Astro Report, a Word from Me...and a Prayer...

Good Morning!

It's a cold one here in Southern Wisconsin and going to
feel even colder as the winds pick up today....but that
is alright...the winds of change are blowing, eh?

I trust You All had a Wonderful Thanksgiving... Connecting
with Family and Friends and Celebrating your Blessings?

Now we are on to the next Holiday...Celebrating Yule/Christmas.

My DD brought up the tree from the shed last week for me.
It is up and I've been picking at it...trying to get all the
branches uniform...it is little tree we have had for some
years now and at this point looks more like a Charlie Brown
tree, which is fine with me.  I used to go out and cut down
a Charlie Brown tree but now, well, I just can't bring myself
to cut down a living tree.  I know they smell wonderful and
we farm them for the purpose of Yule/Christmas, but I can't
do it.  And...I can buy potpourri that smells like a Frazer Fir
or candles already scented to do the same thing.  I'll leave
the tree cutting to the natural progression of things in the
forest.  I know other people love putting up trees in their
homes and I don't have a problem with that, I just cannot
do it.  So please don't think I'm judging those that do?  I'm
not.

So...do you put up a tree?  How do you celebrate Yule?  Or
do you celebrate Christmas?  Or Both?  Or do you even
celebrate at all?  There are many traditions all over the
world that are different but just as important.

Now, I must unearth the decorations from my closets and
get busy being creative.  Living alone, sometimes I think it
just isn't worth it, but I quickly put myself in check, and
remember my Grandchildren who love to see my home all
decked out in my Snow People (whom I have been collecting
for some years now) as well as all the things my Children
made for me as they grew up.  As I hold each thing my Children
made for me, it always feels Sacred, Holy, and takes me back
to a time when things were not so good in our lives but we
somehow managed to make things work for us.  Which is what
it is all about anyway...Family pulling together in Love to create
a time of Peace and Goodwill.  Out of that we created some
really good memories and I shall cherish those moments always.

In doing a little research on the song 'O Christmas Tree'  I found
several different versions which can be found here:

http://german.about.com/library/blotannenb2.htm   and from what
I read there, there are at least a dozen more translations from the
original, plus the literal translation.  So if you are interested, pop
over and check it out.  This is one carol I so love to hear and sing
at this time of year...I've many more I love too but there is just
something about this carol that moves me...how we pay tribute to
a Living Tree of Creator's....how its boughs can teach a lesson.

As we move into the season of Peace and Goodwill toward all
Living Things perhaps we can all think about our place on this
Good Earth...our relationship to it, what we bring to it in terms
of consciousness towards our planet, what footprints we leave
and how we treat Mother Earth, our Goodwill toward Her?

Today I leave you with a Beautiful Prayer written by Caroline
Myss...well actually I don't know if she wrote it or not but I
found it on her website and just fell in love with it.....and I
hope you have a day of extreme Peace and Goodwill.  :)

Morning Prayer...

  I am committed to feeling a bond with each person I meet,
to respecting my own integrity and honor, to living within the
energy of love and compassion and returning to that energy
when I don't feel it, to making wise and blessed choices with
my will, to maintaining perceptions of wisdom and non-judgement,
to release the need to know why things happen as they do, and
not to project expectations over how I want this day to be and
how I want others to be.  And finally, my last prayer, "to trust
the Divine."  And with that I bless my day with gratitude and love.

A'HO!

P.S.  I celebrate both Yule and Christmas...I love both and
have tradition with both.  I honor the Christ Child at Christmas
because it feels right within my soul....celebrating the Son/Sun!
The rebirth of the New Born King....