KS&L 88: Holiday Service Part 2

by Tina Erwin

In part I of Holiday Service we discussed the element of spiritual service in doing things for other people throughout the year. How do we view the volume of effort required for Christmas and Hanukkah?

December is a challenge because there seems to be so much for everyone to do:

· Shop for gifts, wrap presents

· Get the Tree

· Decorate the Tree

· Keep the tree watered

· Plan meals

· Grocery shop

· Decorate the house

· Plan parties

· Grocery shop

· Do the holiday cards, buy the stamps, write the yearly letter, collate and mail.

· Help out at school, church and/or office parties

· Grocery shop

· Make the list of food gifts to give

· Grocery shop

· Make all the food, do the baking, package the items

· Mail things

This modest, very incomplete list above usually falls to women who think they have to do it all. Getting your family members to help will reduce some stress and let everyone have the opportunity of doing service. This can be as simple as making the list and letting them make the grocery runs and some of the dinners so that you can do the extras.

The real service is in the patience of doing the mundane, day-to-day things of getting ready. People love a house filled with the smells of the holidays. If your holidays were horrific growing up, mitigate the past sadness by making the present something warmly memorable.

It is so wonderful to come home to a house beautifully decorated with bright candles and wonderful food. The element of the house and the food are tremendous service to all family members.

What makes it difficult for the person doing the planning, cooking, shopping and decorating is that people take their efforts for granted. It just looks so easy. Family members frequently don’t seem grateful for what has been done because you always do it. They are not callous or unkind; it is just that your excellent work is normal to them. Your service is transparent to them but transparent or not, it does not change the fact that it is service all the same. Even if family members do not overtly recognize it, it is appreciated on some level.

You earn the karma for your efforts because you are creating the memories that they will treasure and emulate. You are teaching them what a warm holiday looks and feels like, and that lesson changes the future. That is the purpose of this work, the reason for this effort: creating a pattern of love, hard work and togetherness. This is part of the element of what makes the holidays an important example of spiritual service. In essence, it is the real reason for the season, displaying your love through your service.

KS&L 87: Holiday Service Part 1

by Tina Erwin

The holidays are a great time - so we think. The truth is, most people who do the lion’s share of getting ready for the holidays are frequently overwhelmed with the volume of work that is required to get it all done. The regular schedule of day-to-day responsibilities is magnified with the endless list of extras.

We are also overwhelmed with the concept of the neediness of so many people. Someone's child is sick, someone's relative is dying or has died, it is the anniversary of a death for another person. The homeless shelter needs volunteers, your church is doing charity work and your office has adopted a family to give to at Christmas. Some people are irritable and angry in November and December and we dread living through this time with them. So with all that comes up in this window of time, we quietly ask ourselves: Is it really worth it? Is it really worth the volume of energy to get ready for Christmas or Hanukkah?

The answer is more complicated than we think. The answer may center on our concepts of service. What is service?

Service is frequently giving money, time or effort to someone in need. It is the giving of ourselves. This is easy to recognize.

However, there are other types of service that we would be wise to honor, namely the service of getting any type of celebration together. It isn't just this time of year; it can be any time of the year.

The neighbor who decorates for Halloween, the mom who never misses making the favorite birthday cake, the welcome home celebration for a service member, the delight of a Valentine's dinner or a 4th of July cookout. The Thanksgiving Dinner with a cast of thousands is a tremendous service as well. Few people appreciate the volume of planning that goes into feeding all those people, plus the decorations that accompany the food, the candles, the greens and the creative effort all create the atmosphere for any celebration. All these things are service - these creative efforts of love made visible are also spiritual service. This takes us to December. Part II will help us make some sense out of this challenging month.

KS&L 334 Holiday Cards

It is hard to believe that the Christmas holidays are here again. The Jewish Festival of Lights has also begun. While there are lots of faiths not represented in this title, this is the month of special celebrations for these two faiths.

There are many concepts of loving and sharing that symbolize this time, maybe the best symbol is just love. While pondering the concept of love, perhaps we should consider why people send out holiday cards. Why do some people send a card with a printed address and signature? Is it just routine, another chore to send cards or to give a gift or gift card? Perhaps it is not. To be on a card or holiday gift list is to be thought of with a special feeling. Maybe we do not send cards to people we see each day which is OK. We send cards to people in our lives that we do not see, because something about the connection is special and we do not want to break it. Maybe the karma is not yet exhausted and we keep it going with our cards and often e-mails.

