In Response to Wrathnar's "Thought-provoking Seasonal Blog"
May
I offer one of my own?
I see so many contributors to blogs of this kind whose take on life is so damn "cool" as to be cold and dispassionate beyond bearing. People with weird names and weirder profile pics emerge from the woodwork to pour scorn on anyone who dares to say "I love you so much" ... and mean it.
Is that what life is all about today? No passion? Is youth so enamoured of its own intellect and atheistic credentials that every expression of spirituality - of faith and love - must be dumped on as a matter of honour? Are we so bereft of understanding that we are happy to stand by while Wren's most beautiful contribution to London's sky-line is defiled? Do we care any more? I hope we do but fear not.
Is it a commentary on the life we live today that so many children are in need of adoption? I hope it isn't so but I'm too old now to do anything about it.
I am posting this on the winter solstice; the Yuletide for Pagans and a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Whatever your belief, and I hope with all my heart you have one ... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Am
I see so many contributors to blogs of this kind whose take on life is so damn "cool" as to be cold and dispassionate beyond bearing. People with weird names and weirder profile pics emerge from the woodwork to pour scorn on anyone who dares to say "I love you so much" ... and mean it.
Is that what life is all about today? No passion? Is youth so enamoured of its own intellect and atheistic credentials that every expression of spirituality - of faith and love - must be dumped on as a matter of honour? Are we so bereft of understanding that we are happy to stand by while Wren's most beautiful contribution to London's sky-line is defiled? Do we care any more? I hope we do but fear not.
Is it a commentary on the life we live today that so many children are in need of adoption? I hope it isn't so but I'm too old now to do anything about it.
I am posting this on the winter solstice; the Yuletide for Pagans and a time for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Whatever your belief, and I hope with all my heart you have one ... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Am
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18 Comments
Some may have their own reasons not to feel like entering into the joys of this season, and that is sad and I sympathise, and if anything could be done to help such people find some enjoyement, too, then that would be great. But I don't agree with those whose lack of empathy for this celebratory time of year extends to deriding those who freely enter into the enjoyement of commemorating the birth of THE most influential man in the history of mankind, or others who simply want to celebrate nature (shhh - because I know the same Man is behind that, too - hee, hee, hee. Don't tell.)
So I readilly add my very best wishes to all Cloudies. I hope you will have lots of good times to remember over the coming weekend. Happy Christmas, everyone.
Even if Jesus was born in April... *cheeky grin*
I wasn't going to tell you guys about it, but I won't be able to join in as much as usual this year (or any other year) cos I've had a attack of gout. Gout is unbelievably painful (I once broke my elbow - cracked the radius and broke the end off the ulna - which wasn't half as painful). Basically, needle-like crystals of urea grow in your flesh and bone, thousands of them, packed together like bristles on a brush. I have it in my heel and along one side of my foot all the way to the tip of my little toe, so walking is agony. It's treatable these days, with Colchicine to dissolve the crystals and Allopurinol to prevent their regrowth, but the side effects are pretty horrendous (stomach pains, very sore throat and splitting headache) and I also have to go on a low-purine diet, which means I can't drink alcohol, the only meat I can have is white fish, I can't have dairy products (no icy-cream!) or stuff with wheat flour in (including biscuits, pastries and cake), or chocolate - really, there's not much I can eat at all. So, no xmas dinner, no booze-ups, not just this year but for the rest of my life, which makes it hard to feel very festive. However, as long as I stick to the diet etc, my GP says I could go for years without a recurrence of the gout.
I honestly don't resent everyone else having a good time, and I don't regard the infliction as divine retribution, although some people might like to imagine that it is exactly that!
I hope everyone has a brilliant xmas, and I pertickly include Amarantha and Tony in my sincere best wishes for a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
I love Christmas for many different reasons.
I love giving pressies, especially to my son, and his g/f. I love crisp mornings and dark evenings; wrapping up warm to go for a walk. Bare trees and, being a southerner, I love the snow.
I'm not religeous in that I don't follow any specific belief, but I do like to remember people I've lost, and spiritually it does feel like a very special time of year to remember them, the past and to look forward to the future.
Hope your Christmas and New Year are both magical and prosperous. x
A lot of your 'can't have's are similar to ours (due to Lucy's allergies), so I have some wicked recipes that allow us to have treats despite no dairy, eggs or nuts... that and loads of things like dairy-free ice cream (it's really nice - kind of like halfway between ice cream and a sorbet) are now available. Near enough all the recipes can also be converted to gluten free (they don't need wheat flour), using spelt or rice flour. If you want any recipes or links to stuff we eat, then let me know ;-)
Came to earthclinic. I found the apple cider vinegar "from Braggs" and "with the Mother ", baking soda, honey, dried cherry capsules, alfalfa capsules. I placed 3 tspns of vinegar into 8oz glass of water with about a teaspoon of baking soda (Hammer). Put honey in my mouth which made it easier to drink the concoction along with 3 capsules of both the dried cherries and alfalfa. Within the hour I felt the pain dissipate. Later that night I took same before I went to bed, and next morning the gout was substantially diminshed in pain by 50%. That morning I drank another serving, and during the day it got better and better. Basically over a period of two days the gout was completely gone. I am goin to continue taking this everyday just to keep my pH alkaline."
Since further attacks can be fended off by careful diet, I spose gout is far from the worst thing that can happen to a person. I may even succeed in losing some weight! I'm gonna save up for a vaporiser pipe so I can still go to the pub (I don't want to be the skeleton at the feast) and everyone will wonder how I'm getting so stoned drinking fruit juice. Anyway, I'll adapt, so no need to worry about me.
This book really helped me, because it not only has good recipes in it, but goes into how to substitute - basically, it teaches you what you are substituting and why. So, for example, Lucy can't have eggs, and this book explains the job of eggs in cooking and how to substitute them. It really helped me when my confidence in being able to deal with our new diet (we eat as a family, so we all have to eat like Lucy otherwise it isn't fair) was low.
Jill: thanks, but I'm not actually dead- oh, hang on, I am aren't I? Anyway, being missed is better than being hit!
Scabs, whoever you are, I'm so sorry to learn of your pain and hope Steve's remedy works for you.
Gerry, my name is simply an acknowledgement of the life eternal, as is that of my brother Emrys. Given names do have a profound influence on our lives and the lives of others, which is why I recoil from the ugliness of some chosen ones.
Again, have a wonderful Christmas everyone and I wish you a comfortable 2012. Keep calm and carry on.
Am XX
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