Advent Calendar 2011: The Opening and Happy St. Nicholas Day!

We at the Meady's Musings Production House have left many a story untold this year and many a blog post unfinished and unposted! You our readers must realize it really was never our intent! However we were just too taken up with travelling to different lands and putting on real live blog displays on UCP this year but mostly too involved in our day job! Yes as you know we must pay the bills and we have just been putting our shoulder to the wheel all year long this year!

But we really have just gone and done it now! As we've started our Advent calendar late now too! The Purple Elephant and Little Mouse were just very cross indeed and so they had to make it out of their imaginary house over into our real world to let us know just how they felt! And it wasn't a good sight I will tell you for many a passerby to see a cartoony looking elephant purple at that with a cartoony looking mouse on this back scolding a real life lady on the street! In fact many of the passersby ended up on the psychiatric chair! And for that we at the production house all yell out an 'Oh dear!' But it must have been worth it for here we are to declare the Advent Calendar 2011 open!

The rules again this year will be that on Meady's Musings we will be telling the story of 'The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant with the little mouse' of course at times we may pause for a little this and that.

And on UCP-Universal Collective Prayer we will be keeping to the reverence and prayer of the season.

However there will be days that the two blogs will collide like today as we join to launch the calendar and celebrate St. Nicholas Day! Yes Happy St. Nicholas Day 2011 folks! So although the Advent calendar is declared open late this year it is not that bad as it is on this very special day that celebrates that old saint of giving whom has forever been Americanised as a fat man in a red and white suit!

As we celebrate the day this year we look back at these times when we asked:

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

and when we said:

Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus!

And remind you again this year that if you need to learn more about St. Nicholas the St. Nicholas Center is a pretty good place to start!

And remind you that we do believe in Santa Claus as we also recall the gift giving that was done for the baby Jesus!

The Grand Opening of Meady's Musings Advent Calendar 2010!

Nanowrimo is done and we are pleased to say we were declared a winner (look to the left for our banner) and have come out of the process with some very key and critical learnings about the writing process, procastination, self discipline and how writing can be done effectively and not so effectively but still the words be done! You see Nanorwrimo is about getting the word out...sure you might have a heck of a task editing after but it sure does get the word out but more so your creative juices get kicked out of you! We were so glad that with the kick we were able to cough up a cast of lovely characters-one of them this gorgeous little four year old girl on whose dress we got a grip of and flew to a parallel world with. You will be sure to hear more from her when we're done with the book and be sure that some of the topics in the book are normally discussed on Tumultuous Thursdays and vice versa! Also the book might even turn into a set of chronicles now since our creative juices are so flowing! So thank you Nanwrimo for giving us the big kick we needed to let her (the four year old in my book) come forth!

But guess what as nanowrimo is through guess what we have to do?

Well open the Advent calendar of course! Now the seamstress is a bit slow and she promises us she is working on lovely new clothes for the animals this year but for now they have donned last year's things because they are so lovely still and they know that the lovely seamstress will be done soon and make them even more aglow!

Brother Greg couldn't come to say an opening prayer over on UCP so we will say one of our own and declare the Advent calendar open there too. But we are sad to say that this year we will not be opening the calendar on the Books and Films Corner...

Here is how our Advent calendars will run this year. We will instead this year run it as a real bonafide Advent calendar in that is will start today 1 Dec 2010 and end on Christmas Day! And it will run only on Meady's Musings and UCP as follows:

-Meady's Musings

As we have so been inspired by Nanowrimo to stories and stories, write and write and last year we really did have fun telling Christmas stories in a sense when we had the monkeys over and this and that...so this year each day we will feature a story about the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse and how they are preparing for Christmas. In the stories they may talk about specific things they like to use, eat, cook, read, watch or listen to but it will always be a story about them and what they are up to and whoever chooses to drop by the production house. And as last year I suspect they will have many guests!:)And who knows at the end of it we may even compile their adventures into a little e-book for you to have a constant continuous look! :)

-UCP:Universal Collective Prayer

We will keep it true to the name of the blog and explore the spiritual themes and meaning of the Advent each day on UCP's Advent calendar. Of course expect too to see Christmas Carols...good ole John Denver and all the angels and earthlings you love to join in UCP with during the Advent and all year through! And of course expect Brother Greg to join us for a special prayer on Christmas Eve night! :)

Now we ordered our lego calendar last minute so we don't have it delivered as yet...you can sure grab one last minute if you like too at Amazon as it sounds so exciting to build a Lego a day until you get to Christmas day!


