The Wrong shall fail, The Right Prevail

I love the old Christmas carol, I heard the bells on Christmas Day, which is actually a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  I especially like the final stanza.   We always sing the final stanza louder and with much enthusiasm.  

GOD IS NOT DEAD, NOR DOTH HE SLEEP

Everything is going to be ok.   The nation will not fail under Trump.  I will not fail under my current circumstances. God is good and has a plan for me.

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Here's the list

My family has been bugging me lately to provide them with a list of things I would like to have for Christmas. The very request has a lot to do with why I am labeled Scrooge.   I hate to make out a list?  I thought it was supposed to be about the giving and not the getting.   My list could be very simple.   "Just get me something that comes from your heart" would be a very easy answer.

However, since Christmas is next week I thought I had better do what the family is asking.  So here is my list:

• A recliner to sleep in while I watch the Cardinals win the world series next year.  You know it's going to happen and I need a recliner.   I currently have to sleep on a couch that is too short for me to watch the tv from.
• While we are talking about the Cardinals, I need someone to plan a trip to St Louis next summer to see the Cardinals play Boston and the Yankees.  Both teams are coming to St Louis in 2014.   I NEED to go and someone else should plan the trip (tickets, hotel, etc)
• We need another family vacation like the one we had last summer.  It was great and doing that again would be a great present.
• I NEED a Browning T-Bolt .22.   I don't hunt much but I am 55 years old and didn't really get to enjoy a Corvette for a mid-life crisis.   A beautiful .22 to give to my grandson some day shouldn't be too much to ask for.
• I want headphones for my iPod, iPhone, iPad (yes, I have all 3).   I want some red ones and I want them to be those really cool old fashion kind that I see the young people wearing these days.  They NEED to have great sound.  No Bose.  Too expensive.
• I want to go to Oshkosh to the airshow next summer.  Who wants to go with me?
• I want someone to help me clean out my closet of all the old shirts, slacks and ties.   Let's take some of them to the thrift store.   But wouldn't it be really neat to cut some of them up and make a quilt out of them and then take the quilt to someone who needs it.  
• Since I gave all my clothes away, someone had better take me shopping so I can buy some new clothes.
• I NEED a picture of my grandchildren to display in my office.
• I need someone to help me clean up and organize my garage and storage building and home office.  They are a mess but they always have been.  So no hurry on this one.
• I want one of these:
  
• Or one of these:
• 
• Or one of these:
  

 

 

I am really going now.   This should get the family started but I am sure I will add more to the list very soon.   My birthday is in February.   They will need a list for that event also.

Pull yourself up and do something

We all know that the holidays can be a very depressing time for some people.   There are many reasons that may be but that is not the purpose of this post.   I am not talking about clinical depression.   I am talking about the winter time “blues.” Dale Partridge recently blogged about steps to pull yourself out of those “blues”.

Here are the steps he suggest:

·         Serve someone who needs you.

·         Be nice to yourself

·         Drink a beer, but not 7

·         Stop working so freaking hard

·         Change your scenery, literally

·         Then repeat as many time as necessary 2 Timothy 1:7 – “I’ve not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind”

So get up out of that recliner where you are feeling sorry for yourself and go ring a bell for the Salvation Army or something similar.

Don’t forget, it’s Christmas time.