It happened. I got Sam back!

I lost him in May and got him back today.

It’s been getting freezing cold around here in Wisconsin - snowing and freezing - so I decided to write to the local newspaper and ask them to do a write-up about a missing black cat, because it was pretty evident that the cat was nowhere around here.

I got a call this afternoon, from 10 miles away, and it’s Sam.

He went completely bananas when he saw me.

The people who called me said he showed up about a month ago - really skinny and scared - and they started feeding him and then he started getting friendly with them.

I’m in shock.

I am so in love with people who take care of strays. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

About an hour after I got Sam back, I got a call from a woman at the Humane Society saying she saw my ad about a missing cat in the newspaper and that a lot of people have dropped off cats this week because they can’t afford them, and that there were several black cats.

So if anyone out there wants some unconditional love, remember there are a lot of unwanted pets out there that need a home.

The holy Christ is born in me today.

These lessons are like clockwork!!

How is it that I come through the “Summer of Discovery” (as one reader beautifully put it) which included every emotion under the sun - fear, doubt, anger, gratitude, joy, loneliness, love, hope, confusion, pain, certainty, and happiness - to go through the whole spectrum of colors only to find that this is the journey!

My friend Greta said to me the other day that she is convinced that the path is designed like this - that you undergo every single possible emotion and this is the rebirth of Christ in you. You must dot every i and cross every t … and then you emerge into the light … healed, and whole and perfect.

Born Again.

The holy Christ is born in me today.

Let’s celebrate with music:

Do you hear what I hear by Anne Murray (not the best youtube visual, but absolutely my very favorite Christmas song - I listen to this version by Anne Murray all year long in my car, and usually 4 times in a row, every couple of weeks)

Said the king to the people everywhere:
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace, people everywhere
Listen to what I say
A child, A child sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light.
He will bring us goodness and light.

Christmas songs are timeless. And today, this song heralds Christ birth in me.

HE WILL BRING US GOODNESS AND LIGHT.

The amazing thing is that the child WAS SLEEPING, and he was sleeping in me, but today he is born, awakened in me.

Joy to the World by Anne Murray.

Joy to the world is straight out of the bible; a word-for-word translation from Psalm 98 from English cleric Issac Watts, made in 1719. Over 100 years later, American composer Lowell Mason put the words to music, and attributed the final product to his hero, George Fredrick Handel. The attribution of this carol to Handel lasted for more than a century, but it’s from the bible. Word for Word.

Joy to the world! The Lord has come:
Let earth receive her King.
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room,
And heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns:
Let men their songs employ,
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders of His love.

And my third favorite song, O Come All Ye Faithful, by, yes, Anne Murray. I listen to this song all year round too.

O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold him, born the King of angels;
O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

Glory to God in the highest.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning,
Jesus, to thee be all glory given.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing:
O come let us adore him
O come let us adore him
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

The holy Christ is born in me today.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee. Born this happy morning.