And we also can't wait to get our copy of the deluxe edition dvd Peanut's Holiday Collection


So on that note...here's a tune from one of those classics!


But that Charlie Brown can be so depressing...come to think of it he ranks right up there with Melvin the depressed robot from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh! We know how it is as this feeling down thing happens to lots of us around the production house and sometimes more so at Christmas time. But hey you gotta cheer up too so here is a funner tune bringing in the Advent too!

We're Back! Well...arhmm...sort of?!

A tree in Greenwich Park-London,UK
Copyright Meady's Musings Production 2010

We here at Meady's Musings Production said we'd be back to blogging by the end of June...but...seems someone has stolen our muse! Or he has simply slipped off without us into some parallel world...you know how slippery these muses and manicous can be!

The Purple Elephant and Little Mouse were most welcoming to us on our return home though...in fact we opened the door with our luggage at feet to see a spanking clean house and a warm, freshly cooked meal being served up for us to sit at the dinner table to eat! You just can't beat those two as a team!

However we've called in whatever spare scientists are still around nowadays...after all most of them are fully occupied with the BP oil spill...so it's tough...but they are trying to tap into a worm hole here...a space time continuum over there to see it they can locate and bring back our muse! Where is Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future when you need him?!

Hopefully though we should be back in full swing here on Meady's Musings by this Tumultuous Thursday and over on our sister blog UCP by this Wednesday as we share some Buddhist cheer!

Soulful Sundays: Apologies and a Post to Go!

We've come in the company of the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse to let you know that we're sorry, sorry and more sorry for not blogging for weeks and weeks...not a single Maniac Mondays or Tumultuous Tuesdays, Funtastic Fridays or even Slumbering Saturdays blog have we posted...and not a single word of prayer was said on our sister blog UCP-Universal Collective Prayer...so now here's the thing...

We've been caught up in the Hustings here on the islands of...Trinidad and Tobago...the place of our birth and citizenship...you see we've been working for something we believe in here...CHANGE! So we've been rallying changemakers across the land to vote for it...so got caught up in volunteering...you see we believe that the party that has evolved the People's Partnership echoes some of the things we talk about on these here blogs...or at least they represent hope for it in the land where the ruling party does not show a window for it and even the manifesto that the ruling party has put forward shows they have no interest in change but in just going full steam ahead as is! So we hope for...

-sustainable development
-unity in diversity

And we here at Meady's Musings Production are always about being the change you want to see! So it was easy for Meady's Musings Production to want to blog for them as they to us represent the change we want to be and see!

We don't know what the outcome will be at the general elections tomorrow on Mon 24 May 2010 but we wish for it to be free, fair and peaceful and of course we hope that change will win! :)However no matter who wins the elections on the islands tomorrow Meady's Musings Production will be willing to work with them as a citizen interested in being the change they wish to see in their homes, their community , the islands, the region, the world and quite frankly the Universe and beyond! :) Purple Elephant and Little Mouse always at our side! :)

However right after the election results we will be heading off on vacation to China via London and so we felt it necessary to drop in and apologise and leave you with a farewell Maniac Mondays post we were preparing before we got drawn into the hustings. We also wish to let you know that we will be back around the end of June and our normal Monday, Thursday and Friday installations will return more frequently then. On UCP we will be starting something called the 'God' series where we will be discussing different perceptions of God in various religions, minds and hearts! Of course we will be sure when back from China to share notes on our adventures there both from the Meady's Musings point of view and UCP as we plan to visit the world fair on in Shanghai and some Buddhist temples while there! And for fans of animal muses like us we more than likely will be dropping in on Winnie the Pooh land while in the UK. So look for it!:)

And look for the Maniac Mondays posting tomorrow on Meady's Musings it's about finding 'That Elusive Happy Place' and see you at the end of June! Until then keep being the change you wish to see!:) And if you want you can always ask our Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse to help you out...you know they are always willing!:)

Funtastic Fridays: Parvati Wins Shiv!