Creating a card for someone, perpetuates a connection, letting him or her them know that they are still in our thoughts. Why is this important? It is important because there is a part of us that wants to stay connected to so many wonderful people. This is why from a Feng Shui view, saving those cards, saving all of those tremendous wishes is saving, honoring the intentions of all the people who spent the cost, the time, the effort and the intention of sending something to us, of thinking of us. Perhaps we have wondered why we bother with cards each year. Maybe, we need that connection, maybe we need to now what things are happening in other people’s lives, that there is a lot of life going on all over the place.

Holiday newsletters seem irritating to some people, but again, someone reflected on their year. They shared their lives with us. Some newsletters are just perfect. Some reflect the challenges that this year posed including the death of a family member and the impact of fires or floods or tornados. Most people reflect on the milestones of their year, their travels - how they explored life this year - and how they interacted with family and friends. When we read these letters, we see life happening all around us, from the ordinary and the mundane to the electric moments that challenge us.

So perhaps as we reflect on all the festivities and organization required of the holiday time, we can come to understand that creating a holiday atmosphere free from strife, comfortable, beautiful with cards, food and gifts is a great service, not a chore. Love comes in many forms and all the effort we put into giving of our time and effort really does matter in the most subtle and humble ways. Often the effort alone is a gift - the gift of love we give each other. Ha

KS&L 87/88 Holiday Service

The holidays are a great time - so we think. The truth is, most people who do the lion’s share of getting ready for the holidays are frequently overwhelmed with the volume of work that is required to get it all done. The regular schedule of day-to-day responsibilities is magnified with the endless list of extras.

We are also overwhelmed with the concept of the neediness of so many people. Someone's child is sick, someone's relative is dying or has died, it is the anniversary of a death for another person. The homeless shelter needs volunteers, your church is doing charity work and your office has adopted a family to give to at Christmas. Some people are irritable and angry in November and December and we dread living through this time with them. So with all that comes up in this window of time, we quietly ask ourselves: Is it really worth it? Is it really worth the volume of energy to get ready for Christmas or Hanukkah?

The answer is more complicated than we think. The answer may center on our concepts of service. What is service?

Service is frequently giving money, time or effort to someone in need. It is the giving of ourselves. This is easy to recognize.

However, there are other types of service that we would be wise to honor, namely the service of getting any type of celebration together. It isn't just this time of year; it can be any time of the year.

The neighbor who decorates for Halloween, the mom who never misses making the favorite birthday cake, the welcome home celebration for a service member, the delight of a Valentine's dinner or a 4th of July cookout. The Thanksgiving Dinner with a cast of thousands is a tremendous service as well. Few people appreciate the volume of planning that goes into feeding all those people, plus the decorations that accompany the food, the candles, the greens and the creative effort all create the atmosphere for any celebration. All these things are service - these creative efforts of love made visible are also spiritual service.

How do we view the volume of effort required for Christmas and Hanukkah?

December is a challenge because there seems to be so much for everyone to do:
• Shop for gifts, wrap presents
• Plan meals
• Grocery shop
• Decorate the house
• Plan parties
• Grocery shop
• Do the holiday cards, buy the stamps, write the yearly letter, collate and mail.
• Help out at school, church and/or office parties
• Grocery shop
• Make the list of food gifts to give
• Grocery shop
• Make all the food, do the baking, package the items
• Mail things

This modest, very incomplete list above usually falls to women who think they have to do it all. Getting your family members to help will reduce some stress and let everyone have the opportunity of doing service. This can be as simple as making the list and letting them make the grocery runs and some of the dinners so that you can do the extras.

The real service is in the patience of doing the mundane, day-to-day things of getting ready. People love a house filled with the smells of the holidays. If your holidays were horrific growing up, mitigate the past sadness by making the present something warmly memorable.

It is so wonderful to come home to a house beautifully decorated with bright candles and wonderful food. The element of the house and the food are tremendous service to all family members.

What makes it difficult for the person doing the planning, cooking, shopping and decorating is that people take their efforts for granted. It just looks so easy. Family members frequently don’t seem grateful for what has been done because you always do it. They are not callous or unkind; it is just that your excellent work is normal to them. Your service is transparent to them but transparent or not, it does not change the fact that it is service all the same. Even if family members do not overtly recognize it, it is appreciated on some level. You earn the karma for your efforts because you are creating the memories that they will treasure and emulate. You are teaching them what a warm holiday looks and feels like, and that lesson changes the future. That is the purpose of this work, the reason for this effort: creating a pattern of love, hard work and togetherness. This is part of the element of what makes the holidays an important example of spiritual service.

