Advent Calendar 2012: Day 6 (Boxing Day) of The Christmas Adventures of The Purple Elephant and the little mouse!

On Day 6 of the Christmas adventures it was the birthday of the owner of the production house and as a result she invited a few of her guests over from the 'real' world to the production house. Of the persons invited was her nephew who always shared her birthday cake and was a fan of Wallace and Gromit so this is the cake they ate!

Image copyright of Meady's Musings Production House 2012

Every mice got a piece of cake and were thrilled that the theme of the cake was cheese as it depicted a scene from this episode of Wallace and Gromit:


The theme of the cake did re-ignite the argument between the little mouse's parents about the age of cheese but it quickly boiled over and all was well again!

But the cake ceremony was not all that happened that day...earlier in the morning the owner and her nephew sat down with the guys from the UCP desk and others interested to pray and it so happened the prayer they performed was the same prayer that was done on the opening of the UCP desk way back in 2008!

And so it was Day 6 of the Christmas adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse! :)

Advent Calendar 2012: Day 5 (Christmas Day) of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse

And when all awoke on Christmas morning after falling asleep to the beautiful prayer said by the little mouse...they sang together in prayer and thanks and most of all Joy!

Advent Calendar 2012: Day 4 of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse (Christmas Eve)

So by Day 4 of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse it was already Christmas Eve and all the mouse's siblings had by then arrived and his parents had settled into the production house as well. The parents of the little mouse had gotten over their petty squabbling about cheese and was helping the little mouse to keep all his siblings at peace. However the little mouse was still counting on the owner of the production house to weave her magic or for some Christmas miracle to get all the mice now temporarily residing in the production house to agree and be at peace.

So the owner of the production house tried playing this from her favourite Christmas album: John Denver and the Mumpets- A Christmas Together:


And although it seemed to stir some place inside most of the mice...soon after the carol was done the bickering continued!

And it was only until several cheese plates were served and the mice sat down to watch this mouse in a starring role did peace seem to begin to kick in fully and the Christmas spirit seemed to be there as not a mouse stirred as they all were glued to the TV screen to look at this show!



Then when it ended one of the London mice (working to stop use of mice in laboratories) just spontaneously got up and sang Jingle Bells like so:



And when he was done the little mouse reminded everyone that it was almost midnight at the production house on Christmas Eve and so it was time for all to join in prayer...and this was the prayer that the little mouse said:

THE LITTLE MOUSE'S CHRISTMAS EVE PRAYER

"Dear Lord,
It's been a long year
One in which I almost faded away
Imagine I was almost not here
But thank goodness I was saved

It all made me realize
How much I still have to do
And to remember all those
To whom I must say a big thank you

The owner of the production house
For coming back to me
And for saying sorry for not being around

To the best friend ever to this mouse
We all know who he is and what's in a name
But today I must officially say
I thank you dear God
For that Purple Elephant
With whom I share this house

And thank you dear Lord
For all my mice family
Who this year for Christmas
Are all with me

And finally dear Father
But certainly not least
I thank you for giving to us
This night a star
A star which we all followed
That led us to thee!"


Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good night! :)

Advent Calendar 2012: Day 3 of The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse.

On the Third Day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse the little mouse's family started arriving...

First to get there were his parents...both arrived arguing about who was right or wrong about the age of the cheese they were eating and the little mouse's mother kept going on about since when the little mouse's father was an expert on cheese seeing as cheese wasn't Indian and this was not paneer!

Next through the door were the church mice from the US followed by the Canadian church mice and as they met in the foyer another big argument ensued about which version of the bible they should read from for the Christmas prayer!

The little mouse started to feel embarrassed as he overheard those monkeys still residing (unfortunately) in the game room squealing about how the little mouse's family was always arguing!

Now it really was unlike our little mouse...as you all must know by now...he is such a quiet, shy and peaceful mouse...and he started to get even more flustered than normal when soon after the North American mice siblings arrived the Indian temple mice came into the yard of the production house and went to the trees to pray and the North American church mice stood in the foyer claws in uproar as to what those Indian mice were doing?!

