Christmas past ... and Present All Year

 

 

                     Christmas Past ... and Present All Year                                      

 

When I was younger, I spent a number of lonely Christmasses far from my family and friends... among strangers who I rarely saw or had the chance to talk to... There was noone to really share them with, not even to prepare for them with...  I imagined being with those who were laughing and talking excitedly and sharing the Day, and that made me lonlier and sadder than ever ...

Now I'm older and Christmas has changed time and time again as loved ones and dear friends have moved away or passed on, but I have the sweet memories of those times we shared ... and I smile... and I have new people here to laugh and make new memories with... and I am blessed

All it takes is one special person to share the Day with, to make it all it needs to be, and to bring joy ... We have 364 days in a year to make memories with everyone else we know and meet ... and that is like having Christmas ALL YEAR to me 

 

 

The One Thing That Really Matters

There was a time when everyone around me seemed to have gone insane... I was being as clear as possible but getting nothing but nonsence advice that didn't pertain and a runaround from those who should have had the answers, and were in a position to make a difference. Apparently all they cared about was getting their paycheck and going home or on the golf course. I had done all the right things and it didn't matter. I learned the the only way to deal with things is to do what you can at the moment and not plan for the future, unless it's planning a vacation or something. Sticking to your values is vital and doing the right thing is always best because it's who you are, and if the world wants to go insane, it will no matter what you do. I just take the good as it comes and make the most of it. They say that God has a plan for each of us, but sometimes our part in the plan is to teach others by example, sometimes it's to be the martyr without trying, sometimes it's to be the victim that gets mislead, sometimes it's just to be the knothole in the tree, and sometimes it's full of blessings that makes life pure joy, but it is what it is because we live in a world where there are all kinds of people and they are all part of the plan too. It's not all about ME... or YOU, and the planet itself does things that are devastating to many people. Our attitude and how we as individuals, deal with things is what builds our spiritual body... the one we take with us. Here today and gone tomorrow is the way of the world. The one thing we can control is ourselves. Not necessarily the outer self all the time, but the inner self... where our values are... and to have faith that everything will turn out alright, here or in the hereafter. ... but whatever happens on earth, we know that things of this world won't last forever, and at least we've stored up our treasures in Heaven. Since who we really are is all we can take with us, that's what's most important...and the legacy we leave behind... by being the best example we can be... and loving the life we are given and everything in it to the best of our ability at any given time.

The eerie dream of Bannerman's Island

My dear long-time childhood friend, I'm sure you'll remember how I had just told you about the long dream I had, the night before, about the woman. in the castle. on an island. in a wide river, and how I was summoned to banish her ghost from the castle because her wailing was scaring people ... There were children playing in the livingroom when I arrived, by boat, through the dangerous water... The children were put to bed and the man who had welcomed me told me the time when she would appear. I told him I was not afraid... to which he said WELL YOU WILL BE... He had gone elsewhere. and it was very quiet... when this woman appeared. at the appointed time. I asked her who she was and why she was scaring people, and she said it was dangerous there and she didn't want people to come... She said they called her the banshee of Bannerman's Island. She spoke to me of how she could never understand why people make war with one another... she said they told her that when she grew up she would see, but she said I STILL CAN'T SEE... and I saw that she was blind, (blind to the reason for wars) ... We talked for a while longer ( I still remember things she told me and showed me) and then she told me to go and not look back ... I knew she was going to do something to destroy it... and as I finished telling you, you showed me the newspaper that you had just picked up... showing the fire- and all... I was shocked to find that it was an actual place. That was August 8th 1969

The Necklace with the Bible

    The story as I know it:


    " I know it sounds weird to a lot of people, but I had a necklace that my mother had gotten at a church sale before I was born. She kept it with an old Bible that she had gotten at the same time. (The old lady who sold it to her told her to keep it with the Bible at all times) One day I saw it and thought it was so beautiful and delicate, with a deep purple stone, that she gave it to me...

I had some of the most dangerous experiences of my life in the summer that I wore it... She decided to see if there was anything to it. She couldn't believe it, since it had come from a church sale and she knew the nice old woman who had sold it, though she might not have been the owner. So I gave it to her to see what  happened, and she, too, had a couple of very dangerous things happen in a matter of the first 24 hours.

We thought perhaps it was something hateful, but also that it might have been something tragic that the original owner had experienced... and maybe she died wearing it... but, whatever it was, after that we decided not to try to keep it around the house another day.