KS&L 17 Christmas Time and Holiday Visits

The holiday program is about to run. No matter what your faith or belief system, somehow, all the glitter in western culture at this time of the year sparks lots of old memories and accelerates emotional "stuff". Actually, it starts at Thanksgiving and goes through New Years.

The Feng Shui effect of using bright and shiny things to stir up and circulate energy usually throws all of us off balance because there is so much of it, everywhere we go. Remember the feeling when you finally take those decorations down, Whew! Things are so much calmer now! So, all those sparkly lights and bright decorations and root chakra [red] colors really awaken old memories and can accelerate our issues. This is also why so many people feel extra tired and burdened this time of year – yes, there’s lots to do, but even more than that, there is tremendous extra energy circulating everywhere you turn.

So, its beautiful, fun exciting – what’s the problem? No problem really, just an awareness of what is happening on a subtle level. This means that it is a good idea to be EXTRA mindful of what is said, or how something is heard. Extra sensitivity to yourself and others will help this be a great time. Which brings us to holiday visits. People are stressed. Travel less if you can. People are tired, stay in hotels if a relative is elderly and/or is not used to a houseful of people. Shorten a visit or do not visit a person who the rest of the year is pretty prickly and at this time of the year is a walking cactus.

Colds and flu and general malaise seem to hit people in December especially hard. These are old griefs, unspent or unreleased emotions manifesting in the physical body. Have extra rest. Have extra fun – go to the movies and enjoy yourself. Shop without having to buy something. Rest. Love one another.

Karmically what is happening? Just a great opportunity to be very mindful of what is coming up for us. Remember the past with an eye for appreciating the experience, not grieving the event. Take a different look at what occurred so long ago and how different you are now – see how you have grown.

Know that you are doing so much better on so many levels. As you go through the present, decide how you can make this month a wonderful time for yourself and those around you – which subtly changes karma in a positive way. Perhaps the best gift any of us can receive this year is the fact that day by day, in every way we really are getting better and better and better.

KS&L 182 The Gift of Food is Love in Action

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November and December are the months for food. Not just a little, but lots and lots of all types of food. These are the months when we make things we don’t make the rest of the year, when we experiment with new recipes, try new foods, buy more than we think we should and spend a lot of time at the grocery store.

No matter what your spiritual belief is, Jewish, Christian, Moslem, Hindu, in these months in the Western world, food is among the many things at the forefront of your thoughts.

Frankly, food is one of the most basic, elementary and precious gifts one person gives to another and this is absolutely a universal gift. All occasions are marked with food. In certain cultures only certain foods can be eaten at certain occasions. Some cultures fast - a denial of food - and then when they can eat again, it is not just a little food, it is a feast.

Food at the most basic level represents wealth and prosperity. In Feng Shui, one of the most important cures involves doubling the illusion of your cooking burners on your stove from the standard four to eight, using mirrors. The more burners, the more food can be prepared and shared.

One of the ways that specifically Hanukah and Christmas, Easter and birthdays are celebrated is food. The use of special foods, foods that symbolize culture, tradition and family heritage are prized, cherished. Recipes are handed down, from one generation to the other, each cook placing his or her own variation on that theme. Thanksgiving is only about food and the gratitude of actually having food.

So perhaps it is important to take just a brief moment and ponder how precious food is to us all. Food is not just for nourishment- providing the fuel to enable all the cells of the body to fire, to enable our heart to pump and our legs to move and our mind to function, food is essential to our emotional well being. That is why some foods - like macaroni and cheese, cheesecake and brownies - are just comfort food. They may or may not be good for us; it doesn’t really matter, at some level, they provide emotional nourishment beyond the physical.

So during the months of November and December as we plan our meals, ponder our recipes, watch the cooking channel and imagine all those amazing foods coming out of our own kitchens, maybe the real lesson of food is the service of giving.

When you cook, you give something of yourself - not just when you shred your fingers grating cheese, but when you think about the process of say, Christmas dinner - as an example. You think about it. You talk to your family asking them what they love, or what would they like. You try to make things that will please everyone. You consider making special things for each person because it means something. Of course you can buy food for a person, which is also a wonderful gift to receive as well, some foods from commercial houses are just wonderful, especially if you cannot be there with the person.

