A "Spirited" Letter to My Grandpa

Grandpa,
After our conversation was cut short on Christmas Eve, I really felt the need to write you about my convictions and beliefs. I realize that I am in no way an expert on life, death, the Bible, nor Christ. However, I believe you need to hear the following from someone who not only loves you, but respects your fears, your worries, and your doubt more than you can possibly imagine. So here is my explanation of a soul and life:

************************************************************************
When a baby is born, and she takes her first breath, God fills her body with a unique soul/spirit/essence. This can be best illustrated by filling a glass with water. The baby's body is the glass, and the unique essence is her soul.

As the baby grows into an adult, the glass will take on characteristics of the soul/spirit/essence. Therefore, resembling the essence in most ways. Of course the glass might shake a bit during turbulent times, thus spilling the water. And of course the water will evaporate over time, but that is where spiritual nourishment comes into play. Will the girl fill her glass with the word of God (i.e. scripture), or will she fill her glass with negative thoughts, fears and worries (i.e. air)?

Upon death, the water from her body is poured out and the glass/body/shell is buried in the Earth. The water, her spirit/soul/essences enters the Universe. If she is a Christian, has lived by the teachings of Jesus* and God finds her worthy, her soul will enter another existence (i.e. heaven) where she will be reunited with others. She will be energy/spirit/essence, but she will resemble her former shell/body, so will the others with which is united. I do not think Heaven is a guarantee, but a spiritual "destination" which one can achieve.

*I want to interject that the teachings of Jesus, not those massaged, tweaked and written by Paul in his letters, are where we truly see the grace and love of the "universal" God. If one is to live by the B-Attitudes (sermon on the mount), the lessons of the parables, and the unorthodox friendships Jesus acquired, one truly learns to live for Christ, "working" toward a life HE would want. As Zoe tells me often, "Be Kind, Be Like Christ."

As Biblical scholar, Sandra Glahn wrote in her book Coffee Cup Bible Studies: Kona with Jonah, "To believe that every work of the Bible is true and inspired by God does not necessarily mean we must believe God intends for us to understand every word of it as nonfiction. Assuming otherwise is a mistake made by both believers and nonbelievers."

Works are important, but Grace is what truly interjects and saves us from our selfish goals. Finding a balance between Faith and Works is essential, but it is Grace that allows us to stumble, fall, and try again. If we are truly "working" with the only intent on "getting into heaven," then we have missed out on what we are supposed to be working towards: to be like Christ and show all (every soul on this Earth) the grace that God showed us through His son, Jesus Christ.

STOP THE PRESSES! Christmas Trees are Pagan!

Before I begin this bizarre homage to Christmas traditions, I want to make a few things clear for my readers.

1. I am aware that December 25th was not in the Bible.  We do not know the exact date of Jesus's birth.
2. Most traditions popularized in the early Christian church (i.e. Catholic) were taken from pagan neighbors - converting was super important.
3. I am not making fun of the Jehovah Witnesses.  I admire their tenacity.  However, I enjoy pointing out when people (or organizations) make statements that are cobbled up messes.

Bonnie came over last week to drop off the monthly publications from the Witnesses.  I knew there would at least be one article on how the Pagans were the originators of all things Christmas.  I was not disappointed.  "The Christmas Tree It's Pre-Christian Origin," was rich with assumptions and albeit small, presented three pictures to support the claim.

According to the article, Christmas trees (adorned evergreen trees) were being celebrated before the birth of Jesus.  Look, Jesus didn't ask us to decorate a tree for him.  He never asked us to celebrate his birthday.  I realize this is why Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays, however, I believe the traditions celebrated each year have more to do with family, love and giving than they do with pagans.

Not only were adorned trees popular before Jesus's birth, but they are phallic symbols.  Oh no!  They are tall = must be a penis depicted.  Good grief.

Evergreen - ever green; that is what I think is special about the Christmas tree.  I love the idea of remembering each ornament and giving it a special place on a branch.  I love homemade ones from the ladybugs, and I love honoring traditions that Jim and I bring from our youth as well as ones we've created since having children.  The tree is a remembrance that Jesus's love is ever green.  And in this case, Pagan or not, the tree CAN be a symbol of a Christian Christmas.

A symbol is what we make of it.  To me, a statue of Mary is just a pretty relic.  To others, this statue is a way to speak/pray directly to the spirit of Mary.  Mary then takes that prayer and places it in a high place for God.  If I don't think of the evergreen as anything but a symbol of Jesus's love, why then would I be an abomination in God's eyes?  I am not under some delusion that the tree was created on the first Christmas (December 25th), nor am I praying to the tree.  Why then is the symbol such a horrible one?

The BEST part of the small article are the three pictures of rock carvings depicting trees.  Here is a crude picture taken by my phone (my apologies that it isn't the right direction):

I cannot stop laughing that these drawings are used to illustrate that the evergreen tree was adorned and celebrated before the birth of Jesus.  I think in all three cases we can see that they are trees, #3 definitely looks like an evergreen tree.  But there aren't ornaments or tinsel or other "traditional" decorations.  I am certain the celebrations predating Jesus's birth had beautiful garlands and the like using evergreens.  After all, they were a plentiful tree back then!

On this, the first day of Winter, I am reminded of the celebrations for the winter solstice of years passed.  Some still participate in the changing of the seasons, when the earth is celebrating the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  Solstice means "sun stands still."  On this special night the sun seems to stand still, thus getting reborn.  Does this sound a lot like Jesus's birth?  Birth of a sun or birth of a son.  Interesting how this all began.

