Ring out the Old! Ring in the New! Ring out the False! Ring in the True!
Yesterday today was tomorrow, and tomorrow today will be yesterday…
…..George Harrison, “Ding Dong, Ding Dong”
Let us Move Forward with Hope for a more Peaceful, Healthy, Compassionate World… All you Need is Love (love is all you need)
Peace
I was going to write something wonderfully pithy, probably touching your heart, possibly changing your whole outlook on life, but Melissa called and we chatted for a good little bit about The Beatles…
(By a “good little bit” I mean an hour or so… Okay, it wasn’t All about the Beatles, but it was about the Music she grew up with which is the Albums that I played over and over again on the stereo with the speakers hanging in macrame hangers…)
Now whatever it was I was going to write about seems melodramatic and overwrought, so Thank the Beatles for sparing you…
Anyway, the spark of the conversation is a movie trailer that Emma shared with me yesterday. I am so excited about this! Something to look forward to…
That’s all I got on this Last Sunday Report of 2020…
Peace
The shepherds didn’t hear the angels say “Merry Christmas”, they heard them sing of Peace On Earth, Goodwill toward All. I’m no angel, but All I want for Christmas — Every Christmas – is Peace…
Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
By Dr. Maya Angelou
Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.
Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.
We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.
It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.
We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.
We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.
It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.
We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.
Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.
I Still Have that Dream; please Dream it with me! We are so Powerful when we are Together!
I have a dream that one day men will rise up and come to see that they are made to live together as brothers. I still have a dream this morning that one day every Negro in this country, every colored person in the world, will be judged on the basis of the content of his character rather than the color of his skin, and every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.
I still have a dream that one day the idle industries of Appalachia will be revitalized, and the empty stomachs of Mississippi will be filled, and brotherhood will be more than a few words at the end of a prayer, but rather the first order of business on every legislative agenda.
I still have a dream today that one day justice will roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. I still have a dream today that in all of our state houses and city halls men will be elected to go there who will do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with their God.
I still have a dream today that one day war will come to an end, that men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, that nations will no longer rise up against nations, neither will they study war any more.
I still have a dream today that one day the lamb and the lion will lie down together and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.
I still have a dream today that one day every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill will be made low, the rough places will be made smooth and the crooked places straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
I still have a dream that with this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when there will be peace on earth and good will toward men.
It will be a glorious day, the morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.
….Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
May your Day be Merry and Bright!
Peace…
Peace
Did y’all look up at the sky on the Solstice? The experience of a once-in-every-400-years occurrence happening on the Longest Night of the Year 2020 should have Meaning, shouldn’t it? Two Stars appearing as One sharing a point in Time and Space should send a ripple of power down to our struggling little planet, shoudn’t it? Well, maybe changes are more incremental than spectacular, but these two stars, which are really planets, are Always dancing together in our Night-Time Sky.
Ancients saw the sky as the home of the gods; even Christianity has God living in a heaven above. All of the myths grew out of the stories that were derived by watching the skies turn; certainly farming and husbandry relied on the skies to guide them through the seasons of planting and harvest, mating and birthing. With no competing light, the canopy of stars must have been so bright and their movement so clear; I wonder when I try to imagine it. Every constellation spoke to the star-gazer; every phase of the moon held meaning.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter is one of the brightest objects visible to the naked eye in the night sky and has been known to ancient civilizations since before recorded history. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can be bright enough for its reflected light to cast visible shadows, and is on average the third-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine times that of Earth. It only has one-eighth the average density of Earth; however, with its larger volume, Saturn is over 95 times more massive.
Emily Segal, writing in The Guardian, predicts that we are entering a new astrological epoch as the every-20-year conjunctions of these two planets moves from an Earth sign, which focuses on materialism, hierarchies, resource acquisition, and territory control, to an Air sign, which favors the renovation of hierarchies, decentralization, shifting orders, rapid translation, and rampant spiritually…
When I began to read about the “Christmas Star” I earlier this month, I checked out the night-skies to find the planets; they were clearly visible from my yard, looking SW, though they sank below the trees about 40 minutes after dark.
Thinking we’d get more darkness outside of the city, we took Goldie up to New Harmony the afternoon before the Big Event to scout out some locations. We found a spot under the old bridge, shooting SW down the Wabash River. We got some okay sunset pictures, but…
we didn’t stay until it was Really Dark because we’d forgotten the tripod… It was clearly two stars, though very close together.
On the Solstice, we turned out our lights and stood out in the yard, looking up at a very bright star that was really two giant planets, appearing in the same spot in time and space.. We didn’t try to take any pictures, we only gazed up into the Sky…
I think we need to do that more often…
Peace
Today is my Daughter’s Birthday.
Though she still holds it against me for giving birth so close to Christmas, we’ve had some great B-day celebrations Together… there were pizza parties, slumber parties, dozens of cakes and candles, so many I can’t believe how Old she is!!! I have to keep advancing at a brisk pace just to keep ahead of her!
In 2014, Eric and I put together a surprise party for her!
