It’s usually the first thing that comes to mind

when someone says:

H             A             N             U             K             K             A             H

Adam Sandler and his famous song.           .          .

now don’t be fooled,

usually it’s the SEASON OF LIGHT is

s           i           l           e           n           t

Sometimes the greatest message come with the tune without a lyric.  .  .

a      n     d

Sometimes it’s good to just listen to The Message that’s not spoken

but absolutely

H     E     A     R     D.          .          .

Hanukkah began  at sunset last evening.          .          .

mere hours a way,  still.          .          .

The message of Hanukkah is one that spans generations and touches on the very foundation of Jewish continuity; it began with Sunset last night;

Can    HANUKKAH

teach us all a lesson we really need to learn?

1. Even on the coldest nights, the menorah will always burn bright.

Credit: Dominic Alves.

2. Our children will pass HANUKKAH on to their children, who will pass it on to their children . . . forever. . .

IF   WE   ACTUALLY   TEACH   THEM   THAT LIGHT   OBLITERATES   DARKNESS   ON   EVERY   LEVEL!

Credit: Mordechai Lightstone

3. Even after the greatest destruction, we continue to kindles the lights.

Photo: Serge Attal/Flash90

Terrorists could not stop Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg from lighting the menorah in Mumbai, India, where his daughter and son-in-law had been murdered just weeks earlier.

4. It brings light, and light pushes away so much darkness.

Credit: Thierry Guez

The Jews in Paris, France, even after the most horrific terror attacks, were not frightened to live and celebrate as proud Jews.

5. When a small menorah stood for justice and freedom . . .

6. . . . even after all else was seemingly destroyed.

Jews in the Westerbork transit camp in Holland light candles on the seventh night of Hanukkah. Some 106,000 Jews, including Anne Frank and her family, were deported from Holland to death camps in Poland through Westerbork.

7. And we lived to see the lights return to illuminate the world once more.

A giant menorah is kindled at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

8. Brave young men and women risked their lives to ensure that Jewish people will live in safety and security in generations past . . .

Credit: Micha Bar-Am.

Israeli soldiers around the Hanukkah lamp in the bunker on the Suez Canal, 1971.

9. . . .and on to the present day.

Credit: Meir Alfasi.

10. So that we may celebrate in freedom!

Hanukkah is a special time for us to say thank You for all the little and big miracles in our lives. When we look into the beautiful, pure flames of the candles we remember that no day is just another day. There are blessings around all of us every moment, just waiting for us to notice them.

This year during Hanukkah, consider the following three ways to say thank you. (And not only on Thanksgiving.)

1. Write a letter.

In a recent experiment, people were asked to write a short paragraph about someone who had transformed their lives. After they wrote the paragraph, the experimenter handed them a phone and told them to call the person that they just wrote about and read them what they had just written. Some of them didn’t know the number. Some people went to cemeteries to read their letter at the gravesite of the person they hoped could hear their appreciation. Others reached the person they wrote about and broke down crying as they read their words out loud.

Across the board, the participants’ happiness levels rose by as much as 20 percent just from this exercise. So try writing a short Hanukkah card or email to someone that changed your life. It’s best if you send it, but even just writing it reminds us how blessed we are to have inspiring people in our lives.

2. Keep a gratitude journal.

On each day of Hanukkah, write down three new things that you are grateful for each day. This trains our brains to search for the positive in our lives. After a month of keeping a gratitude journal, people begin to think more optimistically and clearly. They stop constantly scanning the environment for the negative, and they notice others’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. The half hour after lighting the candles is a special time for thinking about the new blessings of today. Share them with your family as you sit around the menorah. We look into the flames shining with hope, and we remember our own ability to turn darkness into light.

3. Act gratefully.

Do one small act of kindness each day of Hanukkah. Open a door for someone. Leave a note somewhere that will make someone smile. Pay for the person’s coffee who is behind you in line. Take a coat you never wear and give it to someone on the street. Give an anonymous donation. Smile. Send a Hanukkah gift to someone who needs it. These small actions increase our own feelings of gratitude and create a chain of kindness.

