I've been on this site for years. I come here almost daily. Lurked around at first. I don't diary a lot or comment much but this site, you people are my people. You are my sanity in times when I had none. Sometimes I see us not get along like most families. We are this countries heart and soul and we as a family are growing. Growing into something that we all can be proud of.
Since we started here we have made great things happen. We did this because there are always power in numbers. We the people hold the power to all that we want when we come together and work as one. Working as one is doing your job. Each of us have a job to do - doing your job we come together.
What is one thing we all want? To feel at peace and to be able to survive in this society. How do we achieve this? With love. Lots and lots of love.
My gift to you.... to all of you... I LOVE YOU!
If we all give this gift of love this year imagine what we can do - the damage done to us and the power we have to undo it. If we can tell 10 different people daily that we love them we can achieve great things in society for all of us to survive.
When you say "I love you" you become love.
Please follow more of my gift to you below the fold
A friend sent this to me. It's about Jesus (because Jesus is the reason for the season) and about love and war...
Jesus and the promise of Christmas (click to read the full article)
By James Carroll | December 22, 2008
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The stories told about the nativity - Caesar's census order, Bethlehem, Herod's threat, three kings, star, no-room-at-the-inn, manger, angels, slaughter, flight - do not aim to be historical, yet in its deeper meaning, the beloved Christmas narrative gives us a portrait of a person that squares with the most important features of the actual Jesus. He was a counter-force to the Roman emperor. He was of the poor and powerless. He conveyed his message by indirection - more by poetry than doctrine. At heart, his story is tragic. Yet it is a source of hope and joy, which is why his friends clung to his memory. The problem he addressed was violence.
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But Jesus was not a mere victim of this violence. Acting in his Jewish tradition, he confronted it, rejected it, and proposed a new way to think of it. His followers knew at the outset, and ever after, that they failed to live up to the standard he set, but that very knowledge shows that the myth of what Crossan calls the normalcy of violence is broken.
Humans have an inbuilt tendency to find the solution of violence in yet more violence, with the result that it spirals on forever. The victory of coercive force is inevitably the cause of the next outbreak of coercive force. Jesus proposed that the answer to violence is not more violence, but is forgiveness and righteousness - or, as we would put it, peace and justice. For 2,000 years, this program has been able to be dismissed as piety's dream. But something new is afoot. Since 1945, the normalcy of violence is armed with weapons that will surely render the human species extinct unless a different way of thinking of violence is found.
That is the promise of Christmas.
A different way of thinking of violence has already lodged itself in human consciousness. This is not just a Christian phenomenon. The great religions of the world - Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism - and the no-religion of rationalism have all countered the normalcy of violence with assertions of compassion and loving kindness. In the history of Western Civilization, no figure has represented that ideal more resolutely than Jesus. His story offers a masterpiece expression of the possibility of forgiveness and righteousness not only as a saving program, but as the basis of an intensely personal relationship.
Because Jesus is understood by those who believe in him as offering not only a sign of what is needed, but a way to achieve it - "I am the way," he said - he has survived even for those who regard him in purely worldly terms as an image of a hope that cannot be fully articulated, and that can never be exclusively claimed by any group, including Christians. In that sense, the observances of this week can belong to everyone who chooses to enjoy them.
Part of my family are southern baptist. This time of year for them is a very holy time. If they only knew their history they would know that we are all here to learn lessons and until we learn what is being taught to us we will only have the lesson reappear until we do learn. It amazes me how much damage can be done to this country, how much death we can cause in our names and because their religion tells them they voted against their best interest.
For me I no longer have patience for religion. History has proven that not so good things come out of religion. I do wish more of us were spiritual meaning for me holding love and caring for the next person so that we all have a better presence.
If your a parent and you hit your child just one time your child will remember that one time you hit them the rest of their lives. You are going to have to tell that child "I love you" many times before that one time you hit them starts to fade.
In the past years we have done much damage with other countries, with other citizens, with our families that much love is needed for us to overcome what has been done to us.
And remember there is power in numbers. If we all share the love that we hold inside ourselves great things can happen for all of us. We have the power to set society up how we want it...when we come together. We all know right from wrong. Do to others as you would have them do to you Lets put selfishness aside this year. Let's not think about what is good for me but what is good for all of us not only in this family but for our country and the planet which we all share. Let's do this for our children's survival.
There are many gold star parents who no longer have the opportunity to say I LOVE YOU to their child. I LOVE YOU ALEX
I LOVE YOU TOO!
Now come here and let me give you a {big hug}
HAPPY NEW YEARS - There's so many things to be thankful for like WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT - LET's PARTY!!!!!!!