What do you remember about today?
What do you believe Christmas really is?
How do you celebrate these holy days?
What will you remember about this holiday?
“We give everything we see all the meaning it has for us!”
(from A Course in Miracles)
Our memories are but the residue of what we kept as true.
We can erase the memories we no longer value.
We can choose again for new memories that bring peace and joy.
Each year I make new memories.
Each year I create a more meaning…(and also less!)
Less commercialization and more love shared.
More joy and magic shared with little children.
And more caring and sharing with those who have less.
Also more appreciation for those who keep this holiday holy.
And more gratitude for all those who tell the Christmas story that teaches and touches humanity.
So what do I want Christmas to be?
(You see, we each get to choose the meaning for us!)
I choose to be reminded:
There is always a light in the darkness.
There is still hope where there is despair.
There is love even when we are afraid.
There is enough for everyone when we share.
The story of the Christ child reminds me that there is a light of love in every baby born.
The nativity scene reminds me that Greatness often has humble beginnings.
The darkness of those times teaches me that Beauty and Goodness cannot be held back.
The abundant sharing of this story of the Son of God as Messiah and savior demonstrates how much humanity seeks to remember its origin.
We are here to condemn no one to less than His Fullness.
We are here to remind one another there is no Limit to what Goodness can do.
We are here to realize our own Greatness and Beauty and Generosity and Love.
We are here to be reborn into our True Essence, Innocence with Wisdom and Love without Fear.
I am clear about the Light in You.
I can see your holiness is true when you rebuke what is untrue.
I know you are bringing forth Great Goodness and Mercy to those you encounter.
I feel blessed that we walk this earth together when every one of us is essential to our rebirth.
Let us reach out every day of the year and bring gladness and Good cheer.
Let us celebrate how richly blessed we are by sharing from the excesses we have accumulated.
Let us join with those who care and share and continue to do what is fair.
Let us thank the Creator of all that is Good and True, Healing and Holy.
I love you and know I am loved by You.
For as One, we are family, the Light, the Ones who have come to be Loving Reminders.
Betty Lue
Email me if you want me to send the 2010 schedule of programs and retreats and/or the Holiday schedule.
Inspiring story!
**True Story of Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer**
A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night. His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing.
Bobs wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer.
Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy could never come home.
Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked, "Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?"
Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears.
Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger.
It had been the story of Bob's life. Life always had to be different for Bob.
Small, when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys.
He was too little at the time to compete in sports.
He was often called names he'd rather not remember.
From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression.
Then he was blessed with his little girl.
But it was all short-lived.
Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in he Chicago slums.
Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.
Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift.
But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined a make one - a storybook!
Bob had created a character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope.
Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling..
Who was the character?
What was the story all about?
The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form.
The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was.
The name of the character?
A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose.
Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day.
But the story doesn't end there.
The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book.
Wards went on to print, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores.
By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph.
That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.
In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May.
The book became a best seller.
Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter. But the story doesn't end there either.
Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph.
Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White Christmas."
The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning back to bless him again and again.
And Bob May learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different isn't so bad.
In fact, being different can be a blessing.
*MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009*