4.  JUST BECAUSE SOME ONE FOR THE NEXT 8 DAYS

Maybe you’ll be in front of someone in line at a drive thru Starbucks

You could be so creative with this.       .        .

whether it be

Send an anonymous gift card

or leaving an envelope of money

or bringing candy or cookies on the porch

or putting money in a parking meter of someone’s who’s about to expire

or being a SECRET SANTA when there’s no secret Santa Party.       .       .

Here’s the DEAL:

THE     C E L E B R A T I O N    O F     L I G H T S

can last way past 8 nights

or 365 Days

I     F

you  just  don’t  so  much  want

but  simply

A       L       L       O       W

Here’s the Simple Message:

Let’s not be about

L I G H T I N G     C A N D L E S

so  much  as

I  L  L  U  M  I  N  A  T  I  N  G        L  I  V  E  S

 T  H  E       L I G H T

Y   O   U      C   A   R   R   Y

I   S       A   L   S   O

T   H   E       B   E   A   M

Y   O   U       S   H   A   R   E

Light  a  Life

Warm  a  Heart

Illuminate  A  Soul

Obliterate  A  Darkness

S             H             I             N             E

Even    a  

 F        L        I         C        K        E        R

G          L          O          W          S  

I   love   Candles.       .       .

 I love the actual act of simply lighting Candles.

I  Love  how  they  make  a  room  look.

I  love  how  Candles  can  make  a  room  smell.

I love how Candles illuminate something in me that nothing else quite can.        .        .

especially if music is playing;

I love that one of our friends with their kids made candles

and gave Erin and I each one last week;

I love the flickering dancing of a small flame from a Candle.        .        .

Y     O     U  ?

Go figure.        .        .

Hanukkah and Christmas Eve are NOT the same days this year;

.       .       .in fact, we are already nearly in the middle of Hanukkah

and it’ll end in the evening of Wednesday, December 20.       .       .

four evenings before Christmas Eve.        .        .

My favorite Hanukkah Story is one of my Favorite Christmas stories:

Right before sunset a young boy and his mother were about to light the Menorah and he asked her,

“MOM,  DO   YOU   LOVE   ELENA   MORE   THAN   YOU   LOVE   ME?”

As the rest of the family gathered around to Light the Menorah, she whispered back to her son, “Honey,  I  will  answer  that  question  when  we  light  the  Hanukkah  Candles.”

She lit the Shamash, (the Candle that lights the other candles of the Menorah) held it high and said,

“ALL  MY  LOVE  IS  IN  THIS  FLAME. I  AM  GOING  TO  GIVE  ALL  MY  LOVE  TO  GRANDMA  AND GRANDPA.”

She lit that first candle, held the Shamash high above.

“LOOK,  I  STILL  HAVE  ALL  MY  LOVE.”

“NOW,  I’M  GIVING  ALL  OF  MY  LOVE  TO  YOUR  DAD,”

She said as she lit the second candle, holding the Shamash high above and proclaiming,

“LOOK, I  STILL  HAVE  ALL  MY  LOVE.”

“NOW,  I’M  GIVING  ALL  OF  MY  LOVE  TO  YOUR  SISTER,  ELENA,”

she said as she lit the third candle and then held the Shamash high above exclaiming,

“LOOK, I STILL HAVE ALL MY LOVE.”

“NOW  I  WILL  GIVE  ALL  OF  MY  LOVE  TO  MR.  BENSON, OUR  NEIGHBOR  WHO  HAS  NO  FAMILY OF  HIS  OWN,”  she said as she lit the fourth candle and held the Shamish high to say,

“LOOK,  I  STILL  HAVE  ALL  OF  MY  LOVE.”

“NOW,  FOR  MY  FRIEND  CATHY  WHO  IS  IN  THE  HOSPITAL,”

she said as she lit the fifth candle and once again held the Shamash high as she boldly said,

“LOOK, I STILL HAVE ALL MY LOVE.”

“NOW, HERE  IS  SOME  LIGHT  FOR  ISRAEL,  IN  HOPE  FOR  PEACE,”

She lit the sixth candle, held the Shamash high to extol,

“LOOK,  I  STILL  HAVE  ALL  OF  MY  LOVE.”