 We conferred as to what to do with it.... She dug a deep a hole in a big field, and buried it, with a prayer that it go back to the elements from whence it came and do no more harm. We continued to pray for the release of whatever force it held., until we felt that it had been released.

I don't know if the Bible had kept whatever was attached to it, in check, and I would probably have scoffed if anyone had told me something like this, but it was just too strange to be coincidental... It was the only time I think either of us had experienced something like that, and it sounds like some cheap movie plot but ... I've kept a more open mind since then "

... and love is just a word

We alter the way of base nature when we try to do things our way ... but, of course, nature can be cruel and life not so good when we lived primitively ... There were illnesses there was no cure for, people were hungry and killing one another, the world was a dangerous place ... Hmmm ...  Yeah ...............

Some people think that we are to create Heaven on Earth through changing the ways of nature, and that is all well and good, but the one thing we need to do is learn to love and appreciate what is here, and share it...

 No matter how rich and powerful a person is, or how popular they may become, noone lives here forever ... I often wonder if those who are out to gain the world, really think about how they would feel looking back on their lives when they have passed on ... I think they are more concerned about how history will tell their story, and what goodies they can get here and now because they don't really believe there is anything beyond this life. They are not heros... they are just wild animals going for prey and greedy hoarders who seem to think they can take it with them, even when they don't believe they are going anywhere ... and they don't care how it is for anyone else ... Those who suffer and die for lack of having needs met, are to blame for it themselves, or it's no different than if they were trying to survive in nature... some make it and some don't, right?

 Yes ... and THAT's the point/// The only thing that makes a difference is love and helping, guiding, teaching one another...  That is the only way to make Heaven on Earth ... Heaven on Earth is when humans decide to transform their base animal nature and share the wealth of  their Spiritual Nature  ... anything else humans create is just base nature, manufactured, with a pretty painted face, and love is just a word ... 

HOME SWEET HOME AWAY FROM HOME

AFTER RUNNING ERRANDS LATE THIS AFTERNOON, 

I returned to The River  for an hour this evening. The contrast between stores and roads with all  the hubbub, and 

the QUIET of The River was sweet ...

  . 

When I was growing up, the world was THAT QUIET when I was home  ... and summer was filled with a LOT of various kinds of flowers, and birds, and nifty bugs, like grasshoppers, and ladybugs, and fireflies, and bluebottle flies. And there was the stream and animals that came to drink from it... the deer, and raccoons and groundhogs, and wild turkeys and eagles. But on the weekends, and many hot nights, I'd sit  by the river with my family and feel the cool night breezes come in a gentle rush of air as the sun set.  It was always quiet there, except when a  train rumbled past ... 

Dad would tell us about the old days when he was growing up here, and sometimes Granny would come along and tell us about HER olden days of growing up here, and Mom would point to the sunset or tell us not to go too near the edge, and she'd just enjoy the peace and quiet, while we were all watching the fish leap for gnats in the evening light, and other wonders of the natural world, before going home to sleep to the sounds of bullfrogs and cheepers, in bedding that smelled like fresh air and sunshine
 
On a hot night like tonight, Dad would take us all for a cool ride, and stop for ice cream from the Tastee Freeze, or DQ, in town, depending on whether we got plain ice cream, or the twist of the two flavors, and a LOT of it, or a specialty like a sundae or banana split with whipped cream and a cherry, and not so much ice cream ... and watch the trains and the river roll by...

... and sometimes we'd go to the park with a picnic ... THIS SAME PARK ... which hasn't changed much at all, since I was 10 years old and they put the "new" entrance road in




HOME SWEET HOME AWAY FROM HOME 

HOME SWEET HOME

I've been being called by the spirit of the river again...

* all photos and writings posted on this blog are the property of RiverLightRider unless otherwise stated

This Morning

Awake before the sun began to creep it's light into day .... a comforting bite to eat, with a cup of tea....... a time to dream while awake... a time to pray in peace...

Back to nap for a few hours ... holding onto the beauty of these minutes ... and letting them take hold of my spirit ... while I soar unfettered ... looking down on the world... and smiling

There is a voice within me
longing to get out
"if only ... if only ... " it sighs
my life would turnabout

I remember a promise made
I remember a dream
I remember who I used to be
am I now as I seem?

