

except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share,

and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss;

a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole's tunnel;

and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years,

will feel themselves being touched.

Grace, Part II

My day started at about 4 AM, with the jackhammer in my head. My migraine was back. Sometimes I think it never really leaves.... Despite the fact that my new medication seemed to be working, apparently my migraine had "crashed the gates" and taken up residence in its favorite spot, directly behind my right eyeball. Typical sharp sharp stabbing pain, like a hot knife. I knew falling back to sleep was an impossibility. So, as usual, I wandered downstairs to hang out with the dog and watch "I Love Lucy" re-runs on Nick at Night.
The day never got much better. It was one of those days when I was much more aware of the pain of those around me: I saw a mom shout at her little kids in the grocery store.... not just shout a little, but really mean, vicious hate-filled shouting... I turned on the news and saw a weeping couple, looking defeated.... they had lost everything they owned to the fires in California. They had to start over again and, as the wife said, "We're not kids anymore".

So, to that end, I thought I'd re-visit the concept of grace, and add my thought that even in life's nastiness, where all you can see is the thorny painful thistle, God's grace is like the rose that comes OUT on the same branch as that nasty thorny thistle, despite ALL seeming "evidence" to the contrary.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God..."

- Ephesians 2:8
__________________________

"Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void."

- Simone Weil
___________________________

"Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness.... Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: 'You Are Accepted'."

- Paul Johannes Tillich
___________________________

"All men who live with any degree of serenity live by some assurance of grace."

- Reinhold Niebuhr
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"The grace of God is, in my mind, shaped like a key, that comes from time to time and unlocks the heavy doors." (This one is my favorite.) :-)

- Donald Swan