“NOW,  I  WILL  GIVE  ALL  MY  LOVE  TO  CHILDREN  WHO  DO  NOT  KNOW  FROM  WHERE  THIER NEXT  MEAL  WILL  COME.”

She lit that seventh candle, held the Shamash high and confidently stated,

“LOOK, I  STILL  HAVE  ALL  OF  MY  LOVE.”

“NOW.    .    .NOW, MY  SON,  I  WILL  LIGHT  THIS  EIGHTH  CANDLE.  AND  I  AM  GIVING ALL OF MY LOVE  TO  YOU.”

C O U L D    I T.    .    .

could it be that one Light ends at the same time Another Starts?

Could it be that they

ALL    JUST    CONTINUE    TO

f l i c k e r
on.         .         .

enlighten.         .         .

to the eye that notices?

L         I         G         H         T         I          N         G

is  a  VERB

For  all  Seasons

For  all  Days

For  all  Moments

For   A  L  L

Maybe.           .           .

Maybe it’s all about just when the

Wick comes to Flame.         .         .

m    a    y    b   e

it’s  all  about

O N-L I G H T E N I N G

and less about

E N D-L I G H T E N I N G ?

S    O  .          .          .

S e e.        .        .

B e.        .        .

F    r    e    e

that magnificent Light

w i t h i n

for all those

w i t h o u t.         .         .         

I T       I S        I N        E V E R Y O N E         O  F       U S

Let’s in our own way

Let’s in our own time

p                r                 a                 y

Be ENLIGHTENED

To ENLIGHTEN

To SEE

W        H        E        W

We  Survived  IT,  huh?

O  N  E     Down

(T    H    A    N    K    S    G    I    V    I    N    G)

and two more to go

(C  H  R  I  S  T  M  A  S       A  N  D       N E W   Y E A R ‘ S)

They kind of all blur together

as do many things

this time of the year.       .        .

H  A  N  U  K  K  A  H     and     K  W  A  N  Z  A  A 

i          n          c          l          u          d          e          d

but it sort of all starts with that

T H A N K   L E S S     D A Y

The Research is clear:

GRATITUDE   IS   A   SUPERPOWER

It’s been overly documented

just how grateful people enjoy the benefits

such as improved physical health

better relationships

higher self-esteem

and actual longer

l i f e  s p a n s.      .      .

but here’s the  real  shocker:

Despite the benefits of

g r a t i t u d e

there’s an overwhelming vast majority

who aren’t grateful–

even less than a week ago on

T H A N K S G I V I N G     D A Y

A very recent survey conducted by the Harris Poll

on behalf of Cleveland’s own

AMERICAN   GREETINGS

sheds light on why people aren’t   t h a n k f u l

during these wild 40-some days:

3   out   5    Americans

say they’d rather do something else

rather than reflect on what they’re

t h a n k f u l     f o r.       .       .

A  whopping  71%  say that Holidays cause too much stress.      .     .

92%  believe the holidays are a time

to say   t h a n k s   to family and friends

.     .     .but 1 in 5 confess

they are more grateful for material possessions

than  p e o p l e .        .         .

12%  admitted

they would rather spend time

on their smartphones

than have a meaningful conversation

with  family.       .       .

O                   U                   C                   H   

The  Cure?

.          .          .wait.        .        .

is there an illness?

G R A T I T U D E

just like

Love

Compassion

Care

Empathy

Sympathy

Kindness

can’t be legislated

but they can be

i          n          s          p          i          r          e          d

and  that’s  where

y o u

come   in

.          .          .or  don’t;

There’s not much use for

a week-old over-done-dried-up-Turkey-Dinner

.       .       .in fact,

it just wouldn’t leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.          .          .

it’d be enough to make a person

p u k e.          .          .

I  wish  I could  tell you  exactly  what  to  do

h     e     r     e .       .       .

but  I

or  the Survey’s

or  the Greeting Cards

 or  the Songs

or  the Gifts

or  the Meals

or  the Parties

or  the Masses

Psssssssssssssst  of  the  Day:

Only   you   can.       .         .

