TheBanyanTree: The Christmas Season . . . . .(sigh)

[NancyIee at aol.com]

I put up my little fibre-optic tree. It's small enough to set on the kitchen 
island and, thusly, be seen throughout the house.  I sleep in the living room, 
the only room large enough to accomodate the king-sized bed (while the master 
bedroom is being expanded).

I attend Christmas concerts and a special church service, and in concert with 
friends, we buy and wrap packages for a camp of farm workers, many of them 
illegals, bit, oh, the kids.

I am particularly nostalgic at Christmas, in part due to the fact my family 
is 2000 miles away. My sis is in Orlando, and perhaps our paths will cross yet 
this holiday. I hope so. 

The gifts I bought and so carefully wrapped, were all gone by U.P.S. last 
week. I read my Christmas cards, touched by the spark of renewed friendship, and 
I wonder why all these people don't keep in touch the rest of the year, too.  
Perhaps its only the spark we need.

With the world at some war or other, and lives being lost, any reminder of a 
gentler, more loving existance is needed.

I read in the paper that a small band of ninth grade students painted a 
swastika over the classroom door of a Jewish teacher. They also defaced a teddy 
bear she had in her classroom by writing, in German, something Hitler once said 
about the Jews.  So much for "Good will for all."  My emotion at such an act is 
in turmoil, somewhere between the wish to soundly beat the offenders and 
ground them a couple of decades, and praying for their misguided souls.

So, we enter the week before Christmas.  I wonder what HE would make of the 
world today.

Love and best wishes to all my Cheers and Banyan friends, wherever you are.

NancyLee