A MESSAGE FROM DEIRDRE

"Talk happiness; talk faith; talk health. Say you are well, and all is well with you, and God shall hear your words and make them true."
- Ella Wheeler-Wilcox
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My Dear Friends and Family,

Welcome to the latest issue of Messages from SpiritLight at Home offering inspirational thoughts, insights into new, useful, fun, sometimes unusual and interesting ideas and some of my favorite links on the Internet.

For some, Christmas is now a memory as Chanukah continues. And as we look forward to new beginnings in the New Year, hope spreads from every corner of the world for peace in our universe. Yes! May the light of this holy season surround us all.

In a few days, a door all over the world at some point in time will open to a brand new year. What does that mean to you and me? I know what it will mean for me. It will mean new people are about to enter my life. New doors will open. New experiences will be cast upon me. And new paths will be shown to me.

Conversely, I will also be carrying with me into this new year, old habits, old lovers, friends and family, old patterns of living, and the road on which I've been traveling that faces my back as the old door closes. Wonderful memories - sad memories. It will be up to me whether that door slams shut, or if it closes slowly and steadily behind me, and the key of the year 2005 finally locks it all away.

In the locking of that door, all of us will have infinite new choices to make. And those decisions will affect not only us, but those around us. It is not by mistake that the world is a circle. We live surrounded by cyclical events, being affected by them and walking together, side by side, in one large circle. What comes to us, eventually leaves, and what leaves, eventually returns. What we have left behind, we will be sure to experience again at some point in the future. And the cycle continues.

So, will we try to put behind us the pain of yesteryear? The failures - those things we will consciously choose to forget? Can we forgive ourselves for any misdeeds, thoughtlessness, digressions that we are carrying into the next phase of our lives?

To leave behind all those things, we really do need to remember them, learn from them and then cast them away at the doorstep to be locked up tight behind the closing door to our past – to consciously remember all those hurt feelings, those painful moments, that time in one's life when it was much easier to turn our backs and walk away instead of dealing with the problem head on. So that when we reach the same part of the circle again, we are wiser and more equipped to handle them. It is all part of our learning process. The old adage of 'Let bygones to be bygones' is so true, but the statement forgets to add 'But learn from them.'

And so, what about our successes? The accomplishments - those things we might unconsciously forget, but need to remember? It is always easy to carry over the misfortunes and to leave behind the accomplishments. And so necessary to remember to do the exact opposite. Can we rejoice in our kindnesses, the love we have shown to others when no love was guaranteed in return, or the little things we did for someone that nobody ever knew about?

As it follows then, it is just as important to consciously remember all the good things. So that having stored away all those hurtful things, we can then move on. For it is only the good things that should be packed and ready for the journey into the next year. These are the experiences that will hold you in reserve as your new and emerging life begins as the year 2006 unfolds. If you have thrown out the negative and replaced it with the positive, you will have made the room necessary in which to grow.

There are many this year, in particular, who will traverse slowly into this new year. They will bring with them tremendous burdens and heavy hearts. They will shed tears of loss for loved ones who made a very special journey this year – one that returned them back home. But be assured that those we have lost are not really 'lost.' They are whole again, they live again, and they are at peace.

For all the dear folks who completed their missions this year on this earth, I pray for their spirits to be lifted high and that their loved ones will have the knowledge that all was not lost when they departed. For our loved ones live on in another world, a parallel universe, one that is very close to us, side by side. Remember the miraculous ways about them, and eventually, those memories will sustain you.

So, my dear friends, in this renewal at the beginning of the year 2006, be patient with yourselves and be kind to each other. Walk into the new year, hand in hand, with heads held high, a heart full of love for all mankind, and truly experience the hope for the future that awaits us all.

My wish for you all is that:

"Whatever dreams you're dreaming,
may each one of them come true.
Whatever plans you're making,
may they all work out for you.
And may you have more happiness
than any words can tell.
Not only on this day,
but all the year as well.
May you have a little sunlight
to guide you on your way.
May you discover, little by little,
happiness that's here to stay.
May you grow a little stronger
and a little wiser with each dawn
May you have a little time to
believe in dreams to dream upon
May all the joy your heart desires
find its way to you.
And may the blessings that brighten up your days
keep on shining through." - Author Unknown

With Love and Light Always,

Deirdre

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INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS - I

Inspirational Thoughts -- Brought to you from various resources around the Globe. We embrace all religions at SpiritLight at Home and will endeavor to bring to you inspirational stories that can be applied to your own beliefs.

