Will there be the gift of play?
It might be easy to run away to a monastery, away from the commercialization, the hectic hustle, the demanding family responsibilities of Christmas-time. Then we would have a holy Christmas. But we would forget the lesson that we who are followers of Jesus do not run from the secular; rather we try to transform it. It is our mission to make holy the secular aspects of Christmas just as the early Christians baptized the Christmas tree. And we do this by being holy people — kind, patient, generous, loving, laughing people — no matter how maddening is the Christmas rush…
— Fr. Andrew Greeley
Woman’s Day 12-22-81
Despite my reluctance to join the ranks of those who have merchandized the spirit right out of Christmas I am raising my voice in praise of toys. Yes, TOYS! I am of the not-so-humble opinion that toys are a secular aspect of Christmas that we should run toward… and, in childlike fascination, we should revel in the creativity and imaginative play that toys engender.
Surely all God’s people like to play…
— John Muir
BTW – you Facebook-ers – have you helped assure that one more needy child will receive a very special Christmas gift because of your daily efforts? ABC7 reports 50,000 clicks to their Spark of Love Toy Drive but their goal is 70,000! Help them get there by December 23 – every day your click contributes $1 and helps buy one more playful toy for a needy child:
LIKE IT!
“Like” ABC7 on Facebook and a $1 donation goes to the Spark of Love Toy Drive, thanks to our partners! (From now to Dec. 23)
See – there are some good things you can do even if YOU are one of the harried and hurried.
Ok, back to toys and transformation… In keeping with today’s techno-savvy world, a very playful social media maven created a clever telling of the Nativity Story – click on the link and then HOLD ON TIGHT for a Digital telling of the Christmas story – brought to you via the techno-toys of today’s generation: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, Foursquare, Amazon… and by reader Xelliott123’s 11 year old, techno-savvy granddaughter! Continue reading » Under the Tree – What Gifts Will You Find?
Are you locked into the same ol’/same ol’? Maybe it’s time to shake it up!
Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility.
— Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Kaleidoscopes are some of my favorite toys – I have a modest little collection, nothing too special but very fun! Some of them have “stuff” that gets re-scattered with every turn, one has fluids that move and change. But the ones I like the very best are actually inexpensive plastic, fist-sized toys with prism lenses that refract the real world into crazy mixed-up images – with every turn, my world bends into hundreds of tiny daffy images – very cool!
Recently I heard about an “artist and Dad the second time round,” named Raghava KK and his new iPad app for Continue reading » Shake It UP!
What role does “waiting” serve in your life?
Life is all about timing… the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable… attainable. Have the patience, wait it out.
— Stacey Charter
Lately I’ve been trying to come to terms with a pattern I often find myself muddled in… It goes like this:
- Self-assign a project…
- Set off with resolve…
- Power work it.
- Stall…
- Power Work it.
- Stall…
The Stall Stages quickly make me crazy and thrust me into a downward spiral of uncertainty, impatience and acute annoyance. I find waiting with a half-baked project at the “mess-stage-of-finished” frustrating and confusing. Then I start doubting: my stamina, my resolve, my ability to push through to completion Continue reading » Messy Pauses
With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.
— Mark Victor Hansen
I’ve never seen myself as creative. It seemed whenever I was asked to participate in a creativity exercise, I had the least number of ideas as well as having the most obvious and boring ideas. I couldn’t draw and if given an assignment to pick something interesting to photograph, my mind immediately goes blank. (Hey, there’s an idea, find a blank billboard and take a picture of that to demonstrate just how NOT creative I am.)
Recently, I read an article by Earl Nightingale. In it, he described what he felt were the key characteristics of a creative person: Continue reading » Still Making Progress
 photo credit: psdIn this wintery month of February, what can you pause to celebrate?
Well, if you expected this to be another post about procrastination then you may be surprised to learn that, ironically, I’ve postponed it – I’d forgotten about Valentine’s Day and couldn’t let the holiday go by without this wee bit of a hurrah. More on procrastination is ready to roll, just not today, nor tomorrow either. Watch for it… and in the meantime, let’s celebrate February!
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
— Albert Camus
February’s upon us… and this 2010 version of the second month roared in with the winter madness of an El Nino year – we’ve endured blizzards, rainstorms, floods and mudslides, just to name a few of the weather challenges so far. It’s been a cold, cold winter since the exuberance of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and New Years Day. Some (many?) among us are feeling the winter doldrums. While we wait for spring to be sprung, we need something to Continue reading » What’s to Celebrate? February, of Course!
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