Regardless what your winter traditions are, have a blessed time celebrating!

My Longest Book Yet

With only 2 weeks left in the year, I was probably biting off a bit more than I should chew when I started Michael Jackson, The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story last week.

Chiming in at 765 pages, this epic novel was definitely two books in one (or at least I should be able to count it for 2 of my books).  Right?

Anyway, my friend, Colleen, highly recommended it and I must say it was definitely the most amazing story of a person that lived during my lifetime.

I was very into Michael Jackson, probably comparable to the Beiber Fever of today.  I remember going with my parents to the Gibraltar Trade Center to find Michael items.  If I remember correctly, my sister and I left with t-shirts, purses, and buttons with Michael's adorable face front and center.  This was right after Thriller came out, and I had decided that I would marry him one day.  Of course this was after I had made peace with the idea I couldn't marry Jesus, Thomas Edison nor Bing Crosby.

As the book states: "The Whole Story" it was true to that.  The author, J. Randy Taraborrelli, first published the book in 1991, then again in 2003 (with added info), and then finally after Jackson passed in 2009.

The story takes the reader through Michael's younger years, his relationship with Lisa Marie Presley, his alleged child molestation scandals, his three children, and much more.  After all, it is over 700 pages!

I definitely recommend the book, because the author had a great way of captivating the audience into reading more and more.  The life of Michael Jackson reads like a novel, and there are times I had to remind myself this was REAL and not simply a fictitious tale of a recording artist.

Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I am able to finish my goal of 52 books.

Gifts at Christmastime

About a month or so ago, I bought a very special book that I have been eager to start.  However, per the 52 Books in 52 weeks challenge, I have been trying to complete 3 books at once!  With that being said, I have given myself a new challenge starting January 1st.  What exactly is the challenge?

I was inspired by reading a bit of Ann Voskamp's book "One Thousand Gifts; A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are."  So my goals are as follows:

1) I will collect my own list of gifts and use this fantastic app on my phone: 1000 Gifts.  I hope to use it to have one location to enter my gifts.  If I only get to 100 by the end of 2012, that is okay with me.  If I get to 1000, I hope I will be inspired to continue to find the gifts around me each and every day.

2) I have also printed off the 100 Days Calendar.  I would like to fill the 3 spaces in the next two weeks.  However, currently I have only the first entry as: WRITE.  I want to spend time writing each day.  I broke down WRITE into three categories:

• Blog
• Cards/Letters
• Story/Article

I want to be able to write each day.  Whether I am sharing the journey with my readers, or writing a card to a sick friend (or someone I do not know), or whether I spend time writing a new story/article or tweak an existing one.  If I want to be a writer, I have to write.

Hopefully I will be able to fill the other two spots in the entry fields.  We'll see what I desire to spend more time with each and every day.  I also do not plan on doing the 52 books challenge again, so that instead, I can focus more on my own writing and devotion to my family.

Book Signing Tomorrow

A little while ago, I had a post called A Journey To the Past.  Journey is a short story about Dearborn, the city I was born in and the city I now reside.  It was selected to be part of a larger work that is debuting tomorrow.

I will be signing copies of the above book with other authors.  I am blessed to be part of a historical city like Dearborn, and I am excited to see my story in print.  Hopefully not too many changes were made, since I no longer own the rights.

If you are interested in purchasing a book for a special Christmas gift (and autographed by yours truly), stop by:
Andrew A. Mazzara Administrative Services and Conference Center

at Henry Ford Community College
5101 Evergreen, Dearborn, MI

I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Favorite Children's Authors #2B

Here is another picture from the Jan Brett book signing.  She was so extremely gracious.  I was impressed with her ability to stay happy even with all the people in line.  I was in the last 1/3, so she had signed a lot of books at this point.

Favorite Children's Authors #2

If you have never read a Jan Brett book, you are missing out on what I think are one of the best illustrations EVER!  Here are a few of her best loved books:

I had the privilege of meeting Jan Brett at the Ann Arbor District Library a couple of weeks ago.  Ms. Brett was extremely gracious.  She gave a little talk for the children and adults about her new book, Home For Christmas.

I purchased the book for myself (she was only signing one book), and two for the Ladybugs' teachers.  They passed out signed (with ink not computer generated) book plates that I added to the teacher books.  My mom came with me, and we stood in line for quite some time.  However, we were pleased to finally meet Jan Brett up close.

Ms. Brett talking about her newest book

drawing Ms. Brett did during her presentation

Wrong Direction: Rethinking

It has officially been 4 months that I have been on a journey to a healthier me.

When I weighed in this morning, I knew I had gained a few pounds.  After all, we were on vacation, Thanksgiving was just a few days ago, and I didn't work out for an entire week (and a few days plus).  However, Sunday I reevaluated my exercise routine.  With school in full session (the Ladybugs schedule and my teaching schedule), I have very little time alone.  If I spend the time Evie is at preschool in a class, I have no time alone.  I am a person that needs time alone to think, meditate and just chill.

So my new routine is:
Monday 6am: RIPPED
Wednesday 6am: Ultimate Circuit
Friday 6am: RIPPED

I have three Aqua Zumba classes left on Thursday evenings.  I love the class, but it actually exhausts me to then wake up early on Friday mornings.  Therefore, I will not be continuing the class after it is complete.

I also have to state that early morning classes give me empowerment for the rest of the day.  I also am less stressed, due to the endorphins released in the classes.  I am encouraged to continue down the path...even though it is a slow process.