The little mouse went to the owner of the production house and The Purple Elephant and begged for help as he hang his little head in shame...he explained it was kinda why he had never asked his family to visit before as for this same reason and more...

However he had thought it only right to have them come as they were so worried about him after he almost disappeared! But some way to show their worry and care!

But then the Purple Elephant trumpeted and the owner of the production house went over to the little mouse and assured him that she would make things right...she for sure had a plan!


So the little mouse went over to the foyer and continued to welcome his many siblings...

And so ended the third day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and little mouse!

Advent Calendar 2012: the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse- Day 2

The little mouse's father came from a long line of Indian Temple mice!

Image burrowed from this site

After the world of the owner of the production house did not end and the little mouse had grown almost back to full size again the Christmas adventures of the Purple Elephant and the little mouse continued...

The owner of the production house had now moved fully into the house again and would be with the animals all Christmas long until the Epiphany.

The production house was all abuzz as for the first time ever the family of the little mouse would be visiting! Of course over the years monkeys had taken over the production house, bears from all over the world had visited and the Purple Elephant's herd had visited but never the little mouse's family. So everyone was excited to meet them and learn more!

Everyone kept asking the little mouse when and from where his family would be arriving and whether they would be mice, gerbil or hamster?!

The little mouse tediously explained that while by marriage and otherwise he was related to some gerbils and hamsters that he was of mice and mice alone! A little mouse he was and mice were mice...hamsters were hamsters and gerbils were gerbils!


So upon further prodding the little mouse related the list of his relatives and so it went:

The little mouse's father had descended from a long line of temple mice in India. But one day he grew curious and left his abode of adoration and jumped on a ship! He was then rudely awakened when he arrived in London to find a set of caged mice in a pet shop meant to be fed to snakes....alive! So he hatched a plan and saved them and fell in love with one of the mice he saved...the little mouse's mother.

Together they helped save many a lab rat and mice and also gave birth to the mice that accounts for the little mouse and his siblings. Of the sixteen mice that they gave birth to here is where they each went:

1. Two became church mice in churches under the Church of England.
2. Three went back to India to be temple mice following in their father's lineage
3. Three went to Hollywood to audition for the role of the three blind mice in the
Shrek movies
4. Four became activist mice and are instrumental in laws passed to stop the use of
live mice for feeding other animals in the UK and Germany.
5. Four went to become church mice in various parts of North America but one of them
changed his mind and ended up in Trinidad as the little mouse himself!:) Living in the
production house with the Purple Elephant and practicing UCP-Universal Collective
Prayer!


And so the entire production house waited for the arrival of all these mice! As the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse continued!

Advent Calendar 2012- Very Late Opening!

The little mouse has been going to the Purple Elephant every day for the past few weeks and climbing up to his big, purple ears to whisper into either of them to let him know...

"Where did all the blog posts at the Meady's Musings Production House go?!"


You see if the owner of the production house does not blog...well then eventually the production house and all its inhabitants will fade away...they will be no more...and the Purple Elephant being so large in size was not realising it as much...he thought his skin was just too dry and bits were flaking off...but when he finally looked through the corners of his left eye at the little mouse sitting upon his left ear what did the Purple Elephant behold?

Well my friends the little mouse was just but skin and bone!

The Purple Elephant upon this shocking revelation took to all fours and jumped over into the real world and landed outside the owner of the production house's office door! When she did not come out he stomped and when she still did not come out he stomped some more and then when she still did not emerge he stomped again but trumpeted with that!

Eventually the owner of the production house emerged with crude oil coming out of one ear, produced water out another and bits of paper stuck all over her body!

Regardless of her appearance the Purple Elephant scooped her up with his trunk and put her onto his back and jumped right into the imaginary world before the owner of the production house could even blink!

He dropped her right onto the middle of the floor and pointed with his trunk to the little mouse and then trumpeted!

