Snow Globe

It is the most beautiful snow day I have ever seen.

I sit now, looking over Selma’s head at the view she is mesmerized by, one of pure white coating every branch of the tree outside my window, one of swirling snowflakes that makes my world just like the inside of a snow globe. The field of grass is so flawlessly veiled with inches of snow that it is blinding. It is absolutely wonderful.

We’ve had our fun outside, running through the snow and chasing our spastic dogs, and peeling the compacted snow from their legs when they could no longer walk. China’s legs couldn’t bend she had so much clumped snow on her; she was walking with stiff straight legs and trying to bounce only as a default. Nick gave her a warm bath as soon as we came in and now all of my lovely family is cozy and snuggled and enjoying this peaceful gift of Christmas. Selma, peering out of the window from her window seat cushion, head propped on the pillow, nose to the glass, being entertained by the pudgy, fluffed-out bird with the red tummy that is staring at her chirping from the tree branch. China is atop her throw pillow on the sofa, covered with a fuzzy blanket and mashed up next to Nick, who is talking to himself and to the television as he watches a documentary on coffee on the history channel. He keeps laughing and mumbling about what sounds like amusing ironies. I am at my desk. I am absorbing the occasion and documenting it so that I may be able to remember easily this beautiful Christmas holiday of 2010.

It was a Christmas of dinner spent with friends and fine cuisine. We had so many indulgences in one six or seven hour period. I kept traveling around my dinner plate in clockwise fashion, enjoying bite after bite, never deciding which was my favorite of the foods. I noticed everyone trying to decide the same thing. I believe it is a habit of people in general and one left over from childhood. “Which one is your favorite?” a question asked countless times throughout childhood. It’s a fun thing to decide. “Out of all these things that I love, which do I love the absolute most?” That is a healthy tradition to start in the mind’s waves. It is much more fun to think of than, “Which is the worst?” “What might be wrong with what is in front of you?” This habit of deciding favorites is what keeps us happy.

If everyone in the world had this question running through their mind as they walked through their day, the world would be just that. A Christmas dinner plate. A winter snow globe from a cozy window seat. The world would be a choice between good, better, and best.

I am noting the words that come to us instead, dragging our mind’s attention from these childlike whimsical wonderments. I watched a movie on Christmas Eve, and in it a leader, fanatical, yelled at his subordinates “I want the world to constantly know how close we are to complete and utter chaos! I want everyone to be reminded that we are on the verge of complete disaster and destruction!” It went something like that. I heard this and immediately thought of our everyday news trails. Our every single day’s information feed is purely and utterly the same exact tactic or strategy or source… or whatever. All we hear every day is along the same lines as this ‘fictional’ scenario.

“Crisis. Crisis. Crisis.”

“Near catastrophe avoided within 17 minutes!”

(… this struck me at the time as being eerily like some Bruce Willis film. 17 minutes, really? I am not taking that at face value. Give me more of a story please. Is that story told to cause relief? Are we told no specifics to protect us? Are we in the hands of super heroes that catch bad guys in the nick of time? Odd. It is the classic plot line of any good selling comic book drama.)

“Economical collapse. Riots. Warfare. Terror. Terror. Terror.”

“Inflation. Depression. Decline.”

“Recession. Unprecedented everything. Threat of this. Threat of that.”

“Protection from your neighbor. Report your neighbor.”

“Evil. Axis of Evil. Weapons. Bombs. Nuclear and chemical warfare.”

“Mass destruction.”

Lurking dangers everywhere!!!!! How did humanity even get this far? Evil around every gosh darn corner.

Neighbors being terrorists? Home-grown terrorists?

Uggggggggh.

I am looking at them and I am thinking a question.

Is the ‘evil’ perpetuating the news? Or, is the news perpetuating the ‘evil’?

Is the news reporting the truth? Or, is the truth now a result of the ‘news’?

Here is another question.

Is there an absolute need for this fear to take over everything and everyone?

Or does it just serve as a shackle to mankind and the human spirit that is really all about this moment we celebrate now? We just want happiness. We want love. We want snow globes. And ‘they’ are feeding us fear and hate and an ugly world.

