Nourish peace

Arun Gandhi concluded his speech here with this:

Grandfather liked to tell us the story of an ancient Indian king who was obsessed with finding the meaning of peace. What is peace? How can we get it? And what should we do with it when we find it? These were some of the questions that bothered him. Intellectuals throughout his kingdom were offered a handsome reward to answer the king's questions. Many tried but none succeeded. At last, someone suggested the king consult a sage who lived just outside the borders of his kingdom.

"He is an old man and very wise," the king was told. "If anyone can answer your questions he can."

The king went to the sage and posed the eternal question. Without a word the sage went into his kitchen and brought a grain of wheat to the king. "In this you will find the answer to your question," the sage said as he placed the grain of wheat in the king's outstretched palm.

Puzzled but unwilling to admit his ignorance, the king clutched the grain of wheat and returned to his palace. He locked the precious grain in a tiny gold box and placed the box in his safe. Each morning, upon waking, the king would open the box and look at the grain seeking an answer, but he could find nothing.

Weeks later another sage, passing through, stopped to meet the king, who eagerly invited him to resolve his dilemma.
The king explained how he had asked the eternal question but was given a grain of wheat. "I have been looking for an answer every morning but I find nothing."

"It is quite simple, your honor," said the sage. "Just as this grain represents nourishment for the body, peace represents nourishment for the soul. Now, if you keep this grain locked up in a gold box it will eventually perish without providing nourishment or multiplying. However, if it is allowed to interact with the elements-light, water, air, soil-it will flourish and multiply, and soon you would have a whole field of wheat to nourish not only you but so many others. This is the meaning of peace. It must nourish your soul and the souls of others, and it must multiply by interacting with the elements."

It was a nice bookend, actually, to how he opened his speech, with a story attributed as a North American Indian legend (you've probably seen this going around Facebook recently):

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

As you stop to give thanks on this day, and as we celebrate the holidays or vow to make resolutions for the new year, I hope you'll stop to think of what you are nurturing in your life — and how that affects those around you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Year's end

Here's how exciting my New Year's Eve is so far: I'm sitting here at 8:30 p.m. with the laptop watching "The Replacements" (for Keanu Reeves, of course, not the footbal) while Buster snores on his bed. Dinner was pretzles and a Pepsi and maybe later I'll make cookies. And then, if I can actually stay up to midnight, I might open up that little bottle of champagne I got at Day of Caring.


Wheee! OK, actually I'm not sulking over that or anything. Just in a mood for a quiet evening, really. Today was work at the paper, and tomorrow afternoon is work at the mall, so not a lot exciting going on anyway.

This week, though, I did get to visit with some people I haven't seen for awhile, which was cool. There was my friend who I had lunch with today. We used to work together, and she works for a paper in Indiana now, so it was nice catching up and talking shop (and about her upcoming marriage!). A friend I don't get to see too often and her husband took me out for a birthday dinner Wednesday. Nice to talk to her someplace besides online and get to know her husband a bit better. And while there, we ran into another former co-worker of mine and her husband back for a visit with family. Earlier that day, while stopping at the mall to visit with a friend I don't get to see often since she works days now, I ran into one of my favorite college professors and caught up with her. And earlier in the week, it was lunch with another friend from the mall who's moved to another town.

So a good week, overall. And I'm looking forward to 2010. This year hasn't been the best, but it wasn't the worst. But I think this coming year will be a good one, despite the uncertainties of the economy and what affect it might have on my job and all the other unknowns that are out there, but I'm going to do my best to make it a good one.

Happy New Year, all. You go out and make it a good one, too.

Lights!

I've got the outdoor Christmas lights on finally. I put them up a week ago, I think, and just now got around to getting them plugged in. Because you know, you have to do it strategically ... what gets plugged into what outlet and so on. I didn't put up as much as I have in the past. I have enough lights to line the front of the roof and around the porch, but the lights I got a few years back, which I really REALLY loved, they, of course, do not make any more. So replacing them is the pits. And it's a lot of work to put them up.

But last year, on the after Christmas sale, I got some blue net lights for the shrubs next to the porch and a couple red rope lights. I debated about winding them up the porch poles, but hated to think about how to plug everything in. So I wound them around the split-rail fence next to the driveway, and I think it looks OK. I put up the cheap, plastic red ribbons on the fence posts. I have plenty of those so if the weather trashes them, I can replace them pretty easy. I might buy more of the rope lights after Christmas again this year and eventually wind it all the way down the fence ... which is actually quite a ways.

I might get to the tree later tonight. It's just a fake tree, and we'd always kept the lights on it when we put it away so every year we just had to straighten it out and put the decorations on it. But I also need to do some housecleaning and some laundry, so we'll see. Plus, I had a pretty busy day, so it'd be nice to just crash for a bit, too.