Santa, Please.
Tag: Life experiences
Countdown to Christmas 2025: “Thou Shalt LOVE, Not Hate” — Day Thirteen 12/13/25
From December 1-25, I’ll be sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.
An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.
Today Fugelsang reminds us that “The God of the Bible consistently takes an unambiguously compassionate stance toward immigrants and strangers.
Jesus commands individuals and nations to welcome the stranger and warns they’ll be judged by how well they do it.
Cruelty to immigrants, while deeply popular today, violates those tedious woke themes of compassion, justice, and inclusivity in both Old and New Testaments.
And before our conservative friends get upset, I acknowledge that societies need to have restrictions on who can enter. I’m not calling for open borders or amnesty; that was Ronald Reagan. But people can support restrictions on immigration without weaponizing the Bible to smear refugees or asylum seekers as criminals.
Humans don’t need to hate or scapegoat immigrants, and Christ followers aren’t technically allowed to.” p. 165
Thank you, John Fugelsang. Very True!
One-Word Wednesday 12/10/25
Spectacular!
I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but when the guards weren’t looking, HR somehow managed to “confiscate” Van Gogh’s spectacular masterpiece (on the day of our ninth anniversary, no less). Then with his uncanny abilities, dastardly reduce the treasure to pin/brooch size!
He obviously didn’t think I would notice his new “pin” (he has a zillion).
But I did.
Here we are this morn at our hotel’s breakfast, Robert so casually enjoying his coffee, watching the news, not realizing I was documenting evidence.
Now I must decide what to do about all his travel shenanigans.
We’re Happy-ing Our Anniversary!
Today, December 9, marks the 9th Anniversary of … Us.
Nine years ago today …
*********************
We’re now on a week Anniversary Getaway that started with a busy weekend in Atlanta and continued on to the neatest little boutique hotel in downtown Philadelphia.
Today, HR and I are taking the Amtrak …
… an hour away to a cold New York City for an Anniversary Day Trip.
First stop …
Then the subway to a NYC museum we have never visited …
Fascinating!
On to our Anniversary Meal at Del Frisco’s Grille, Rockerfeller Plaza.
Indeed, a Happy Anniversary.
There’s More Than One Way to Defy Gravity
So this afternoon, HR (Husband Robert, to the uninitiated), Ex-wife Donna and I went to see the current top-grossing film in the nation, Wicked: For Good.
We got our popcorn and headed for Auditorium One, when we decided we REALLY needed photo documentation (well, perhaps I alone decided that, but HR and Donna went along).
In a weird way, just the three of us out together on a movie date is … Defying Gravity.
“It’s time to try defying gravity
I think I’ll try defying gravity
And you can’t pull me down”
I Have Been.
Someone Felt I …
Pulling up to the gas pump at Kroger this morning, I got out of the car …
Walked closer to the pump …
Closer still …
A tad closer …
And I saw Him/Them …
Someone felt I needed … a little Jesus.
I agreed. So I filled up my tank — and walked away with Him.
Smashed
Taking the trash out into the alley behind our place, I ran into this …
“Uh oh,” I thought, “there’s a story here somewhere.”
A discarded (before Halloween!) strange-looking jack-o’-lantern hunkering down at the feet of a thoroughly smashed mirror.
I moved closer, snapping a few photos (I’m not sure why).
“How very sad,” I cringed, “and somebody’s in for some bad luck!”
“You obviously know not of that which you speak,” a crystal clear voice came from the shards.
I walked away, educated.
Five Friday Happy Bringers 10/24/25
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Yummy Muscadine Barbecue Wings I made the other night.
2. Walking into PetSmart and seeing this Halloween costume display for doggies.
Seriously?
3. Our sense of Sound. What are you hearing right now? Pause for a second and be mindful of all the sounds in your experience at this moment. Even if some of those sounds are perhaps a bit annoying (hello neighborhood dog that will not stop barking), still, what a blessing to be able to hear!
4. Being mesmerized by more than 10,000 pumpkins (!) on display on a recent trip to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
(P.S. I asked one of the garden workers what would happen to all of the pumpkins when they were removed. She told me they would be made into mulch for the garden. I felt better after that.)
5. This quirky drawing of a goat.
May something quirky give you a bit of happiness this weekend!
Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 10/20/25
Marveling this morn.
Participating in the Savannah Photo Club’s Third Sunday Photo Walk yesterday, I came across this very mature, dead-looking rambling rose bush.
But as I got closer, i saw a defiant splash of red beckoning me through the branches.
A brilliant late-October duo.
“Old does not mean dead,” they said in unison.
NealEnJoy 