OMG! When the owner of the production house saw her poor little mouse she immediately realized what she had done...she had rarely blogged all year long and...and...to top it off from the first time since she had built the production house in her imagination and created the blogs-Meady's Musings and UCP-Universal Collective Prayer...oh dear she had not opened...

THE ADVENT CALENDAR!

And Dec 20th was already here!

She immediately went to the imaginary fridge and got some cheese for the mouse...but when she brought it back for the poor little mouse in a weak, gasping breath the noble being explained that no cheese in this here imaginary world could save him! The owner had to go right away back with the Purple Elephant to the real world and grab keyboard, smart phone or tablet and type away...then to the internet connect and post!

For every word she posted online...the little mouse would heal and re-gain a fat cell for every byte put online!

So here you have it...the owner has typed and now all of us here at the Meady's Musings Production House declare the Advent calender 2012 open!

Given its late start we will stay with you until the epiphany this year...6 Jan 2013 is when we shall close!

It is important to also note that the owner of the production house made a trip to Chichen Itza this year which seems to be at the center of this whole world will end tomorrow business.

Photo copyright of Meady's Musings Production House 2012

And she was discussing it with the Purple Elephant and little mouse and since their world almost ended...they know how it feels and so the little mouse still frail but getting better went to his little prayer corner and decided to share this lovely little Christmas prayer with all beings in the Universe real and imaginary on the eve of the 21st December 2012 i.e. the start of the Winter Solstice and quite possibly (anything is possible you know) the end of the world!

"I'm just a little mouse
Some consider me imaginary
Others say it is contrary
And it is my world that is real
While the world of the Production House owner is unreal

To be honest this little mouse does not know
What is real or unreal
What is the truth or untruth
And it is with this knowledge I pray
This little mouse kneels in his corner
And surrenders onto the Divine
Let your will be done!

Some say there may not even be a Divine one.
But I say what is in a word.
You see whether it be or not...
It would not change my lot!

But I've learnt from the owner of the production house
To pray...as I feel at peace when I do...
So I recall how she in the past has surrendered onto the Divine in this blog:

I Surrender onto the Divine Mother!


And sing this song with her...


And I've also learnt from her that there is not only one way to pray...

So in the spirit of Universal Collective Prayer and in keeping with the time of Advent I also offer this form of prayer in this our first Christmas carol on our Advent calendar 2012!
May there be many more to come! :)



Let the Christmas fun begin! :)

Maniac Mondays: Work Life Balance...Caught in the Time Trap!

Image copyright of Meady's Musings Production 2008.

Today on Maniac Mondays we've been wondering about time...how little of it there often is and how to make the most of it...and if we don't will it all run out? Or more so are we caught in the time trap of life daily repeating routine cyclic tasks to a bitter end?! We started to get really maniacal about it and was about to let out the laugh when we decided to restrain ourselves less we become like the March Hare and Mad Hatter and become true maniacs! So we then began to contemplate the March Hare and his obsession with time. And was he obsessed with it alone or was it the Mad Hatter or was it both of them? So we went to the web of things to research it and came up with another blog to befriend this week...so along with our new and blossoming friendship with the Aussies over on Boy Girl Modern World as they contemplate work/life balance...we met this Texan based (we think) chick over on Write Right! She seems to have the full scoop on this whole 'Murdering the Time' business.

According to Write Right's blog post which we think hits the nail on the head and so we quote her:

"If the Hatter and the March Hare seem mad, perhaps it’s because we forget how relatable they are. How often do we get stuck in a routine, doing the same thing and writing the same words day after day after day? We become tired of that routine. We complain about it. Sometimes, we do something about it. We find a way to make our routine fun again. We make changes, sometimes drastic ones, to it. We add a new activity to our lives to balance the tedium. We ask for input regarding our writing. Other times, we don’t do anything. We decide to drink the same tea, to eat the same desserts, to use the same serving ware, and to have the same, pointless conversations. Isn’t that mad? Isn’t that “murdering the time”?"

