Words from the Heart

Recently, I greeted an acquaintance with, "Happy Holidays!"  What I received in return was the most unexpected reply, "Come on, Linda, you mean Merry Christmas, don't you?" Since I knew that this particular person was Christian, it might have seemed more appropriate to wish a Merry Christmas as I left, but we were in a public venue with people who I knew did not celebrate the Christian holy day of Christmas, let alone the secular version.  So... the greeting of Happy Holidays as I was leaving seemed very appropriate. As you can see from the picture above, there are many Holy/holi days in the winter months.  The ones pictured include six that are not Christian. Since I work, live and communicate in a multicultural, multi-faith traditioned society, I believe wishing others a happy holiday is A. kind, B. thoughtful and C. more than appropriate. I also think about that adage that many use, "What would Jesus do?"  Well, first of all, Jesus wouldn...

October, with all its glorious autumn color here in New England , truly showcases the biodiversity of nature.  Trees that were every shade of green are now ablaze in various shades of orange, red and yellow.  No two look a like, which always amazes me. In my travels through the valley, I came upon two trees.  One had actually grown around the other.  One was a maple, resplendent in reds.  The other was a tall pole pine of deepest green.  I had to take a picture. When I got home, after uploading the picture to the computer I noticed that the way the maple had grown around the pine created the shape of a heart.  The picture below shows you what I see. This got me to thinking deeper thoughts.  If Nature in her wisdom can create an image of Love from the biodiversity of two completely different trees, then surely, we humans can find it in our hearts to love one another.   When you think about it, there couldn't be a better examp...

Greetings! Dia Duit! (pronounced, gee-ah ditch; literally means, "God be with you) Guten Tag! Zivjo!(pronounced, zhivyo) Sholem Aleikhem! (Literally means, "May peace be unto you.") Namaste! (Roughly translates to: I honor the place in you where we are both one.) Bonjour! Hola! Ni Hao! Aloha! As you have probably guessed by now, this post is about greetings...the way we greet each other, what we say, how we say it, and why it is important. (The greetings above are - English, Gaelic, German, Slovenian, Yiddish, Hindu, French, Spanish, Chinese and Hawaiian.) In many places around the world, people greet each other, formally or informally, by blessing them with wishes of peace or God's presence in their life or recognition of their "oneness." In other countries, it is a simple wish for a good morning/evening. Many times, the greetings are accompanied by a wave, handshake or bow. When I was in Europe, several years ago, I loved the fact ...