A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A! lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “! That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam ‘,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall..”

” So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is
due to our U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS

In God We Trust

 

My friends are always sending me gems of features,thoughts and inspiration. I never know where the vignettes that I feature on this blog originate, but I just know that they have meaning for me and, hopefully, for you also.  The following are of my favorite subject–ANIMALS:

Animals can teach us everyday!

Jasmine
In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England,  opened a garden shed and found a  whimpering, cowering dog. It had been  locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had  clearly been abused. In an act of  kindness, the police took the dog, which was a Greyhound female, to the nearby  Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife  Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock  and known as a willing haven  for animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in  need. Geoff and  the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims to restore the dog to  full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually  both  goals were achieved.

They named her Jasmine, and they started  to think  about finding her an adoptive home. But Jasmine had other  ideas. No one remembers now how it began, but she started welcoming all animal arrivals at the sanctuary.  It wouldn’t matter if it was  a puppy, a  fox cub, a rabbit or, any other lost or hurting animal, Jasmine  would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a
welcoming  lick.

Geoff  relates one of the early incidents. “We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell-Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at  the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the  scruff of the  neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one  and sat down with them, cuddling  them.”

“But she is like that with all  of  our animals, even the rabbits. She
takes all the stress out of them and it  helps them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new  surroundings. She has done the same  with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and  guinea pigs and  even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her 
nose.”

Jasmine, the timid, abused,  deserted waif, became the animal  sanctuary’s resident surrogate mother, a  role for which she might have been  born. The list of orphaned and  abandoned youngsters she has cared for  comprises five fox cubs, four  badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two  stray puppies and 15  rabbits.

And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found 
semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary,  Jasmine cuddled  up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster  mum role.  Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the Roe deer with affection  and  makes sure nothing is matted.

“They  are  inseparable,are  inseparable,” says Geoff “Bramble walks
between Jasmine’s legs while kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary. It’s a real  treat to see  them.”

Jasmine  will continue  to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to  woodland  life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too  busy  showering love and affection on the next orphan or victim of  abuse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  From  left, Toby, a stray Lakeland dog; Bramble, orphaned Roe  deer; Buster, a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; Sky, an injured barn  owl; and Jasmine with a Mothers heart doing best what a caring Mother would do….

Such is the order of God’s Creation.

        A wonderful story to lift your spirit

A  female whale had become entangled in a spider  web of crab traps  and  lines.

She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused   her to struggle to stay afloat. 

She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped  around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed  for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way  to save her was to dive in and untangle  her–a very dangerous proposition.  One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. 

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles.  She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and  pushed gently,  thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was  following him the whole time, and  he will never be the same. 

May you, and all those you love, be so fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  And the next heartwarming story in photos:

I  come in  peace.

Norbert Rosing’s  striking images of a wild polar  bear  coming upon
tethered sled dogs in  the wild.  The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear  wandered  in: 

   

 

 

The minority are so busy worrying about the rights of Illegal aliens, criminals, atheists and other non Christians who would take away the rights of the Judeo-Christianity upon which are country is founded that political correctness now reigns. When will we as Christians stand up for ourselves and keep “In God We Trust,” Christmas manger scenes, and all our other traditions.  I do not wish to trample on anyone’s religious beliefs or the right to practice them, but I certainly believe that Christ is the reason for Christmas and I will tell the world with pride “Merry Christmas” and good will to all men of every creed. I will as always be wishing everyone a Merry Christmas which is my way of celebrating the birth of Christ Who is the Reason for Christmas.

So, I am asking if you agree with me, please cut and paste this and pass it on to your email friends so that perhaps we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of “Political Correctness.”  I have had it with “Political Correctness!