In 2011, she and I had killer great seats at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre for “An Evening with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin”…can’t find my pictures of Us, but the Show was Great…
It’s been years since I even Attempted a Tribute to Her…and I’m not going to do it now. She knows who she is, and she’s All of That and More…
I actually Like that Melissa and her family live in NYC, but when she first moved there right out of college in 1997, I worried and stewed. I also helped her survive there, but was secretly hoping she’d come back home eventually. Now her home is my home, just as mine is hers… I’m there with her, She’s here with me…As our Beloved Teacher explained it…
“Thomas Wolfe warned in the title of America’s great novel that ‘You Can’t Go Home Again.’ I enjoyed the book but I never agreed with the title. I believe that one can never Leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
Happy Birthday, Melissa!
Peace
Casey retired on December 16, 2016 and I was in NYC at the time, enjoying my last solo visit…
Grandie #4, Samantha, was born in February, 2015, but 2016 was the first Christmas she was fully interactive… As we began our New Way of Living, she was almost 2, already talking up a storm…
Step into the WayBack Machine, set the dial to 2016…
CHRISTMAS WITH THE SONNYSTONERS
Date: December 28, 2016 Author: Jo Mayne Casey
Our plans to drive to NYC on Christmas Day were unavoidably changed, but that’s okay. We’re free, now, to come and go as we please. Here at Sonnystone, we’re still walking around going, wow you really don’t have to go to work, as we do the same old things we’d always do…put away the decorations, bring in the firewood (though it’s been unseasonably warm), and eat up the leftovers.
The Leftovers are from our Christmas Eve get-together with the Jrs. Olivia and Samantha spent the night with us on the 23rd, and we met up with their parents for breakfast the next morning at IHOP. (good enough, but I wish Eville had more diners) Returning to the Acres, we quickly got down to serious christmas business:
Opening presents…
Playing with new toys…
Not just New toys, but old games, too…
New toys are great, but Samantha currently loves the harmonica the best. Since she figured out how to make music with it a couple of months ago, she comes in pointing and asking for it every visit. She insists that I play one with her, and we’re quite a duo, but with or without me, she doesn’t let go of her blues harp.
We’ve got it all put away now and we’re busy working on the laundry room remodel…wait, did I say We? I’m still putting everything back where it was (where was it?) before the holidaze, planning some trips, and vowing to not make any resolutions this year…like I never do.
© 2020 THE NEWS FROM SONNYSTONE ACRES
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All
By 2012, Eliza had joined the Grandies and #1 and #2 were officially the “big” girls. The Whole Entire Family visited NYC on Thanksgiving for the Macy’s Parade. We enjoyed three days in the City, having a blast, as well as exchanging gifts.
This was our “Christmas” that year; the Jrs spent the Big Day with Jessica’s family and Melissa was buried in church work. That’s okay, though, because the Rockettes will keep you Christmas-y for at least a month after your visit.
Step into the WayBack Machine, set the dials for 2012…
CHRISTMAS WITH THE SONNYSTONERS
Date: November 24, 2012 Author: Jo Mayne Casey
===
Don’t feel sorry for us, though. We went down to New Orleans for Christmas Day that year…
Peace on Earth, Good Will to All…
Ten years ago, I had only two grand-daughters. My #2 grandie, Olivia, and her Mom & Dad were still living up in Lafayette, Indiana that year. I was still doing the Church Musician gig, playing the beautiful pipe organ up at Trinity LCMS up in Darmstadt.
Again, let’s step into the Way-Back Machine…
Here’s another Chapter of Spirits of Christmases Past 2010…
CHRISTMAS WITH THE SONNYSTONERS
Date: December 26, 2010 Author: Jo Mayne Casey
olivia and her parents were here when i got home from church on christmas day. i had some chopping to do for the cheese soup, so we ate some sandwiches and visited before we got to the good part….opening presents!!!
so at the end of the day, the princess played with the “treasure chest”…..i think she got the idea from wink…..
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All
Our Family Christmas Traditions are not traditional. We’ve become accustomed to adjusting our get-togethers, but we’ve always had some choice about when or how. This year, this Weird Year, we’ve no alternative to staying home, away from our precious NYC where we have spent the last 15 years enjoying the Rockettes, Bill’s Burgers, theatre, and Most of All, Grandies.
It could be worse, though, and Hope is rising slowly across the horizon so that I can confidently say that Next Christmas we’ll be back at Radio City Music Hall, Next Christmas we’ll be back at 333 #829 with Christmas tree lights reflecting in our eyes.
Let’s step inside the Way-Back Machine, set the dials for 2010, and view Precious Christmas Memories…
Date: December 24, 2010 Author: Jo Mayne Casey
we arrived at 333 around noon sunday. after some burgers at merrion square, we opened a few presents.
on monday we saw the 5pm performance of the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. this is emma’s 3rd time to see the Show—not bad for a 4-yr-old.
tuesday was her school christmas program (no, grandma, it’s a show) and it was no surprise that she was such a terrific performer. what was a surprise is that she introduced the show, coming out with confidence to the microphone and saying clearly, smiling, “welcome to our christmas show”. she’s somethin’, that gal.
we opened more presents when we came home. she had bought grandpa some nice things at her school’s christmas shop and was so excited to give them to him. she tried so hard to keep it a secret…..
she loved all of her presents, of course…….
the next morning, she was off to school for a polar express pajama party, wearing her new pajamas, crocks and socks. we left just as she and melissa were heading out for school….posing with her baby sister’s new swing…
it was such a short time, but just enough to tide me over until february……
© 2020 THE NEWS FROM SONNYSTONE ACRES
Peace on Earth, Good Will to All
The News from Sonnystone Acres 