How to Win a Guy in 10 Days! Ahmmm...well OK maybe 10 years! LOL!



We at Meady's Musings have to apologize for no Maniac Mondays or Tumultuous Thursdays blog postings this week but perhaps we were so taken up with our Festival of Shiv over on our sister blog UCP that well we had no time for mania and didn't feel tumultuous! :)

It is no wonder the inspiration for today's Funtastic Friday blog posting comes from the ongoings on the Festival of Shiv where Shiv and Parvati recently got married and are celebrating their honeymoon!:) We burrowed some of the pics to create the cartoon from places about the web and we hope the owners won't mind...if you do however mind and see your photo up here and want us to take it down...please feel free to contact us and we will take 'em down! But we figured it's all good advertising for you and we list you here as a source:

The beautiful illustration of Parvati meditating in the forest (in the 2nd panel of the comic strip) is taken from this site and you can buy the poster there! It sure looks like one beautiful poster to have!

The gorgeous painting in the 3rd panel of the comic strip appears to be a reprint of a painting that is displayed on this site.

For those of you further interested in the story behind this comic check out this article...believe you me it's a proper story in Hinduism and we are not mocking the religion in any way especially since if you read our UCP postings you will know that the image in panel 1 of the comic strip has been a source of much inspiration for us over the years and for this author Shiv is the supreme yogi and my ultimate guru for whom I have the greatest respect and awe so I'm not trying to make fun of him in anyway in this comic strip but just telling the Shiv Parvati Katha(story) in a more light hearted manner and in the hope that we can all have Universal fun in a way I'd like to think Shiv would will it too!

However please accept my apologies if I've offended you in any way by publishing this cartoon though...and do write and tell me Shiv willing if you like! :)I'm assuming if Shiv doesn't like it himself he'll tell me in the kindest and hopefully nicest of ways...perhaps a dream...hopefully with no snakes...please no snakes Shiv...just a nice dream! :) But some how upon reflection I can't see how such a cosmic being would too much too care whether I blogged about him in a comic strip or whom out there it may have vexed...after all there's a whole Universe...Cosmos even for him to get about with!

Here it is...Here it is and Here It Goes!

I've been in the meditation cave with Shiv...and I had some insights...then I had to go through some invites and welcome back ins...then some unforeseen news I was to bear...oh dear! But then was what some call the Indian New Year! (Makar Sankranti as celebrated in UP/Bihar ...the states of my ancestors) And I think it finally brought closure to my thoughts...

So here it is...here it is...before my heart grows heavy and my lights grow dim... and here it goes...my New Year's resolutions of sorts...my plans for these here blogs and the sections of my life through which they trisect (seeing as they are three and all!)

On Meady's Musings

-Mondays: a blog of choice but this year I plan to focus on my experiments in veganism again and I will be going vegan for all of Feb to coincide with another event (I will be covering on UCP). So you can expect to see some of that thrown in with my stepping and meditation retreats to my Shiv cave!

Also I will again attempt to another garden grow and as I see fit I'll let you know how it grows after you've had your Monday Morning cup of Joe to go! :)

-On Thursdays: Expect an offering from either my reincarnation series then or some dabbling into lucid dreams or anything metaphysical of sorts! ;)We'll go slipping through time tunnels, jump into parallel worlds and fall into a flower garden filled with our dreams! I'm so excited! :)

-Friday Fun: Friday will be for fun...I will attempt to pull out a page from my book literally! Yours truly has been writing a book and I will throw out a bit of it from time to time here...but that's not necessarily fun you say? Or come on now my friends it will be :( Please bear with me! :)

However I'll not only pull out the pages for ya...from time to time I'll whip out something special...let it be a surprise for now until it unfolds...hmmm...a lot like Mr. Universe from those tumultuous Thurs metaphysical talks you say...indeed! :)

And expect to get some visits from my Purple Elephant and little mouse often on these days...I tell ya they are rearing to go! :) The bears may also bless us with a visit or two and we will even sometimes check to see what those mischievous monkeys are up to...hopefully they are still on the straight and narrow since our Advent calendar adventures...you think?