I know that it isn’t ALL lovely out there in the world, but I also know the world isn’t what they paint it to be. False news is a prison. The mainstream media is a prison guard. They serve a warden.

Knowing is powerful, seeing is a choice, believing is a perspective. If truth is based on belief and belief is based on thoughts and thoughts are based on your choice of reason, then it becomes ultra important who you listen to and how much credit you give them and their transference of thought.

Call them out.

For instance, be like Diane Sawyer and ask the Director of Intelligence what he thinks about London, when you are having a conversation about our nation’s security and the threat of terror attacks. When he stares at you with a blank expression and says he has no idea what your question means, you know these guys are lying about that which is their stated intentions. Officials in London just arrested 12 suspected terrorists and our Director of Intelligence, James Clapper, is clueless about this situation, asking “What about London?” directly after it happens? His office releases a statement- “The question was ambiguous.”

Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha.

For real?

It’s your JOB to know what harms and threats are eminent and you have no clue what a question like that means?

Is your job really “protecting us from terror” or is it about creating it… locking Americans down, harassing us, violating our rights, and knowing what our own citizens talk about in the grocery store and at the dinner table?

BUSTED!!

These words they spray us down with from every source of ‘authority’ is almost humorous. And I am choosing to see through it and not believe it and think instead of the antonym of their words. Every time they say danger, I will think safety; every time they say war, I will think peace; every time they say crisis, I will think of a thriving society. And then, I get the freedom I seek. They have no control over my point of view, as long as I don’t give it to them.

It is miraculous. God gives us each a snow globe. We can include what we wish in our world and we can put the unwanted nonsense and madness on the other side of the glass.

A couple of weeks ago, I came to a conscious decision to look at the world slightly differently. I asked that, since I want to address things I find meaningful and that hurt, those things I can make an immediate difference in are the things that come across my path. I want the opportunity to help without having to rely on others for assistance or having to convince another why it is important to do so. I wanted this because I want to not just see the problems and think of how it would be nice to help and then freak out because it is so difficult to do so, but I want to have an opportunity to help when there is a situation that can use my help. I want the feeling of having made something better from caring and doing and affecting that something.

Immediately, I had a chance.

A mommy cat needed help and she literally crossed my path, not an hour later.

When you ask, be ready for an answer. When you want, be ready for the opportunity. If your head is stuck in the rut of negative words and thoughts then, you can’t move when it’s time for action. You are stuck in the thick muck of can’t and lack, crisis and danger; frozen with fright and depletion of the resources that swell in every single body.

I was able to help this pregnant kitty by feeding her. She was cautiously walking to a trash can, stopping and looking around her to insure her safety, and she reached up as far as she could... but, she couldn't reach the top of the trashcan, where a discarded morsel might fall to the ground. She was outstretched, belly full of kittens, and couldn’t reach a thing. I watched her, poor thing. What defense does she have against all those male cats? So, I got back out of the car and got a few cans of food for her and fed her out of traffic's way. And, I have asked Nick to help me keep her fed through this extremely cold season. That felt really great. One sweet action at a time. If it crosses my path, I'm going to try... I just ask above to let the situations I can help with be the ones to cross my path; otherwise I will be a soul tortured with sadness. This kitty was an answer. I could buy her food and solve her problem. And, she could eat it and make me happy, which she did.

The snow is still whipping through the air forming funnels, only the flakes are larger and when I went outside with Selma and China again, it was much colder already. I was shivering, teeth chattering, and Selma had mercy on me and stopped puppy pouncing and ran inside so I could warm up. This coldness makes her frisky. China was in my corner, ready for warmth- warmth, which is our everyday luxury. I feel blessed. I feel that I have a beautiful world today. I feel that I see a doorway to having a beautiful world everyday and my doorway allows me to walk over a threshold called choice.

There is no bigger gift. It is one to open every morning, not just on Christmas. I sit in a snow globe. I choose what I see. I choose what I believe. I choose.