The Pink Flamingo riding a motorcycle is a Christmas ornament from my daughter. It signifies that The Pink Flamingos (us) are on Sabbatical. (Vibrance Real Estate LLC.) We don't ride motorcycles, but you get the spirit of them—freedom.
Incidentally, before Christmas, I parked beside a bevy of Harley Davidson motorcycle riders, about 20 or so, at a stop light. Every one of the riders was dressed in some replica of a Santa outfit, red boots with white furry tops, lights in a Santa hat, colored lights on their bike, Santa pants—gotta show their Harvey jackets, though. They were turning to go onto the freeway, and I was going straight, so I got the full benefit of them. A girl-rider and I gave each other a thumbs up, the light turned to green, the Santa lookalikes rived their ear-splitting motors, entered an on-ramp, and disappeared down the freeway, red hats waving in their wake.
Here we are on the last day of the year, and it's Tuesday, I think—I lose track.
Remember the Christmas pageants of Jesus being born, Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds, and the wise men, all that? I was distracted a few moments ago by a fabulously funny, quirky blog by Allie Brosh titled Hyperbole and a Half. I laughed at her version of the nativity. As a kid she looked forward to the pageant—but it was lame, so she went home and enrolled grandparents, and parents into her own rousing version—yelling at the innkeeper, wise men with no gifts, baby Jesus came flying in from stage right—since she didn’t know anything about childbirth—all that. I was glad I was sitting down.
Laugh yourself into the day—let's try that tomorrow on the first day of the year. I'll try. You try, and let's see what we come up with. Let's have fun and be nice again.
During Christmas shopping on the day before Christmas Eve, I visited Barnes and Noble Bookstore—a coffee shop in a bookstore is one of my favorite things. After upgrading my buying card, where they gave me a great canvas book bag for free,
I sat down for a break with a cup of coffee and began reading one of their books.
To give you an idea of where I'm coming from, one day, long ago, when my husband was studying at Lindfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, we attended the student production of Inherit the Wind. I still remember the superb actor who played Clarence Darrel, the lawyer defending the science teacher, John Scopes, who was prosecuted in 1925 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school. Darrel lost the trial but won the war—they now teach evolution in schools.
When Darrel slapped two books together, the Christian Bible and Darwin's Origin of the Species, stuck them under his arm and walked off stage, I felt I was hit by an anvil.
On some level, I knew science and religion didn't have to argue, but it took years to integrate them.
With that mindset, I picked up the book those two days before Christmas, and began reading The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes. It was the combined 1926 version and the expanded 1938 version, as heavy as the dictionary I used to carry to English class because I was a poor speller. We students would get an F on our essays if two words were misspelled. However, we were allowed to use a dictionary, and thus, I passed the class.
When I read Holmes' words, we shouldn't accept the ideas presented by some who say that the world is full of hatred and all is rotten. "Your work," he said, "is to not to go there." I silently screamed, "I need this book!"
It was an expensive book by today's standards now that we are used to Kindle versions, and that book was two inches thick, at 776 pages—but I bought it and gave it to myself for Christmas.
Let's do a little sleuthing with the help of old Ernest Holmes. Interesting last name, Holmes.
The writer of Genesis in the Christian Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God."
And he made everything and it was good.
According to Holmes, great thinkers of all times have taught that we live in a threefold universe: Body, Mind, and Spirit. I always thought that was the holistic approach to health, treating all aspects of the person, mind, body, and spirit.
Yet, all around, we see threesome aspects. In science, it is Intelligence, Substance, and Result. (Or Idea, development, success)
The Law of Attraction says, Ask, Believe, Receive.
The Trinity of the Bible says the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Bible began by saying that God was the word. If we said that the Holy Spirit is the word of God, and God the Father is the one who gets things done, then the Son would be the result.
These are models, folks. We read for fun or enlightenment—here’s a little of both.
Earlier I mentioned that the arbor in our front yard blew over. See that long package on the table? That's our new arbor. Daughter's present to me.
