God Bless Us, Everyone!

A star of light and guidance was prelude to the Birth of Light over two millenia ago.  While we celebrate the Lamb of God's condescension to this earth, we declare the "good tidings" and "great joy" of His humble birth, His exemplary life, His noble ministry, and His infinite and eternal sacrifice for the Life of all.  

In celebration to the Light and Life of this world, the Great Hope of all mankind, I bear my testimony that the only Begotten of the Father came to earth to mark the path, show the way, and provide grace and mercy to all men, as he succors us and strengthens us in our progression on this earth, preparatory of the world to come.  And He still lives!  May our faith and hope in Him--even though the size of a seed--continue to grow into a tree of everlasting happiness and life.

Joy to Everyone this Christmas!  

The World (As I Now Am Beginning to Know It . . .)

Barbara Walters.  That's what I thought of too when I first heard "twenty, twenty" from the lips of one of the mischievous teenage boys that I work with.  He walked right up to me and said, slightly sheepishly, "I need a twenty, twenty."  

"Uh, okay.  What does that mean?"  

So then he explained, and thus began to open up the window shedding light upon the workings of teenage boys' minds.  "It means you need to stand twenty feet away from everyone for twenty seconds."

"Mmmmmm......because?"

"Well, because, you know.......you don't want to make it smell bad with everyone else around."

Oh, okay.  Since as a recreation therapist one of the primary goals I have with the kids that I work with is to make sure that they are well-rounded and appropriate in the many and various social situations they find themselves in, I had to give props to the kids.  I mean, he--or whoever it was--came up with this one, and he was actually using it!  One, he was saving himself and others embarrassment.  Two, he was being considerate of others.  And three, he wasn't drawing attention to himself (as long as he was far enough away, and wasn't asking out loud in front of everybody for the space and time).

Thus, "twenty, twenty" has another definition in my head, and it's now the one I think of first when hearing the double-word phrase.  Who knew that teenage boys could broaden your vocabulary, AND your world by making this a simple part of your weekly routine?  Gotta love it.

Come What May, and Love It!

As my way to tip my hat off to an exemplary man, I thought it would be good to post some of his last words here.

Oliver Wendell Holmes penned, "If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it around.  Trouble creates a capacity to handle it.  I don't say embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy.  But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and you had better be on speaking terms with it."  Elder Wirthlin just took it one step further--thanks, Elder Wirthlin.