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This comes from a dear friend, Judi Neal, and I reprint it here with her permission. I found it a much needed and a necessary reminder to us all that we are each of us brothers and sisters in this wonderful universe of ours.

"Dear Friends,

I wanted to forward this Compassion Prayer during these holidays (Holy Days).

COMPASSION PRAYER

Heavenly Father, help us to remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic is a single mother who worked nine hours and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting is student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not just to those who are close to us, but to all humanity!

Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love."

Judi is the Founder of the Association of Spirit at Work. Please do explore their website.

"Angel of Inspiration" is reprinted with permission by the artist, J Ann Masiker.

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS - II. Rumi: A Passionate Heart Still Beats

"The fragrance, my friend, that floats to you this moment, streams from the tent of the secrets of God.” Rumi

THREE TRAVELERS TELL THEIR DREAMS
A lesson on action and the spirit from a great Sufi mystic.
By Jelalluddin Rumi (version by Coleman Barks)
Reprinted (in part) from "The Soul of Rumi" (HarperSanFrancisco).

Three devout men of different religions fall in together by chance traveling. They stop at a caravanserai where the host brings as a gift a sweet dessert, some taste of God's nearness. This is how people out in the country serve strangers.

The Jew and the Christian are full, but the Muslim has been fasting all day. The two say, "Let's save it for tomorrow."

The one, "No. Let's save self-denial for tomorrow!"

The two, "You want it all for yourself! Divide it into three parts, and each can do as he wants."

The one, "Ah, but Muhammed said not to share. That was about dividing yourself between sensuality and soul. You must belong to one or the other."

But finally, for some reason, he gives in, "I'll do it your way."

They refrain from tasting. They sleep, and then wake and dress themselves to begin morning devotions.

Christian, Jew, Muslim, Shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged. This subject never ends!

Three friends in a grand morning mood. "Let us tell what dreams we had last night; whoever has had the deepest dream gets the halvah."

Agreed.

The Jewish man begins the wanderings of his soul. "Moses met me on the road; I followed him to Sinai: an opening door, light within light. Mt. Sinai and Moses and I merged in an exploding splendor, the unity of the prophets." This was a true dream. Many Jews have such.

Then the Christian sighs, "Christ took me in his arms to the fourth heaven, a pure vast region....I cannot say...." His is also deep.

The Muslim, "Muhammed came and told me where you two had gone. 'You wretch,' he said, you've been left behind! You may as well get up and eat something."

"No!" laughed the Christian and the Jew.

"How could I disobey such glory? Would you not do as Moses and Jesus suggest?"

"You're right," they say. Yours is the truest dream, but it had immediate effect in your waking life."

What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.

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What is it about this 13th-century mystic that has everyone from Hollywood stars to small-town Christians talking?

The following is adapted from an article written by Kimberly Winston: (Adapted from an article originally appearing in the Dallas Morning News.)

"In the middle of the 13th century, a Muslim mystic cupped his palm around a pillar in a Turkish mosque, spinning and uttering ecstatic poetry so beautiful that almost 800 years later his poems are selling out in bookstores across America.

Who was this Rumi? And why is he, a man who lived and died in a culture so far removed from ours in time and temperament, so well-known and loved?

"People have dreams of Rumi, visions of Rumi, they feel him, they sense him," said Shahram Shiva, a Persian who translates and performs Rumi's poems. "He is accessible. He is almost eager to reach out to people, to touch people, to help them, to uplift them. This is not just a case of beautiful words on paper. It is a case of the cosmic force of this man who lived 800 years ago now living in this world in some subtle form, just as a saint or a prophet would."

Jalalu'ddin Rumi, usually referred to by his last name alone, was born in 1207 in Afghanistan. His father, part of the mystical Sufi branch of Islam, brought his family to Turkey to escape invading Mongols. Rumi grew up to become a religious scholar, eventually taking over his father's position as sheikh, or head, of an Islamic learning community.

