Advent Calendar:Christmas Day!-The Gift of Imagination

Again from Meady's Musings Production and the group of blogs:Meady's Musings, Universal Collective Prayer and Books and Films Corner I'd like to wish all my readers a Happy and Holy Christmas and a Bright and Reflective New Year filled with Musings and Love and its Pure,Clear, Light! :)

This year my gift giving to my nieces and nephews surrounded the gift of imagination. My nieces and nephew who was with me got their gifts last night cause we decided to do it then so they could spend time with me last night exploring the gifts of imagination before the rush of family and eating tomorrow! I think would like to keep that as a new Christmas tradition in the future too...as you can be more peacefully reflective on the gifts then I find...

Now,I have read blog after blog this year about the economic crunch and materialism and I do realize there are many who really can't afford the simplest store bought gift but for those of us lucky to have a bit of cash at least momentarily in our hands I find gifts of imagination and thought are the most worth while not just for kids but for all of us. I've been know to buy games for adult friends! And really if we don't buy stuff too what would happen to those who make a living from retailing?

So I contemplated this and cut down on the amount I spent on each gift but still got gifts of imagination...surely if I couldn't afford to buy them I could have created them on my own from scraps of things...it's the thing about the gift of imagination it does not necessarily have to be bought! However I luckily some might say had enough cash on hand to put out a bit so I supported my favourite island book store and got these gifts of imagination as can been seen in set above. Really book kits on:

-Egyptology
-Wizardology
-Time Travel(really talking bout history)


I found the Time Travel one to the most useful as it is grounded in real proven things that we know for sure actually happened too...I guess imagining responsibly?:) And it came with a little clock that tells the time backward! :)However they all spur the imagination in not only a child but in me! The Egypt one claims to be a remake of a journal of a lady who actually experienced Egypt although it says it can't be proven!:) And immediately my niece who got that wondered if the lady really existed and the reprint of the coffee stain on the book ...if that really happened and the lady really spilt coffee on her real journal! The Wizardology one is surrounded around Merlin and the like although it bigs up the Mystics of India. We being of Indian ancestry and Hindu background aren't as freaked out by mysticism as some but here is where I say sometimes we have to not fall entirely into the imaginary world and is why I saw the Time Travel one might be more useful. But I did have the talk with that niece bout not taking the spells seriously and appreciating the code set that went with it as a way of creating a new language in code. Despite what some might say I know there can be a lot to be learnt from the Way of Wizards if used responsibly.

The idea of the book kits to me gives my nieces and nephew a passport to the imaginary world. It is theirs to hold on to and explore that world through. Yes they can look things up on the web, watch a film and many other things and those will no doubt spur imagination too...but after interacting with them and the gifts I realize just how much this little piece of paper and ink gave then a raft... something to hold on to as their own as they navigated the world of their imaginations. And really if I couldn't afford to buy them ...I could have craftily put together these journals on my own with clippings form newspapers etc. But I had the money and not the time...which is why I said some might call me lucky as I had the cash but really if I had the time to lovingly craft it on my own it may have been even more fulfilling an experience so really who is luckier than who?!


And of course we all know the great things that come out of imagination...if we didn't dare to dream the world would never change...it would always be stuck in the same place...it is on the tail of our dreams that new ideas take flight and then parachute into a new world!:)


It is why my other little nephew much younger at only 3 but not with me this year as he is in the US. He got the gift of Winnie the Pooh on dvd...cause I know how much he loves to look at the bee chase when Winnie pretends to be just a little black rain cloud of course! After he had completed his stoutness exercises :)


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!:)

Advent Calendar:Mon 22 Dec- Do You Give the Gift of Gratitude?

During Christmas time many people exchange gifts. Some of us will exchange gifts with our immediate family, some with our extended family too while others with friends as well and some of us will even receive the good ole corporate gifts. Cause even if it is a time of global recession a mug and a calendar won't stretch the company budget too far perhaps?! However how many of us will give or receive the gift of gratitude?

