Many Thanks

to those of you that attended the Christmas Eve yoga practice for
People Gotta Eat and to Elaine Sizemore for allowing us to use the
space at Good Shepherd. WE raised a total of $407.34. To my under-
standing there is a matching grant which will double the donated amount
to $814.68, allowing $5,702.76 worth of food to be purchased.

Reading

We clap our hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait awhile with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Janist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas, a halting of hate time.

We Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the world aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, my Brother
Peace, My Sister
Peace, My Soul.
~Maya Angelou

Weekly Reading

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. 
The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! 
How much you can love! 
What you can accomplish! 
And what your potential is!"
- Anne Frank

Weekly Reading

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made the effort.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.
~Author Unknown

Weekly Reading

The Sun

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

 

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

 

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

 

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

 

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

 

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

 

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

 

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

 

~ Mary Oliver 

Weekly Reading

Fall Song

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

~ Mary Oliver 

Weekly Reading

A Yogi’s Prayer
May all who are mean return to good;
May all who are good obtain true peace.
May all who are peaceful be freed from bonds;
May all who are free set others free.

Blessings upon all the earth;
May all of the world’s rulers uphold righteousness.
May only good fortune reach everyone;
May all the world’s creatures be happy.

May rain fall when the earth is thirsty;
May all the storehouses be filled.
May everyone here be free from injury;
May all who are good be free from fear.

May everyone know a life of joy;
May everyone live a life of health.
May everyone see only good in the world;
May everyone soon be released from pain.

May everyone overcome all their woes;
May everyone see only good in the world.
May everyone realize all their desires;
May everyone everywhere be glad.

May our mother and father be blessed;
Blessings upon every creature on earth.
May our works flourish and aid everyone,
And long may our eyes see the sun.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti (peace).