His life seemed to be pretty routine for a Turkish theologian until 1244. Then, in the streets of Konya, he met a mystic, Shams al-Din (“Sun of Religion") of Tabriz. The two men became inseparable, sharing a mystical conversation that went on for months, through all hours of the day and night. The mysterious Shams became a kind of spiritual mentor to Rumi, leading him to contemplate places in his soul he had never looked into before.

After his initial meeting with Shams, Rumi became a mystic, as he held one hand around a pillar in his mosque, speaking in poetry as he turned and turned. His followers wrote down his poems--and copied his movements, which today survive in the Mevlevi order of "whirling dervishes" they eventually founded.

Rumi made his way to the USA in the 1960s when a generation looked far outside the United States for spiritual sustenance. What readers found were poems of high emotion, many of which described an almost passionate love of the divine.

"Rumi is not writing these esoteric poems, but he is writing about the human condition," says Dr. James Fadiman, co-author of “The Essential Sufism” (Harper San Francisco). "He is saying you can use the world to describe the higher world. You are just a drop in the ocean, but inside that drop is all of the universe. The divine is totally in you and in everything else."

"Rumi is all about the opening of the heart, which I think people are interested in as a way of getting out of the God clubs and into the more universal feeling of the sacred," he said. "Rumi says the sacred space is everywhere and the text is your own life, rather than the sacred is...exclusive."

"The secret of Rumi's popularity in the U.S. is Coleman Barks," he said. "There are lots of other translators now – at least six or 10 of them. Many of them have flashes of brilliance, but Coleman is consistently moving."

Mr. Barks, a published poet in his own right, does not craft his own translations from the original Persian, but starts with existing English translations and reworks them. His "The Essential Rumi" (HarperSanFrancisco, 1995) has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, more than twice any other title in the publisher's "Essential" series, including "The Essential Jesus" and "The Essential Kabbalah." A new Barks collection, entitled "The Soul of Rumi," was published by HarperSanFrancisco in September.

A native of Athens, Georgia, Mr. Barks was inspired to tackle Rumi when Robert Bly handed him a book of older translations and said "these poems need to be released from their cages." Barks credits the poet's appeal to the fact that his approach to religion was universal.

Rumi was a Muslim, but "He said there are no boundaries between religions," says Barks. "And he said it with such authority and gentleness in 13th century Anatolia while the Crusades were sweeping through. And he still seems to be uniting people. Where they meet is where the heart is.""

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It is your turn now,
you waited, you were patient.
The time has come,
for us to polish you.
We will transform your inner pearl
into a house of fire.
You're a gold mine.
Did you know that,
hidden in the dirt of the earth?
It is your turn now,
to be placed in fire.
Let us cremate your impurities.

- Rumi

FEATURED ARTICLE

This article is quoted in full by Sharon Marquart (again, thank you Judi!). It is so appropriate and inspirational for the New Year, I wanted to pass it along.

YES! Weekly Inspiration Message by Sharon Marquart
Dated December 26th

"December 26th is Boxing Day, a holiday that originated in England during the middle ages. The tradition began because the servant help were required to work on Christmas Day. As a token of gratitude, and to get rid of the leftovers from their festive feasts, goodies were "boxed" up and given to the servants and their families. It is also the Feast of St. stephen. He was one of the original deacons of the Christian Church who was ordained by the Apostles to care for the widows and poor. After the holidays, the alms box was opened and distributed to the poor. In both circumstances, those that "have" were giving to those who "have not" in the spirit of the season. Boxing Day is still celebrated in Great Britain, Canada, and in most colonies settled by England.

As you prepare for the coming year and as a way of embracing your Magnificent Self, see how you can participate in this tradition. I am sure you have received new gifts, new things from the holiday season. Do you have to "smoosh" that brand new sweater you got on top of ten others just so you can close the drawer? Is there space for your new trinket on the mantel or for your new books on the shelves? When you got out your holiday decorations did you have to dig through the "stuff" in the attic or storage bin, stuff you no longer use or haven't looked at in years? Become aware of all that "stuff" stored in your drawers, closets and those hidden nooks and crannies. All of these "things" in storage represent stale,
boxed up energy. Stale energy does not support living a Magnificent Life. This applies to any stale "emotional" energy you may have stored from unresolved issues in your relationships.

