Decorations

"Grandpa?" "Yes Honey." "You said we were gonna decorate the tree different this year. What did you mean by that," said Lucinda.

"Well", Grandpa said, "I feel we need to decorate the tree with our intentions for this coming year." "What?" said Lucinda who was about seven years old.

Grandpa said, "Let me show you the decorations." He pulled out the beautiful glass globes on which one side was flattened and there were tags on some of the globes. The ones that were labeled each had one word on them. They read - honor, respect, appreciation, kindness, benevolence, generosity and understanding. There were also some that were blank but there were tags on there - just nothing written on them.

Lucinda said, "Grandpa, what about these? The ones that don't have anything written on them." "Well I wanted you..." said Grandpa, "...to decide what you would put on them yourself." "Ohhh," said Lucinda.

"Let me set you up at your desk." Lucinda's Grandfather had a little desk set up not unlike you might find at a school. Lucinda got comfortable at her desk and her Grandfather put the decorations in front of her with a selection of crayons so that she could write on them or if she wasn't sure how to spell the word she would say the words or feelings and Grandpa would write them on. Lucinda decided that she'd rather have Grandpa write the words.

"Well," she said, "I feel it's important this year for people to be patient with each other because there's been a lot of changes going on and I've noticed that it's really hard especially for older people..." she glanced up shyly at her Grandfather and then quickly back down again "...to um change easily. So I think - patience would be a good one. Could you write that for me Grandpa?"

Grandpa said, "Oh yes, I'll write that down. What color do you want me to use?" She said, "I think yellow would be a good color." "Oh yes I agree. Very good color," Grandpa said. And Grandpa wrote patience on one.

"And I've also noticed..." Lucinda continued slowly, "...that a lot of people including my friends families when I go over to their houses...when their moms or dads say, 'I love you dear' it's kinda quick and well...my friends told me that they don't really feel anything there and their mom and dad doesn't always pick them up or hug them as much as they used to. So I think - hugs would be another good one."

"Oh that's very good. What color should we write it in," Grandpa said. "I can write that myself,"said Lucinda.

She picked a brightly colored orange crayon and she very carefully wrote - hugs. You could read it pretty good because she was a good writer. "Very good," Grandpa said.

"Here's another empty one Grandpa. Could I..." Grandpa said, "Oh yes that's another one for you. What do you want to write in there this time?"

Lucinda thought for a while and then she said, "Grandpa I feel that there's so many people in the world and they don't always hear each other even though people are talking all the time aren't they Grandpa?" "Oh yes, they certainly are," replied Grandpa.

Lucinda went on, "I think maybe people are talking so much they don't always listen and try and understand." "Yes, that could be," said Grandpa. "So maybe we ought to include - listen," Lucinda said.

"That's very good," said Grandpa, "I'll write that in or would you like to write it in?" Lucinda said, "Can you write that in Grandpa?" Grandpa said, "What color crayon should I use?" "Well...how about green," said Lucinda. "Oh what a wonderful choice," Grandpa said. He wrote in very carefully - listen.

"Here's another one. Can we write that in too Grandpa," Lucinda said. Grandpa quickly replied, "Oh yes, lets."

"I feel there's one more thing that people have to do besides hugging in families more and listening to people..." Lucinda said. "And what's that," said Grandpa.

"Well...I feel that people don't always say what they mean because they don't know how to say things - and I don't just mean kids like me," said Lucinda. "No?" said Grandpa, "What do you mean honey?"

Lucinda said, "I think that sometimes when grown-ups talk to each other they're sometimes shy. They don't know how to say things and so sometimes they either don't say things or they don't say what they mean. Do you understand Grandpa?"

"Yes." Grandpa said pausing to think about it for a while and considering whether he might do that sometimes himself when he was shy and didn't want to really say what he wanted or needed. "What a wise little one,"Grandpa thought.

"Is there enough room to write in something longer Grandpa?" "Well we might have to use a colored pencil for that so we can write a little smaller," Grandpa said reaching for the box of colored pencils. " "Well...I think it would be good to say - be honest and be clear," said Lucinda.

"Oh my, that makes a lot of sense,"Grandpa said. "What colored pencil would you like?" "Well," Lucinda said, "lets use pink." "Oh my, that's very nice," Grandpa said.

"Would you write that in Grandpa," Lucinda asked. "Oh yes I will," Grandpa replied. Grandpa wrote that in slowly and carefully so it could be read easily.

"And there's one more I'm thinking of Grandpa but lets make a game out of it." "Oh good," Grandpa said. "Well lets see, what's the first letter," Grandpa said.

"Okay, the first letter is - L." "Mmmm," said Grandpa with a studious look on his face, "I wonder what it could be?"

Lucinda laughed and said, "It has four letters." "Oh my, I wonder what that could be? I'm completely stumped," Grandpa said knowing full well what the word was.

"The last letter is - e," said Lucinda happily. "My, my. I just can't figure it out," Grandpa said enjoying the game. "Oh Grandpa," Lucinda said, "you know it's love."

