New Year Faith

"Faith is courage; it is creative while despair is always destructive." ~David S. Muzzey

Do you have faith to overcome anything? When life comes and tears apart everything you have, will you be able to rebuild it?

It was during a private "fly-in" fishing excursion in the Alaskan wilderness, a charter pilot and fisherman left a cooler and bait in the plane. A bear smelled it and this is what the bear did to the plane.


The pilot used his radio and had another pilot bring him 2 new tires, 3 cases of duct tape, and a supply of sheet plastic. He patched the plane together, and FLEW IT HOME!


Each of us will encounter what the bear has destroyed. Each of us require the faith to rebuild. A Bible verse (Isaiah 9:10) says, "the bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars."

Have faith in what was put inside each of us and you will fly out from the wilderness. The bear that tried to destroy you will be left defeated once again.

Can I verify the story above? Did he really fly it out? I guess that is what faith is all about.

A Greater New You

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." ~Hal Borland

The countdown has begun for many. The preparations for a new year are beginning. People are writing down their New Year's resolutions. The plans for 2010 are taking shape as we speak. The last day of 2009 will ring out in festive fashion. The first day of 2010 will be rung in with wild exhuberance for all to come.

As we prepare, take stock in what was accomplished in 2009. Look back to all those that you have made a difference to. Look back at all those people that made a difference in your life.

We do not forget all that we lost or learned during 2009. We continue on into the new year with greater expectation to accomplish even more. Take this week to prepare for a countdown to a greater you.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day - Enjoy the holiday and thank you for a great year.

Christmas, Yes Virginia

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus: The Classic Edition

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.” -Francis Pharcellus Church

As we enter into the Christian holiday of Christmas, the spirit of Christmas that can be felt by people of all religions is embodied in this letter.

~~~~~

Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

~~~~~THE LETTER~~~~~

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

~~~~~EDITORS RESPONSE~~~~~

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a safe and merry Christmas! To all have a happy holiday season and new year!