When I decided to ask you if you would be giving the gift of gratitude as my Advent gift to you today...my gift being to spur you to reflect on this...I decided to look up 'the gift of gratitude' on the web as it is the first thing that came to my head when I thought of gratitude...giving it as a gift...and in doing so I found this site The Gift of Gratitude where it seems a couple of ladies have made the whole thing into a creative business...and good for them! :)

But really you can't go to a website to give the gift of gratitude...true, honest to goodness gratitude can only be found in one place within...the heart. True gratitude can only be given and received from there. Luckily today in the mail I got a letter and Christmas card from a friend...I would have liked to say hand written but suffice to say she couldn't go so far but I still felt the gratitude. What she did I realized after calling her up on the phone when I received the mail is...she typed up these templates to friends and then personalized them and printed out letters and posted them to various friends...it was one notch short of the hand written letter but the thought behind it was very lovely...and the point here isn't to argue for or against the snail mail letter, the email, the handwritten or the printer inked letter...but to talk about the gratitude shown. I knew my friend's gesture and words however they were displayed before me did come from a place of true gratitude and it made me feel good...it made me feel good to receive it along with my other mail of bills...and it so happened two cards came on the same day...one from a friend sending just a card but she usually buys a card that helps some charity or cause so that in its own way is already something wonderful and this one that was a normal card with a letter of gratitude...

What made the letter of gratitude feel even more wonderful is that I knew the things she was being grateful to me for when they were given from me to her over the last year they were also given truly and from the heart...

It made me think today about gratitude...and really how many times over my lifetime thus far I have also give the occasional gift or card for Christmas...to show gratitude for something that person did for me in the year that had past...my project supervisor for my research project...people who helped me in industry when I was doing my first research project whilst still at uni. The kind people who transported me to and from my workstations when I yet did not own a car. I remembered today how about ten years ago when I now started off in the world of industry I used to buy those cards and attached tiny Santa chocolates and things like that! :) Now I receive corporate gifts and swim in so many things...Surely some of these gifts when given are by people who are truly grateful for my assistance and good workmanship with them all year true since apart from the working relationships I've grown to be friends with many of them. But let's face it the majority of them are just given me the necessary... And what have I been giving?...and what have I to be grateful for? And have I been losing Grace or fallen out of Grace?

According to The Free Dictionary 'Grace is defined as follows:
noun
1. Seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion.
2. A characteristic or quality pleasing for its charm or refinement.
3. A sense of fitness or propriety.
4.
a. A disposition to be generous or helpful; goodwill.
b. Mercy; clemency.
5. A favor rendered by one who need not do so; indulgence.
6. A temporary immunity or exemption; a reprieve.
7. Graces Greek & Roman Mythology Three sister goddesses, known in Greek mythology as Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, who dispense charm and beauty.
8.
a. Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people.
b. The state of being protected or sanctified by the favor of God.
c. An excellence or power granted by God.
9. A short prayer of blessing or thanksgiving said before or after a meal.
10. Grace Used with His, Her, or Your as a title and form of address for a duke, duchess, or archbishop.
11. Music An appoggiatura, trill, or other musical ornanment in the music of 16th and 17th century England.
tr.v. graced, grac·ing, grac·es
1. To honor or favor: You grace our table with your presence.
2. To give beauty, elegance, or charm to.
3. Music To embellish with grace notes.
Idioms:
in the bad graces of
Out of favor with.
in the good graces of
In favor with.
with bad grace
In a grudging manner.
with good grace
In a willing manner.'

As much as the idea of me losing Grace or falling out of it is subjective and dependent on who is the judge and who my Grace is in relation to...I'd say No...by and large I've luckily managed to save Grace and hopefully remain in Good Graces with the Universe thus far...

I do however think I and many others perhaps have been forgetting at times or even losing the ability to show true Gratitude ...true Grace...be Thankful and say Thank You! With all the hype this past year with US President elect only saying Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! I look within and not on a pulpit or stage but yes a blog and so a public place but from my heart anyways when I say Thank You!

I know Americans had their Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago but perhaps for many it is now just a Turkey Fest...as I call it and so if True Thanks was not given then it can be given now...

And I guess I will again post the Alanis song (but a different performance of it)which I shared a few weeks ago in relation to the Mumbai Attacks since she thanked India and I found the song was a bit prophetic especially as on top of it the attacks happened on the eve of Thanksgiving in the US....but it is also about what this blog post is about ....saying Thank You! from a place or honesty...Thank You Alanis for it! And THANK YOU! THIS IS TODAY'S ADVENT GIFT TO YOU!