While crawling through the ins and outs 
of the days and years now gone by
I've counted each and every blessing
in a world that made me cry

Wondering what tomorrow will bring
while struggling to make ends meet
Praying that my prayers are answered
before I'm in the street

Always facing an abyss,
facing the unknown
being told that only I can do it
and I must do it alone

Way out in the country, a young girl  sits in the shade of a big old oak tree on a hot summer day, the breezes making ripples in the tall green grass surrounding her;

She listens to the sound of a nearby stream and the sounds of the birds singing in the rustling trees, and watches the golden sunlight peeking through the huge canopy of green leaves high above her;

There is silence but for the sounds of nature surrounding her, and the voices of her mother and brothers through the big old open windows, calling to one another about this and that

and with a heart filled with peace and joy overflowing, she sings to the world around her, as if in a prayer,

Life is a Strange Weave

I have been thinking of all the wonderful people I have met in my lifetime, and all the new people I have met recently, who are such a pleasure to know ... and all the ways I have been blessed by them ...

Like anyone else, there are times when I get tired and wonder how I will ever find the solutions to things that are important, to accomplish what needs to be done with a deadline looming, and I pray that I am able to do it all before the man-made clock runs out on those certain things; but then I think of all the times when I was led to believe that the deadline had an abyss waiting to consume me, as people around me went into panic mode, and I was reminded of how important it is, as if I didn't already know ...tick tick tick TICK TICK TICK  ....

Sometimes I haven't been able to do all that I was told was necessary, in the time-frame allotted, but somehow I was given a reprieve, and somehow I made it through and came out the other side... 

Sometimes things don't work out as fast or as well  as I've prayed they would, bringing forth difficulties that I feel will break me, but then... suddenly, I look ... and that part is finished... 

 I look back and see the faces of those I encountered along the way... and the shimmering threads they provided that were spun with the solutions and gave that portion of the tapestry a special radiance 
 
Although we may not realize it, most people care more than we are led to believe ... and many times solutions come about not in straight, clear lines on pages that we can flip to see what is ahead... but in unforeseen ways ...

Life isn't an essay written on lined notebook paper, or a book with each chapter following another from a beginning to a conclusion. It's a tapestry woven one thread at a time, that we create by going through the ins and outs. It's composed of threads of many colors and textures, with the threads provided by the people in our lives who, many times, aren't even even aware of it. They become a part of the tapestry we weave that is our own individual life, in the great tapestry of life itself. We do the weaving, but it is the love from the people we meet that provide the threads ... and we are meeting new people who provide new threads, all the time.

I may not have the  thread I need for the portion of the tapestry I am weaving at this hour, but as I am looking for it, someone I know, or someone new, will provide it and I will continue with my weaving ...
 
There will come a time when a thread I am looking for isn't there... 

At that time, my tapestry will require only one more thread to being it together... a golden cord ... the one through which my life force has run here on earth ... It will be plucked and used to bind the final edge of my tapestry as it is added to The Great Tapestry in its Grand Design, according to the pattern which was already laid for it

And once again, there will be no abyss that others have warned me about. I will find myself in the presence of others who know me and will guide me. It will hang like stars in the night sky, and as I behold the Glory of all Creation,  I will look upon it and smile, because everyone and everything I ever loved, are with me, woven into it to last for all Eternity ...

I am grateful for all the times we shared... for the many people whose faces still smile at me when I close my eyes... for the laughter and the joy of just being able to do something to make someone else smile. I know all too well the way things pass away in the blink of an eye and how one small thing can make all the difference in the world. There is nothing like LOVE in all it's many expressions and degrees ... Until we meet again, wherever and whenever that may be, thank-you for the joy you have given me

YUM oatmeal

Today I made the most fantastic oatmeal....

1 cup OATMEAL

1  3/4 cups of  WATER ( some more cold water later on)

a few pinches of SEA SALT

2 soupsoonfuls, rounded, of RAW SUGAR

with  1/4 or so teaspoon of CINNAMON

 a few dashes of ground  NUTMEG

a handful of ground WALNUTS

AND half a handful of ground salted CASHEWS

                   [* I ground them up in my coffee bean grinder]

a clump of dark and half a clump of golden RAISINS

                   [ * I  put this all together at once, turned the heat to HIGH until it began to bubble, then turned it down almost to off and let it cook for another few minutes ... stirring it a bit, in my favorite little red non-stick pot without the lid on...]

HEAT IT until mushy and soft ( a few minutes)

ADD SOME COLD WATER   a bit at a time (and stir with a wooden spoon) to wanted consisteny ... ..............and edible temperature......................... and grab a bowl and spoon...
.... or eat it right from the pot lol  YUM (and healthy too!)

*If you make it firm, it's sort of like a big soft cookie  lol

You could even make it up in advance and heat it in the microwave... if you have one... I don't ...  because I'd rather not ... lol