On UCP-Universal Collective Prayer

I won't fix the days here but all February long I'll be celebrating Shiv for sure and during that month just like when I did my Advent calendar I will attempt to blog daily on his exploits...when things overlap you might find I will share of Shiv on the other two blogs too! And of course the big Shiv hoo ha of all will fall on Maha Shiv Ratri and UCP will be there to give you the scoop! :)

That's the only thing I've fixed for this blog thus far...other than that I will continue to explore this thing I call Universal Collective Prayer with you and blog as my exploration demands of me to share it with you! And continue to welcome you to come share in Universal Collective Prayer with me!

OM NAMAH SHIVAY!

On Books and Films Corner

I'll try to blog here at least once a week more than likely on a Friday. I will not rehash what is already out there in the mainstream but try to share with you what I find unique to me and what defines me out there in the great big world of books and films! :) STAY TUNED!

My Own Special Kinda Advent Calendar for My Readers!

I’m launching my own kinda Advent calendar on all three of my blogs today! I know it’s half way into the Advent month of December and less than 10 days away from Christmas but as I said it’s my own kinda Advent calendar and as such I start it and end it in my own way…I’ve decided to start it today and to let it run into the 12 days of Christmas instead of on Christmas day. So the calendar starts today and ends on the day of the Epiphany or in places where the Epiphany is not celebrated- 6th Jan which normally marks the end of the Christmas season.

So here’s how my Advent calendar is gonna run…first of all for once I’m gonna be posting daily…now this is not my day job and so if I falter be meek and mild with me…but at least I plan to post everyday…and hopefully I won’t falter. And won’t let down the guy singing to the kids on this post! :)

So here is how the calendar goes…on each of my blogs I’m gonna put something up about Christmas but from focusing on different aspects of the celebrations. So on my Meady’s Musings Blog….this one….I’m gonna talk about some favourite treat associated with the holidays. However the treat will not be utilizing any of ‘The Little Ones’ in ‘em and I defined what ‘The Little Ones’ are on my Universal Collective Prayer blog a couple days ago here in this post. But to put it simply it means it will be vegetarian meals but using dairy since as far as I can tell locally here the milk obtained isn’t from mega farms by and large and so the cows aren’t suffered for the milk. The cheese is available in animal rennet free versions and supposedly the cows that make ‘em stroll the lovely country sides of New Zealand. And the ones that give the butter play in the pristine Irish meadows. So for now like how the Verizon guy makes everyone say- Good!-I’m good cause I checked it out! Anyway by and large I feel I will be following in the tradition of putting a chocolate on each date in the actual Advent calendars so I will be symbolically giving you a new chocolate everyday by reviewing something with chocolate in it! Mmmmm…yum!

My semi-raw thing didn’t work out for many reasons this time and I had to curtail it. One of the reasons I had to was of the hectic schedules these days and so not much time to make right choice less write about the wrong ones! I’ve been posting on Universal Collective Prayer but that just flows as it is prayers you know….So just letting you know in case you are wondering how I’m eating the chocs when I was suppose to be all healthy till Christmas day…next year for sure though! :) No seriously I plan to approach it again when I’m more settled.

So now, back to the Advent calendar…On my Universal Collective Prayer blog I will be including a favourite quotation, tune or writing about Christmas and the Nativity and sometimes a film clip although it is not a film blog. While on my less known and rarely updated The Books and Films Corner blog I will be talking about well…a book or film relevant to the holidays. I still owe my blog on V.S. Naipaul on that blog and my blog series on Reincarnation on this Meady’s Musings blog so in between you might see posts on those too but there will be two posts on that day if that happens-one for the Advent calendar and one for the normal postings. My blogs don’t close for the Holidays and so we still have normal posts to churn out there as well! And if you want to see more of my blogs in the New Year well you might just have to be clicking away on those Google Ad Sense ads so you can pay me enough pennies to plug on!:)Merry Christmas and a Bright and Prosperous New Year Everybody! with love and compassion from Meady's Musings Production:)Advent calendar here we come!

Launch of My Other Blog-Universal Collective Prayer

Please check it out- http://universalcollectiveprayer.blogspot.com Image is burrowed from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International Library.