Ben Stein has also had it with Political Correctness.  The following, a must read, was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS
Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I
don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas 
trees. It doesn’t  bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me
in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It  shows that we are all brothers and  sisters celebrating this happy time of year.. It doesn’t bother me at  all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my  beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it’s just as fine  with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think  Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think
people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed
around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from,
that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the
Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from
that  we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to
worship God as we understand Him I guess that’s a sign that
I’m  getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering
where  these celebrities came from and where the America
we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen’ (regarding Hurricane
Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and
insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I
think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered,
her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want
prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you
better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we  shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert  should know what he’s talking about. And we said okay.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother
them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I  think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the
newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to
many on your address list because you’re not sure what they
believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people
think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.
If not, then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you
discard  this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about
what bad  shape the world is in.

My Best Regards,
Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein 

 

One Flaw In Women

                                                                                                                                    Women have strengths that amaze men…

They bear hardships and they carry burdens,

but they hold happiness, love and joy.

They smile when they want to scream.

They sing when they want to cry.

They cry when they are happy

and laugh when they are nervous.

They fight for what they believe in..

They stand up to injustice.

They don’t take “no” for an answer

when they believe there is a better solution.

They go without so their family can have.

They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.

They love unconditionally.

They cry when their children excel

and cheer when their friends get awards.

They are happy when they hear about

a birth or a wedding.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.

They grieve at the loss of a family member,

yet they are strong when they

think there is no strength left.

They know that a hug and a kiss

can heal a broken heart.

Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.

They’ll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you

to show how much they care about you.

The heart of a woman is what

makes the world keep turning.

They bring joy, hope and love.

They have compassion and ideas.

They give moral support to their

family and friends.

Women have vital things to say

and everything to give.

HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,

IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Recently, in large French city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. 

It read:
THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE A MERMAID OR A WHALE?

A middle aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern:

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans). They have an active sex life; they get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.  They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs.  They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans.  They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don’t exist.  If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis.  Fish or human?  They don’t have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them not to mention how could they have sex?  Therefore they don’t have kids either. 

Not to mention who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a piece of chocolate with my friends.  With time we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.  So we aren’t heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. 

Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, “Good gosh, look how smart I am.”

Now, I, Meredith, must be one of the smartest women in the world!  until next time. Just wait to see how much smarter I am even after this Christmas! Until next time . . .

Whispers 

The man whispered, “God, speak to me” and a meadowlark  sang.

But, the man  did not hear.

So the man  yelled, “God, speak to me” and the thunder rolled across the sky.

But, the man did  not listen.

The man looked around and said, “God  let me see you.” And a star shined brightly.

But the man  did not see.

And, the man shouted, “God show me a miracle.” And, a life was born.

But, the man  did not notice.

So, the man cried out in despair,  “Touch me God, and let me know you are here.”

Whereupon, God reached  down and touched the man. But, the man brushed the
butterfly away and walked  on.

I  found this to be a great reminder that God is always around us in the little and simple things that we take for granted … even in our  electronic age. 

So I would like to add  one more: 

The man cried, “God, I  need your help!” And an e-mail arrived reaching out
with good news and  encouragement.

But, the man  deleted it and continued crying .

Don’t miss out on  a blessing because it isn’t packaged the way that you 
expect.

 

I may have included the following in my blog before, but it bears repeating:

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain  Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45  lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever  written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column  once more:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in  doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are  sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your  credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument.   Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying  alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

10. When it comes to  chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it  won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you  cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what  their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a  secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink  of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep  breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful,  beautiful, or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the  second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going  after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn  the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.Don’t save it  for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go  with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear  purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No  one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called  disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27.  Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What  other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals  almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation  is, it will change!

32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else  does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who  God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Don’t  audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats  the alternative — dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you  loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting  everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw  everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time.  You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43.  No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44.  Yield.

45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a  gift.”

Its estimated 93% won’t forward this. If you are one of the 7%  who will, forward this with the title ‘7%’.

I’m in the  7%.

Friends are the family that we choose for  ourselves.

My instructions were to  send this to people that I wanted God to bless and I picked you. Won’t  you please pass this to people you want to be  blessed.