She reached towards her Grandpa. He picked her up carefully from her desk and gave her a big hug and said, "Honey, love is what our family is all about." They hugged each other and looked at the tree and got ready to hang all the decorations.

What decorations will you put on your tree?

Goodlife.

Imagination Village

There's a village deep within the deepest tap root of the most gigantic tree, which is now a spirit I might add because the tree has moved on in life. The people in that village once worked with another being who is famous for the spirit of and gift giving of that time at the end of the year - I think you know who that is eh but these beings in that village are fond of creating something else.

They create costumes for they do love make-believe. They create the most fabulous costumes that help children the world over perform as they go about on Halloween.

They like to display nature - some of the costumes are like plants, some of course like trees, some look like butterflies, others like dinosaurs but a great many of them look like the tiniest little particles that you have to see by looking through a microscope like you do at school and other places.

The reason the people of this village like to make up costumes like that is that those tiny little particles all come together to make all the big things we see all around us and they even come together to make up us. So those people of that village feel very good about tiny little things, of course they're pretty tiny themselves so naturally they feel that way.

They also feel very good about bigger things, that's why they choose to live in the tap root of that giant tree - and they feel good about things that are in-between that size like you and me and dog and cat and other things about our size.

So you see no matter who we are, where we're from, why we're here or what we're doing we're made up of the same very tiny little things and it's good to know isn't it that we have so much in common and that we have beings that care about us so much that they devote themselves to nothing but demonstrating the values of the smallest parts of us while honoring us as we look in our world made up of so many things. Goodlife.

The Bottle Cap

Once upon a time a very long time ago there was a mouse who lived in a very small house indeed. The house in fact was so small that the mouse had barely room to turn around and every time mousy would turn around he'd bump his tail and after a while his tail got to feeling kind of poor and he needed to find a bigger house.

So one day when he was out exploring he did find a bigger house but there was already somebody else living in it. Fortunately she was a friendly little mouse and he appreciated that very much. So he thought perhaps he ought to go home and gather up one of his most precious objects and offer it to her and ask if he could perhaps take a room in her bigger house - and so he did.

He gathered up a very shiny bottle cap that he had discovered somewhere and that he had been using to protect his back by putting it on the wall in just the right place so that when he turned, his back would rub against it and it wouldn't hurt but he didn't have anything to protect his tail.

So he brought the shiny bottle cap over and he presented it to her as a gift. She was very pleased and impressed and she said that she would allow him to stay in her spare room.

Well he was so pleased he rushed right home, gathered up all his possessions - and there weren't very many of course because his house was so small, and he rushed back to her house and moved into the spare room. It was so big he didn't have to worry at all about bumping his tail.

And do you know - they got to be friends and after a while they became Mr. and Mrs. Mouse and after a while they had little meeces and after a while they lived happily ever after.

It just goes to show that sometimes the littlest things, even a nice old shiny bottle cap, can make for happiness in the long run.

The Little Coconut by Robert Shapiro

Once upon a time there was a very small coconut and it was hanging in a palm tree very high up.

It had dreams though - even though the other coconuts were much much bigger and would fall regularly to the sand below where they'd be picked up by passers by or others who were just fascinated with the shapes and the weight of those huge coconuts.

The little coconut had dreams though. It figured, I'm so small I must be this small for a reason. The other coconuts are all regular size or even big - much bigger than regular. Why am I so little?

Well the years went by and little coconut stayed just as small as ever and little coconut began to think, perhaps there's something different for me to do. Maybe I could fly or maybe I'm intended to do something different!

Little coconut would feel and look around, they can see in their own way you know, and up and down and just always admired the clouds in the sky.

One day a very large bird landed in the tree and couldn't quite figure out how to make a nest in the palm tree but it moved around and moved around and it kept trying to get comfortable and little coconut said, "What are you trying to do?"

The giant bird said, "Oh, I didn't know you could talk." "Oh yes I can. I've been here a long time. I'm kind of wanting to have a friend too," said little coconut.

The giant bird said, "Oh well, I'll be your friend. What would you like to talk about?"

Little coconut went on to explain how she'd been there in that tree all that time and she was trying to figure out what she was supposed to do because all of the other coconuts would get bigger and bigger and bigger and fall off the tree but she's been there and she's just as small as ever.

Little coconut shyly said, "Maybe I'm supposed to fly - you know, not fall down but go some other direction."

Giant bird looked at little coconut and said, "Well maybe it's true. You are very small. Maybe I could just..." and the giant bird leaned over because it was so big, just leaned over and plucked little coconut off the tree.

Little coconut was very excited and the bird managed to get little coconut up around its back and said, "Now lets go for a flight." Up and away they went with the little coconut hanging on for dear life.

They went up very high in the sky and the bird was just floating on the breezes and little coconut knew what it was supposed to do. Little coconut realized it was supposed to be a Coconaut and decided - this is my calling in life.

Some people say to this day, since that happened a very long time ago, that that's where the whole idea of Astronauts and Cosmonauts came from - all from that little Coconaut.

Big things and good things very often come from very little things.

Goodlife.