Well and yes Write Right it's exactly what we think even though we ourselves must hardly 'write right'...what with our over use of the '...' and our generally unpunctuated rambling roving rants we have to say 'write not right' as we may we have struck a common point of view with you here! And now because we are just as mad as the Hatter and arguably then madder than the March Hare we will pause for a moment for this jig with them as we have done in the past on this blog:



Now continuing...

You see if we get stuck in this time trap of sorts just repeating and doing the same things over and over well even if we follow the Zen like practice of living in the moment and being fully present in every second of it...well wouldn't we still be stuck? Well unless we had some sort of overall plan or map of some sorts?

So even if you don't want to see it as being stuck in tea time all the time...if you see it as you go to work every day and do this and that can't you still of course be stuck?

You see...and we came to thinking about it in work itself just last Friday really...now yes if we are all Zen like and focus on the moment and be present fully in it we are bound to do our best...our very utmost best at whatever task at hand! So we're not knocking the very Zeness of it yet! But if we keep doing things the same way and doing the same things aren't we perhaps possibly not moving forward in a way too? I mean if we don't climb up and look at the top of trees to see the whole forest from time to time...how are we to know where we are going? Or how the overall plan looks? Or how our best trys shape things overall? Indeed what our best looks like? And who decides where we are to be going in the first place?

Our boss? The manager? The CEO?

And in our personal life...ourselves? our parents? our children? our spouse? our friends? our pets even?

And how do we know? And do we know where we must go?

Should we join the guys over on the UCP desk who've not blogged since Easter and say God!?

But the thing is...we need to know...we need to have a bigger plan...and as much we've always hated the famous question:

"Where do you see yourself in the next five years?"


We have to admit it...you have to have a general plan!

You see you can't control the outcomes in life...indeed as the Desiderata states:

"And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

However we still have to have some kind of general plan...then work in the Zen like way...focussing on every little daily task and caught up in the very moment of it...but at the end of every day or at least every week or every quarter or every year even we have to review...climb up at the top of the trees and see how our forest has grown...based on us doing the best we can in every moment...this is how the forest looks. It may not be how we want it to look like and so then we have to decide how we want to go from there...do we want to try to re-shape it again to how we wanted it to look originally or now based on our experiences do we have a different idea of how our forest should look?

Or do we want to step out of the forest altogether and start over in a new forest?

And can we even do that? Maybe yes or maybe no but that time is when you have to access this.

And the thing is we have to do it in our careers or work life as well as our personal life and in the work/life balance scheme of things as a whole. For in the end of it really...career or work is just one part of our overall life!

It's kinda tough...isn't it? This whole work/life balance thing and more so this whole life thing!

There are several work plan maps out there and ways to structure it and no doubt things like meditation, creative visualization and yep even joining the guys over on the UCP desk to engage in prayer that can help us come up with the overall master plan of this thing call life!

But in the end of it all it always comes back to what we were saying in agreement with Daniel Pink on our mid August Maniac Mondays posting- Choosing a Few Things:

It's all about what is our Drive?!

And according to Daniel Pink the two questions that can change your life:

"If your life at its end had to be summarised in one sentence what would you want it to be?"

"Was I better today than yesterday?"

(so I guess in the case of Daniel Pink he is suggesting a daily climb up to the top of the trees to look at the condition of your forest)


But hey it's Maniac Mondays and we're no experts just a bunch of maniacs ourselves so let's go dance a jig with the Mad Hatter and March Hare now because you know what Mr. Daniel Pink? It's oh so much fun!

And join us later this week as we do two blog posts this week...as we continue to investigate time...in this case in the metaphysical sense and wonder if if it exists at all? Or can we like the Mad Hatter murder time and in this case he never comes back to rule over us? Is Father time really a lie after all? Can we transcend his boundaries? We think we are so into time now that it may even become an upcoming series to give to the UCP desk to work on! So join us then...but for now let's dance! :)