Good Will Unto All...

This is Christmas Eve and I have just baked..again. The house is filled with the sweet aroma of butter tarts and the spiciness of meat balls. The kitchen floor is washed and I quit. No more baking ... that five pounds will have taken up permanent residence on my hips.
While I was chopping, measuring, whipping and pouring I was thinking of how fortunate I am. Finally after years of uncertainty I have peace in my life.
This year has had it's ups and downs. January started off just about as bad as it can get when Mom went to be with our Dad. I can hear my mother saying, "When I am gone, don't grieve for me. Get on with your life." Yeah right Mom. There have been moments when I have found that hard to follow. As she did not hold with disobedience I have done my best. Some days are pretty damn hard.
I lost forty pounds, which is a good thing. We ARE getting older, the alternative is not in my game plan so I deal with the aches and pains.
Work, or rather the lack of lately, has been a little of a stress builder. What it has shown me is how much I really NEED to live on and how much I spend.
In the spirit of this season, I would like to add this thought. There is no need for "Political correctness." Canadians lived for years with out it. What we had, which is now lacking, is respect. I wished my co worker a Merry Christmas and he accepted it in the spirit it was given and when he said Happy Hanukkah I knew what he meant. We shared our wishes and extended blessings in the context of our cultural beliefs. This respect was taught to our children. We are all children of a higher power AS WE SEE HIM/HER. If you truly believe in your higher power suppose you show it with understanding and respect?
Fanatics will always be with us. There is evil afoot in the world. Throughout history, there has been a desire for world domination by one sect, religion, country or culture. I find it interesting that Ronald Regan, shortly after becoming President of the United States, said, "How quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world." I realize many will snort and take that as a fanciful statement but as a child of the 50's, before micro waves, cel phones, computers and walks in space, I have to ask, " Have you looked at what has happened in the last 40 years?" Are you so smug as to think even that is out of the realm of possibility? Where will the fanatics be then?
If I can't ask that question on my own blog well then where the heck can I?
So here we are on the cusp on a new year. We over taxed and over caffeinated Canadians can look out on the world and shake our heads as we give our country away smug in the belief that everyone likes us. Our total indifference will be the end of the country as we have known it. We are perceived to be weak in the eyes of the world. The Olympics last February may have been our swansong on the world stage. Only time will tell.

My Christmas wish this year is that we step out, make eye contact and say, "Merry Christmas"  with warmth and feeling so that regardless of the words the true feeling of "peace on earth, goodwill unto all" will be conveyed. Who could be offended by that? Someone will be whether we say it or not.
Merry Christmas to all my readers. May we all know the peace that passes understanding .