Back to your kitchen; so you study your recipes, and plan the meals or party menu. You shop - mostly repeatedly because some things have to be purchased at the last minute. When you can, you bake ahead you plan, and plan. When you are actually doing the cooking, you are focused on producing the most delicious food possible. That positive focus is positive energy and you give the food you are preparing positive energy. Remember: if you are angry don’t cook. People will taste it on a subtle level.

Perhaps you put on happy music as you cook, perhaps a friend or family member is helping you to cook and you are chatting and stirring and tasting. Your kitchen is warm, busy, really messy, and it smells great! This is love in action. Often what you cook, you give away as a gift, perhaps a cake, pie, cookies, soup for an ill neighbor. Cooking is the action of using your energy to create energy for another person out of the materials you have. You can’t just eat flour or spices, but combine them in a million combinations and you have a miracle!

So perhaps long ago, in the middle East another place famous for fantastic food, people also brought food to that manger to help that young couple with a new baby. Perhaps every time we share our food, we bring peace to our homes.

Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin in the kitchen, let it migrate to the dining room table and let happy hearts and friendly smiles warm your home. So over the next several days as you cook yourself silly, smile - you are love in action and that action is truly the gift of service.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Holidays,

Love, Tina

KS&L 303 Changing Thanksgiving Day Tradition and More

Every year people gather on Thanksgiving Day for the tradition of giving thanks. This is wonderful. It is wonderful to have everyone gather around that glorious table, hold hands and ponder about the many blessings and the surprising blessings cloaked as unsavory challenges that the preceding year has offered. However, getting to that table is often fraught with difficulties.

If you have to travel by air, Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year. Air travel is just not the fun it used to be. So, if you are the Thanksgiving event planner, you have to take into consideration all the travel plans and the arrival and departure times of all of your guests as well as transportation to and from the airport.

If you have married children and they are trying to balance that thankful day between their families, imagine their stress! If there are grandchildren, it becomes even more complicated. Some dutiful kids end up eating more than one Thanksgiving dinner, just to please all the relatives.

Freeway/highway traffic can be tremendous, and again, stress producing.
Is there some reason that this particular event has to happen on the specific day that the calendar denotes as ‘Thanksgiving’? Think about it. Why are we wedded to a dictated day of the week once a year?

What if, the actual day you eat the turkey isn't as important as the special time of gratitude you spend with your family? What if you were to make a new family tradition and have Thanksgiving the weekend before that Thanksgiving Thursday? Consider that if you were to do this, that you might find, that your own stress is significantly less, that the stress for your family is also significantly less since now, they won't have to be in two places as once.


What if on that actual crazy Thanksgiving Thursday, you weren't having a cast of thousands, you could actually have a complete day of relaxation? Perhaps you could get your Christmas or Hanukkah decorating begun or even finished. What if you could enjoy a meal out or have a quiet day or could accept someone else's invitation to dinner? If you have family that has to fly, having Thanksgiving a week or two early, would mean less expensive flights, less travel hassle, especially if they are traveling with small children. They could get in and out and avoid the craziness. What if?
What if you changed how you do things just this one year, as an experiment? Some families do this and they just love it! It doesn't mean that we can always please everyone, but it has the potential to be a tremendous anxiety reducer.

What is the karma of an idea this simple? Consider that you reduce the stress for all the people in your Thanksgiving circle, not to mention the persons doing the bulk of the cooking. Let us say that they don’t have to travel, don’t have to choose between families, don’t have to balance other people’s feelings.

Also consider, that the stress of that balancing act can make relatives very ‘testy’ with each other. Sometimes things are said that in another scenario with less tension, would never be said. Once said, a nasty Thanksgiving dinner can be an unhappy memory for a very long time.

If some relatives feel you are a traitor to the day and rebel, then that is their choice, but offer the concept to them that this is just an experiment for this one year. You know how flexible and loving they are and surely, they would want to reduce stress for everyone.

Sometimes family leadership is defined by the ability to look at a situation and change how it is being done, especially if it is always stressful. The purpose of Thanksgiving is the celebration of the gratitude and love you share and you can designate any day of the year you like to do that!


NEW TOPIC
Helpful info if you have to get the swine flu shot. Try this jotoba tea. Here is the website for this tea an related information.
http://www.rain-tree.com/jatoba.htm