As you put your newly gifted items away, fill a box with some of the old things. Box up something you are no longer attached to. Gather up things that are still usable and practical but no longer hold your interest. Sure, maybe it came from your favorite Aunt five Christmases ago, but do you love it? Will you ever use it? Then, let it go! Give your boxes to a rescue mission, a shelter, to a relief agency. Let go of all the old stuff you hold onto just because you think you're "supposed" to. As for the emotional energy, find a way
to release and let go. Try writing letters of closure. They can be letters you mail or letters you write to clear yourself. It is OK to ask for professional help in clearing out emotional energy. The important thing is that you clear out, release and let go.

Know that as you move into a New Year embracing your Magnificent Self and living a Magnificent Life, you have the honor, privilege and pleasure of surrounding yourself with what you love. A Magnificent Life is not about accumulating, then storing away.

Living a Magnificent Life is about surrounding yourself with the people, places and things you love and feeling fully empowered by life. It's about being able to fully enjoy the things that give you a good feeling, a smile on your face and fullness in your heart.

Surround yourself with the all that supports life and you will know magnificence. Set yourself free of the energy drains and claim a rich, full, abundant, magnificent life. Do it now!"

HUMOR FOR THE DAY

Thanks to all who send their heartwarming jokes to cheer us up on a daily basis!
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A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved.

The boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would
speak with her boys. The clergyman agreed, but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the clergyman in the afternoon.

The clergyman, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?"

The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open, wide-eyed. So the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner
tone, "Where is God!!?"

Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!?"

The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him.

When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked,
"What happened?"

The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time, dude. God is missing and they think WE did it!"

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After getting all of the Pope's luggage loaded into the limo, and he doesn't travel light, the driver notices that the Pope is still standing on the curb.

"Excuse me, Your Eminence," says the driver, "Would you please take your seat so we can leave?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "they never let me drive at the Vatican, and I'd really like to drive today."

"I'm sorry but I cannot let you do that I'd lose my job! What if something should happen?" protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.

"There might be something extra in it for you," says the Pope.
Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel.

The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Supreme Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 105 mph.

"Please slow down, Your Holiness!!" pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

"Oh, my God, I'm gonna lose my license," moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.

"I need to talk to the Chief," he says to the dispatcher. The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going a hundred and five.

"So bust him," said the Chief.

"I don't think we want to do that, he's really important," said the cop.

The Chief then asked, "Who ya got there, the Mayor?"

Cop: "Bigger."

Chief: "Governor?"

Cop: "Bigger"

Chief: "Senator?"

Cop: "Bigger"

"Well," said the Chief, "Who is it?"

Cop: "I think it's Jesus!"

Chief: "What makes you think it's Jesus?"

Cop: "He's got the Pope for a limo driver!"

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THE REASON FOR CHRISTMAS

THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

CONTACT INFORMATION

Deirdre J. Miller, RMT
SpiritLight Works, LLC
300 State Street
Suite 413F
New London, CT 06320
860-464-4037
deirdre@spiritlighthome.com

In This Issue:

TIPS FOR THE DAY

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies.

FACTS

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

3. Africans drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

4. Italians drink large amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

5. Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you!

REMEMBERING OUR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN

We send our thoughts and love to all who serve to keep this beautiful world of ours in a state of peacefulness and grace. May God Bless You and Keep You Safe Always!

A Soldier's Christmas

A LATE CHRISTMAS CARD

Thanks to all who sent Christmas greetings! This came from Su and Ginny and was made by Joshua Held in 2002.(http://www.joshuaheld.com).

I found it great fun. Turn up your sound!

I believe the recording was made by Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters in 1954 (Bill Pinkney sings the bass lead) (Atlantic Records, 1954) and song was written in 1942 by Irving Berlin.

Lyrics:
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.

Merry Christmas!

CHRISTMAS QUOTES

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." - Roy L. Smith

"Many merry Christmases, friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on earth, and Heaven at last for all of us." - Charles Dickens