I wish for us all that there would be only good health, financial success, and fun adventures in the year ahead. But, I wish even harder for us to face the inevitable challenges with grace. I hope that when things aren't going our way, we can make room in our hearts and heads for what we don't know: we might not be able to see any good that could come out of a situation, but let's assume it's there somewhere. Try adding a #blessed or a #GodIsGood to your posts about losing a gig, or getting a flat tire, or catching a cold. (Unless you believe the only time you're blessed is when skies are sunny).

May you start each day before checking in on Facebook. Check in with yourself first! Before you venture into the news of the world, look at your personal, inner world. How's it going?

May you take nothing personally. 

May you choose to be happy, gracious, and kind. 

Here's to taking the power we already have and making good things happen for the world.

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We made it to Christmas! There are just two thoughts left on my Audio Advent Calendar topics list.

​Click on the image below to venture cautiously into No Man’s Land.
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PS Here is a link to a wonderful article in the Washington Post. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25206-2004Dec24_4.html

It's pretty amazing that we're still celebrating this, two thousand years later! Here's the Nativity story, as found in Luke 2:1-20 (New Revised Standard Version).

Click on the image below to be transported back to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 80-100 AD.

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I'm telling you, with all of our differences, we have so much in common! Many thanks to those who shared their Christmas customs. This episode really touched me, in a way I was not prepared for. 

Click on the image below to go door-to-door, ending up at Life Lab Note's Audio Boom for today's post.

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PS Don't believe me about the KFC thing? Check this out:
​http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/the-kfc-christmas-connection-in-japan

So many traditions, legends, customs, foods! Today’s the day we look at all of the ones we haven’t explored yet!

Click on the image below to be rushed, holiday-shopping style, through a whirlwind of nowhere near all of the ones we haven’t explored yet.

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PS Here are two important links:
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/22/moscows-christmas-lights-are-so-much-better-than-yours-5579701/?utm_content=bufferec68a&utm_medium=Social+-+Twitter&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=Twitter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Goat

Oh, I so wanted to post this at the exact moment of the December Solstice. Ah, well. Good thing it happens every year!
Click on the image below to have your axis tilted just enough so that you directly face today’s post, on Audio Boom.

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Christmas comes every year, no matter what's going on in the world.

The letter was written by Emily Hobhouse, who had seen firsthand the atrocities of war, as a campaigner for the improvement of the British-run concentration camps in the Second Boer War. It was in response to a letter a small group of German womens’ rights activists had written to to American feminist, Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. 

The poem she mentions is by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Please have a look at the wikipedia article and also the full letter, which is signed, "We are yours in this sisterhood of sorrow."

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 http://dmglonass.ruOne more about Santa types, with ongoing apologies for my pronunciation of foreign words.

Click on the image below to be chased through the streets by the Christmas Cat, narrowly escaping death by ducking into the safety of today’s post, over at AudioBoom.com. 
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PS And here’s where you’ll want to go on December 31st: http://dmglonass.ru

He's kind of everywhere...

Click on the image below to be directly connected to the secret phone of the top official of Life Lab Notes' Audio Boom page, for the location of today's post.

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A few handy addresses for correspondence:
​In the U.S.
Santa Claus
PO Box 56099
North Pole, Alaska
99705
In Canada
Santa Claus
North Pole
Canada
H0H 0H0
In Great Britain
Father Christmas (Santa Claus)
Santa’s Grotto
North Pole
SAN TA1
In Finland
Santa Claus
Santa Claus Village
FIN-96930
Arctic Circle
Finland

​Your local internet can provide the correct address in your area. Click on the image below to be stamped and forwarded to AudioBoom, where today’s post awaits you.

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