Happy Thanksgiving!!!

On this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful for my Loverly, my family, all my friends and the Convergent Team; these are the people who make life magical for me. Thank you!!!! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ah Magical Fireplace

I've known from the time I could walk that there was something magical about sitting near a fire and becoming immersed in the flickering light.  Time spent in front of a fire is a time of relaxation and a time for reflection.  Ok, so sometimes it is also where we find the makings for Smores.  That just shows the versatility of the magical fire.

I just lit the first fire of the season in our fireplace.  Past years would have shown the cats curled up on the floor in front it and frequently even the dog sharing the coveted spot with them.  We usually dim the lights and enjoy the warmth and the very special view of the burning, crackling logs in the fire.

It's cold outside and the weather certainly warrants having a warm cozy fire in the fireplace.            
This is also the time when many of the channels are showing Christmas movies around the clock. I also have a stack of CDs full of Christmas songs that we could listen to from now until after the New Year.

So I think the evening ahead is fairly well laid out.  A warm cozy fire, a holiday movie that inspires and rekindles our Christmas spirit and a little grog to help ease us into the mood.

Later, after everyone is asleep the fire will  start its gradual decline.  The shadows created by the fire will flicker on the walls.  This is when I will find the time to take advantage of it powers of reflection and examine life and all of it's complexities.  Life takes it's inevitable twists and turns and sometimes we are spot on in our dealings with them; other times not so much.  Pausing to look back on those moments helps to understand life just that little bit better and a fire is the perfect place for such contemplation.

Good night all and may you too find clarity, solace and wisdom in front of your very own fire!

Sadness

I googled sadness to see what the technical definition of the word is.  Of course, Google goes into too many derivations of the word and its meanings to be really helpful.  I was wondering if sadness is considered an acute complication or if it can be a chronic condition.

I gleaned from all the information on Google that sadness is really more of a temporary and situational condition.  If these emotions go further than this it seems that is more indicative of depression than simple sadness.

I did some reading on sadness today and wow what a wealth of information there is on sadness.  I truly believe there are a lot of sad people in this world.  That, in and of itself, is very sad and indicative of our times.

Following is one of the best pieces I found on sadness.  It bears reading a couple of times to really get the full measure if its depth.

“He awoke each morning with the desire to do right, to be a good and meaningful person, to be, as simple as it sounded and as impossible as it actually was, happy. And during the course of each day his heart would descend from his chest into his stomach. By early afternoon he was overcome by the feeling that nothing was right, or nothing was right for him, and by the desire to be alone. By evening he was fulfilled: alone in the magnitude of his grief, alone in his aimless guilt, alone even in his loneliness. I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others--the only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad. I am not sad. I am not sad. Because his life had unlimited potential for happiness, insofar as it was an empty white room. He would fall asleep with his heart at the foot of his bed, like some domesticated animal that was no part of him at all. And each morning he would wake with it again in the cupboard of his rib cage, having become a little heavier, a little weaker, but still pumping. And by the midafternoon he was again overcome with the desire to be somewhere else, someone else, someone else somewhere else. I am not sad.” 
― Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

The real question isn't what is sadness, because I believe sadness to be the anomaly rather than the norm.  So, given that everyone at some point in time is prone to bouts of sadness, how do we transform ourselves from a state of sadness into a state of happiness and well being?

Apparently that will require more research because I definitely don't have the answer as of this writing.

Night All!!!!