November 30--Just Skip December?

Bah! Humbug!  --Ebenezer Scrooge

    My niece has lots and lots of Christmas decorations that she is gradually placing around her home. Her son insisted on Alexa playing carols during our game night. It snowed a couple inches making everything beautiful and "Christmas-y" here in northeast Ohio. 

    For decades our family went to Prairie Pines Christmas Tree farm a few miles north of our house, where my husband cut down our LIVE tree. I LOVE the smell of a fresh cut tree, having grown up in a family whose business was a lumber mill. After shoulder surgery a few years back, my husband could not do the tree chopping, so we bought an artificial tree. I expect my parents are still spinning in their graves. I can't stand the artificial tree--to me it is a symbol of how I really couldn't care less about Christmas since there are no offspring planning to share the day with us. Last year we had "Christmas after Christmas" with our kids, and that was a huge letdown. My husband and I will likely spend December 25 at home as a fairly "regular" day. He may do some decorating while I am in Ohio, but if not, there are a few decorative things I will put out when I get home. I don't do much gift-giving, but there are still some things there to be planned, gathered and/or made. Last year I made gifts for the neighbors on our court; I may do that again to help me get over my Christmas crankiness. 

    I'm thinking I need to get back on the "gratitude train." 

        Leta

November 29--Grateful Heart = Practice, Practice, Practice

This is from the Richard Rohr Daily Meditation of Nov 28:

Brain studies have shown that we may be hardwired to focus on problems at the expense of a positive vision. The human brain wraps around fear and problems like Velcro. We dwell on bad experiences long after the fact and spend vast amounts of energy anticipating what might go wrong in the future. Conversely, positivity and gratitude and simple happiness slide away like cheese on hot Teflon. Studies like the ones done by the neuropsychologist Rick Hanson show that we must consciously hold on to a positive thought or feeling for a minimum of fifteen seconds before it leaves any imprint in the neurons. The whole dynamic, in fact, is called the Velcro/Teflon model of the mind. We are more attracted to the problem than to the solution, you might say... 
The only way, then, to increase authentic spirituality is to deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart. And the benefits are very real. By following through on conscious choices, we can rewire our responses toward love, trust, and patience. Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity. This is how we increase our bandwidth of freedom.  --Richard Rohr

    My grateful heart is enjoying the wonderful Thanksgiving holiday I spent with my brother's family, enjoying all our favorite foods, football and game-playing. I re-learned the card game Euchre. I was fairly successful at it, even though I can't even manage to count a mere seven trump cards, embarrassing for numbers-nerd me. 

    There's a pleasant journey awaiting your grateful heart. Happy travels!

        Leta

November 28--Keeping the Gratitude Train on Track and Moving

I am here in this moment because of every experience I have had along the way. I look with compassion on my journey from there to here.  --Mary Davis

Gratitude is defiance of sorts, the defiance of kindness in the face of anger, of connection in the face of division, and of hope in the face of fear. Gratefulness does not acquiesce to evil—it resists evil … by tunneling under its foundations of anger, resentment, and greed. Thus, gratitude strengthens our character and moral resolve, giving each of us the possibility of living peaceably and justly. It untwists knotted hearts, waking us to a new sense of who we are as individuals and in community. Being thankful is the very essence of what it means to be alive, and to know that life abundantly. --Diana Butler Bass

    My son sent a photo of their first big snow in northern Minnesota. I am grateful that I no longer live "up nord, hey." 

    Now that I am mostly recovered from my many-months journey through sciatica, I see that one big lesson is not taking things for granted. The first thing in this category is walking normally without cane, limp or imbalance. Next is how well my husband took care of me and our household while I couldn't do much. I appreciate those in my pickleball group who kept playing and "kept the doors open" while I was on the "injured list." I am grateful to be able to sleep comfortably in bed, to be able to go up and down stairs without holding onto something, to be able to walk Barney. I am hugely thankful for whatever sustained my "hope in the face of fear," because, trust me, pain at the level I experienced is terrifying. 

