I wrote it, I have it on a word Document if you want it posted again However I think it's at #50, on the thread with the puppy's in the stockings.
Posted by: Oldsailors Poet
Right, OSP. Thanks / sorry. Don't know if you caught my reply to it. Was positive. 
Christmas. Why would autoincorrect let me say Cristmas?? Sheesh!
Where was that Moron Night Before Christmas posted by... AllenG? was it?
And the Grinch seems to have stolen the arrow buttons from all the keypads on my cell! If I don't come back from rebooting... Merry Cristmas & Happy New Year!
Woke up this morning recalling a Christmas morning when our three kids were little.
Mrs Claus & I had been up late, decorating the tree, stuffing stockings, putting presents under the tree, polishing off the milk and cookies.
We slept soundly. And late. When we awoke, the little greedheads had already unwrapped all their gifts. No pix. No seeing their surprise. No sharing the moment. They didn't want to wake us, the eldest explained. Right. Thanks. Unclear on the whole family Christmas morning concept; where did I fail? And couldn't freak out at them: it's Christmas and they're just little kids.
Decades later, I'm still grumpy about it. And sadly I remember that more than some others.
This year. No tree. No gifts. No stockings on the mantle. No kids here for Christmas breakfast. Humbu... uh... I mean, may the spirit of the season fill you with joyous gratefulness for what it's all really about.
Santa Claus shot with pellet gun at DC toy giveaway... -Bean Pies!
Boondocks did it.
Riley is the culprit.
Hunter Runs Across Very Unlikely Animal In Oklahoma
The unusual is the usual here. Exotic pets and animal park inmates get loose. Critters wander in from all compass points. Lots of wild & mostly temperate weather.
Just in the last year or two a couple here in OK was driving home when Pa had to slam on the brakes. What was most amusing was that he had the time and wit as they were braking to exclaim to Ma, "Elephant!"
poo on new threads. I'm staying here. I've got my coffee, this thread's all broken in, it's all warm... cozy... although... I do feel a draft, tho. ... hello? (..lo ..lo)
"I like Yancey because the Jesus he presents a masculine Jesus. We sort of have lost that sometimes..."
Can't recall if it was from the fine little book "This Fellow Jesus" or elsewhere, but... updating slightly...
Hearty Galilean fishermen weren't going to give up everything to follow some pajamaboy.
Two impressions, somewhat contradictilory, but strong, I recall. One was, oh, now I understand why people have been so excited about him for centuries! and How come nobody ever told me about this!
Posted by: mindful webworker at December 25, 2013 09:31 AM (dfp3p)
Religion tends to get in the way of the Gospel.
I always suggest if people are reading the Bible after a long time or for the first time -FenelonSpoke
At age 20, although I was raised with Gospel and Epistle readings, soaking in Bible Belt culture, it took a Jewish college professor and an academic turned mystic to make me realize, I'd never actually sat down and read them for myself.
Two impressions, somewhat contradictilory, but strong, I recall. One was, oh, now I understand why people have been so excited about him for centuries! and How come nobody ever told me about this!
98 Nice thoughtful post. mindful. Thanks.
Worth repeating.
Nice thoughtful post. mindful. Thanks.
I always suggest if people are reading the Bible after a long time or for the first time is with the Gospel of Mark because it's action packed and moves very quickly. And you're right . Jesus had a winning personality. One of the most interesting books I read about him is "The Jesus I Never Knew" by phillip Yancey.
Good day. Hope you're warm and safe.
When I first read the Gospels for myself as an adult, I was persuaded that the better chunk of it was most likely valid history, as much as humanly possible.
I did not read through the filter of Christian exegesis and interpretation, only with the filter of the Gospel authors. And my education and experience.
I read skeptically, critically.Some things they attribute to Jesus, I doubted. My best example is that the fig tree withering, whatever one may draw as lesson from the story, seemed out of character for one who employed nature so admiringly in his teachings. Just my sense; believe it if you need it.
But integral to the whole drama, Christmas to Easter, is his claim to have pre-existed, even eternally. He was unquestionably mortal, eating, touching, bleeding. If you or I claimed that pre-existence, we would rightly be hauled away to the longsleeves retreat. But aside from random withered fig trees, he seemed to me to be the most sober, intelligent, charming, loving revealer of truth, head and shoulders wiser than anyone he lived among, common folk or educated. Well-balanced, clever, wisely confident, not usual traits of the self-deluded, of which we have so many examples to compare.
So, I had to conclude, either he had that one nutty quirk of a claim to pre-mortal, super-mortal existence. Or, he knew it and meant it.
I could not call him crazy. I well knew what Christians taught, but I wasn't sure what he was and what that meant, and I thought, I might never know in this life. But I knew, I believed that he believed it. And that challenged my world, and set me seeking. More than four decades later, my theology has expanded considerably. But I have the same challenging mystery, and powerful inspiration, of the Son of God incarnate.
Merry Christmas
Incandescent Twinklelights, Santa's mindful webworker at December 25, 2013 02:35 AM (f4Je0)
Merry Christmas, IT,Smw...
Ate Santa's cookies, drank his *hic* milk, stole his gift bag, and now I must sleep.
I've done almost nothing for Christmas, for reasons too daft to relate, but at least we watched Scrooged tonight. Murray got to me in the first run in the theater, and still gets to me all these viewings later.
God bless us every one, and good night Mrs Callabash, wherever you are.
Posted by: Santa's mindful webworker at December 25, 2013 01:25 AM (U13jb)
Amen!
Dear amazing people: I hope alla y'all have a happy Christmas.
But, for some, happiness is measured and relative. Maybe your blessings seem too few compared to your troubles. Maybe you can't be as thankful and as joyous as you'd like. Don't we all have our stresses! God at least bless us all with the patience to muddle through, and enduring faith in the divine hand.
By incomprehensible miracle, the Son of God was born as one of us dust-to-dust mortals, and died the most inspiring death. In life, in death, in rising again, he revealed our Father's love, changed humanity, and is still changing lives and saving the world. We may wander from him, but he never abandons us.
So, a Christmastide prayer, to Our Father, and Jesus, and any designated subordinates in charge of mortal pixels and packets:
Keep Ace and his cohorts in blogging safe from harm and free of threat. Fill them with your righteous spirit and guide them to Truth. Confound the demons and the trolls with their own mischief, and send your Pixys and angels with swords to defend, strengthen, and increase the supporters of liberty and justice.
Bless this virtual place and its actual population in the year to come. Bring your cooling grace when flames threaten to erupt among us. Grant us abundant wisdom to do what's right, with bountiful mercy for certain irrepressible moronic indulgences.
Amen.
Okay, the bar's open again.
J. Random Dude, FWIW, I thought the comment was clear, and the footnotes explicit... and funny (it is sad but funny to have to explain sobriety or distinguish career bureaucrats from honorable service, but well done).
"Explain... as if to a child!" - that grinch-looking bad guy on Galaxy Quest
Bob Newhart on the the phone with St. Peter
-TheQuietMan
Excellent. I definitely heard it in Bob's halting on-the-phone shtick voice.
:: reading into the early 100s comments
I do like how Gabe poke at the cage every time with that ya'll business.
GÜD YÜL, Y'ÄLL!
