MESSAGES FROM SPIRITLIGHT AT HOME

MESSAGES FROM SPIRITLIGHT AT HOME

DECEMBER 2004

December 2004

Welcome to the 22nd issue of Messages from SpiritLight at Home offering monthly inspirational thoughts, insights into new, useful, fun, sometimes unusual and interesting ideas and some of my favorite links on the Internet.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. Norman Vincent Peale

A MESSAGE FROM DEIRDRE

My Dear Friends,

Blessings to you all this magical time of year. May this newsletter find you at peace and surrounded by all your loved ones this Christmas Day. Hanukkah has now passed, and Christmas is almost over, yet it is still not too late to wish that the feelings of renewal and joy remain with you as you remember days gone by and look to the future, buoyed by your very own individual faiths.

My message this issue is short and sweet. This poem is dedicated to you, my faithful subscribers and friends with deep gratitude for all your support over the past year.

GLAD TIDINGS

Yule logs, pine and lots of fine
tapers and pretty Christmas papers.
Smiling children, women and men, when
they remember this same December
many, many years ago.
On Christmas morn a child was born
in all the same festive joy, a boy
beside the candles burned so low.
 
They say he had such eyes of blue
such beautiful eyes that he just knew
he was no ordinary man.
He spread his love sent from above
the message it was so clear.
Love those who profess to be your foes
and bless those who are so dear.
 
So on this holiday, I say
to you my good, sweet friend.
Be blessed, content and to you I send
good will, good fill, the dove of love,
yule logs, pine and lots of peace.
But most of all I wish this too
May your happiness never ever cease.
And may you always be good to you!
 
Deirdre Moignard Miller

I hope that you all had a joyous Christmas and Hanukkah and I send you blessings of this magical season.

With light and love as always,

Deirdre

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. Roy L. Smith

NEW PAGES

Continue to access the newsletter on our site. It is published at SpiritLight at Home and you can find this month's issue by clicking on: http://www.spiritlighthome.com/NewsletterDecember2004.html

 

From its warm and living spark We kindle flame against the dark And with its shining radiance light Our tree of faith on Christmas night. Thelma J. Lund

 

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS

Brought to you from various resources around the Globe. We embrace all religions at SpiritLight at Home and will endeavor to bring to you inspirational stories that can be applied to your own beliefs.

The Christmas Menorah
by
Joan Wester Anderson

During the wee hours of Sunday morning, December 8, 1996, after the third night of Hanukkah, someone took a baseball bat and broke the front window of a house on the street with a lighted menorah in the window, and the criminals reached through the shattered glass and smashe d the menorah.

The menorah is used to celebrate the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, also known as Hanukkah, which occurs around the same time as Christmas. As a nativity scene reminds Christians of their heritage and faith, so does a menorah for Jews.

The woman who lived in the vandalized house was no stranger to prejudice. As a child, she had come with her mother, a Holocaust survivor, and her father, to the United States to escape persecution in the Soviet Union. Now, as she viewed the smashed menorah, the familiar fear returned.

Lisa Keeling, a young mother who lived down the street, heard about the incident on returning from mass with her family. She was appalled. Newtown has about fifteen hundred families, representing many cultures and religions. Lisa had never heard of anyone being singled out because of faith or ethnicity. How would she feel if someone desecrated a creche on her lawn? she wondered. Unless everyone were free to practice religious beliefs, no one could be free. Lisa had an idea. She said to her husband, "I'd like to put a menorah in our front window so that family will know they are not going through this alone. If the vandals come back, they'll have to target us, too. What do you think?"

Lisa's husband didn't hesitate. "Go for it," he said.

Lisa soon ran into another neighbor, Margie Alexander, who had been as horrified as Lisa when she heard the news and was also eager to act.

Margie started driving from store to store, looking for menorahs, with Lisa calling all the likely sources and relaying the information to Margie on her car phone. Word got around, and several Christian neighbors dropped by, asking where to purchase a menorah. Margie and Lisa bought up all they could and distributed them just before sundown -- time to light the next candle.

Then Lisa took down the Christmas lights in one of her windows and put the menorah there, all by itself. "I didn't want there to be any doubt about the statement we were making," she recalls.

That night, when the Jewish woman turned onto her street, she stopped in amazement. Greeting her was a sea of orange menorah lights, shining in silent solidarity from the windows of all eighteen Christian households on her block. Blinking back tears, she went home, replaced the broken bulbs in her own menorah and put it back in the window.

Margie and Lisa are hanging menorahs again this Christmas. "It's become the most cherished part of my Christmas," Margie says, "and it's taught me a wonderful lesson: Just one little step in the right direction can make life better for everyone." "

SOURCE: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/157/story_15745_1.html

 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeat. Of peace on earth goodwill to men. Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

 

DEIRDRE'S FAVORITE LINKS

(Just favorites in my bookmarks - no profits made here. Any advertising (if any) is placed at the end of the newsletter.)

1. Did you know that even though the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" doesn't seem to have a religious theme, some people have managed to give it a religious message? Or that Silent Night was composed because the church organ broke on Christmas Eve? Read the fascinating stories behind two of the most popular Christmas carols or have a go at the quiz and find out how much you really know about Christmas carols. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/advent/carols/index.shtml

2. The Candle - Visit here for some true inspiration. http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/2529/4candles.swf

 

Many merry Christmases, friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and Heaven at last for all of us. Charles Dickens

HUMOR OF THE DAY (thanks Deb!)

CHARLIE SAYS: "Daddy, how was I born?"

DAD SAYS: "Ah, my son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway!

Well, you see your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on MSN.

Then I set up a date via e-mail with your mom and we met at a cyber-cafe.

We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive.

As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a blessed little Pop-Up appeared and said:

You've Got Male!"

This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste. Ernest Hemingway

SUBSCRIBERS' SITES

Many of our subscribers have fascinating web sites. Please let us know about yours so that we might mention it in this section. Write to: deirdre@spiritlighthome.com

The Center of Light - Interested in Sound Healing? Check out The Center of Light located in Vermont. Click here: http://www.thecenteroflight.net

 

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living! Amanda Bradley

 

Bless you all and have a great holiday and a Happy New Year! Hag Hanukah sameah!

http://www.spiritlighthome.com

http://www.spiritlightworks.com

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