    Grateful, thankful, appreciative, 

        Leta

My lifesaver angel, otherwise known as Barney

November 27--Set Those Turkeys Free!!

If you want to save a species, simply decide to eat it. Then it will be managed - like chickens, like turkeys, like deer, like Canadian geese.  --Ted Nugent

Gratitude magnifies awareness of sufficiency. The very act of recognition is a bridge between forgetting and remembering our divine origin, a return to the Source from which all good flows. --Rev. Dr. David Ault

    FINALLY! It has been coming to this for years now... pretty much everyone in my family confessed to a "really not interested" in turkey for Thanksgiving. Why continue a tradition that no one really cares for? At my niece's home, we are going with "bring whatever meat you would like to grill." It could be snowing here, so grilling may be interesting. Since we are having sides such as mac 'n' cheese and the Miller family classic, baked corn, I say, "Who needs meat?" 

    Thoughts of gratitude usually take me directly to family and friends. Yet today I am grateful for a working furnace, snowplows and folks willing and able to drive them, those who invented playing cards and games, butter, and the water and sewer systems. 😉😉

    Let's take it easy on the turkeys. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

        Leta

November 26--Reflecting on Contact Bias

The more we bump into the folks who are so-called “other,” the more we are stretched and the more we are pulled out of bias. We have new truths, because we have tangible evidence of the beautiful, powerful creativity of our God who made all of this diversity for us to enjoy.  --Jacqui Lewis
(See posts Nov 18 & 22 on biases.)

    These are the words of Brian McLaren regarding contact bias:

When I don’t have intense and sustained personal contact with “the other,” my prejudices and false assumptions go unchallenged. Think of the child who is told by people he trusts that people of another race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, or class are dirty and dangerous.

You can immediately see the self-reinforcing cycle: those people are dirty or dangerous, so I will distrust and avoid them, which means I will never have sustained and respectful interactive contact with them, which means I will never discover that they are actually wonderful people to be around.

In this way, the prejudice cycle spins on, unchallenged across generations. As prejudice persists, it becomes embedded in cultures and institutions, creating systems of racism and hatred, marginalizing groups who are stigmatized, dehumanized, scapegoated, exploited, oppressed, or even killed.

    I grew up in a predominantly WASP area in the boonies of Pennsylvania. For reasons unknown to me, my dad despised Catholics. Yet my best friend from 7th grade on was Catholic, so they didn't seem so awful to me. My cousin did the unthinkable and ran off and married an African American man. Most of the African Americans in our area in PA lived in one particular small town, I kid you not. We had a few African American kids in our high school, and they were friends with some of my friends. If my dad saw me anywhere near an African American, male or female, say at a football game, I was "read the riot act" and told to never go near "those people" again. In my young adult life, I met gay friends whom I dearly loved. Growing up they were referred to (negatively then) as "queers." 

    Prejudice is both blatant and insidious.

        Leta

Wild Lights

November 25--Settled in Ohio

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.  --Christopher Columbus

    I made the 600-mile drive yesterday in 10 hours flat. I really did not speed that much. It was foggy for a few hours, then I finally got to see the sun. I was able to unload, unpack and settle in before my niece returned home from school. The big event I joyfully anticipated finally happened--I surprised my niece with the painting I had done for the bedroom I use at her house. She loves it! I told her it would have been OK if she didn't like it--that I would just take it back home and enjoy it myself. Now I have another project while I'm here--to hang it above the bed. 

    Already a great trip!!

        Leta

The beach even has real sand!

November 24--Approx 400 miles east of Wichita

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.  --Earl Nightingale

    I had a cloudy, foggy trip to Wentzville, otherwise uneventful, which is a good thing. The audiobook, carrots and Fritos did their jobs of keeping me awake. I did take a half-hour break in the early afternoon. I had a lovely visit with my in-laws. My M-I-L has a cold, which had I known, I would have stayed elsewhere to not bother her. My plan is to leave the cold stuff in Missouri!

    I'm going to leave by 5am to get to Stow, Ohio, before dark. 

    More tomorrow,

        Leta

More joy from Wild Lights,
Sedgwick County Zoo