Ironically:

That’s one of the things

I’m most

t           h           a           n           k           f           u           l 

]]> http://thecaringcatalyst.com/thank-less-day/feed/ 0 2095 http://thecaringcatalyst.com/f-l-a-s-h-e-d-2/ http://thecaringcatalyst.com/f-l-a-s-h-e-d-2/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2014 12:00:17 +0000 http://thecaringcatalyst.com/?p=963

Impressive, huh?

Starting with just a single cellist on the floor of the National Air and Space Museum’s “MILESTONES OF FLIGHT” gallery, and swelling to some 120 musicians, The U.S. Air Force Band STOPPED PEOPLE in their tracks with a different kind of Public Display.

Have you noticed?

Not just Christmas. . .

Not just Hanukkah. . .

Not just Kwanzzaa. . .

Not just any other special day of your Choosing…

It doesn’t come as a Season or a Day but more as a

M O M E N T

The best of our Lives are MOMENTS woven together in this fantastic Tapestry, not usually recognized as a MASTERPIECE, because of all of the Loose Ends, Dangling Strings, Jumbled/Tumbled up knots that hardly could be considered any kind of ART–even the bad kind.

L O O K

L I S T E N

AGAIN.

I’ve posted this video as a Compassionate reminder that sometimes there are also Peaceful, Inspiring Public APPROVAL’S
Populace PRAISES
World ACCEPTANCES.

It’s not just because of the Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, it so that we don’t forget
anytime
anyplace
anywhere
that we are instruments being cued to join the Song the World so desperately needs to
HEAR
SEE
FEEL
E X P E R I E N C E. . . .

You may not only feel or believe this, but The Band just doesn’t sound the same without you.

Join in

Play.

Sing.

Recognize that the World needs this MUSIC more now than ever and no more time can be wasted.

YOU ARE NOT A SPECTATOR

but a PARTICIPANT in this great Orchestra.

The Baton is raised. . .we are Cued. . .

PLAY YOUR NOTE–LET YOUR MUSIC BE HEARD.

Maybe you got a little of that in the 6:20 video. . .maybe you need to see/listen to it again. . .
maybe you need to just simply pass it along–SHARE IT?

Give yourself a most precious gift not during the Season or a Day, but now, at this MOMENT…

Give yourself an EXPERIENCE

Don’t Sieze the Day;

Notice the Moment, the now of NOW and enjoy. . .enjoy it and then expand it just by simply sharing it;
One Moment
One Person
at at time–
YOUR TIME
YOUR BEAT
YOUR NOTE
YOUR SONG
Y O U R
Flash!

W A I T. . .

Is this Black Wednesday?

As of the actual writing of THIS Post, Christmas is only 43 days away. . .

As of the actual writing of THIS Post, Hanukkah is only 35 days away. . .

As of the actual writing of THIS Post, Kwanzaa is only 44 days away. . .

Pssssst: I’ve got the best Gift for any one of those events. . .

or all the days between NOW, THEN, FOLLOWING

and all of the days in between:

THE TRIPLE A MEMBERSHIP!

That’s right, rub your eyes, scratch your head wonder out loud. . .

But the TRIPLE A MEMBERSHIP is the best gifts going away and if truly bought—

THE MOST EXPENSIVE. . .

THE MOST COVETED. . . .

In fact, you should never AGAIN, leave home without it—

A
vailability

A
ccesibility

A
ccountability

It’s entirely, WHOLE-listically, COMPLETE

with successful Trip Ticks to anywhere, anytime, anyplace. . .

GOOD TO GO,

and better. . .

Get SOMEONE Else “T H E R E” as well.

Full of Discounts,

Short Cuts,

Saving SEVERE

Time. . .Money. . .Aggravation.

Seriously, it’s the best gift you CAN BE. . .

It’s the best Gift you can give Another. . .

Gift-Wrapping Optional. . .

Benefits: Innumerable!

Psssssst. . .No thanks necessary but always welcomed: chuck@thecaringcatalyst.com

HAPPY

H O L I

D A Y S

(LIFE TIME GUARANTEE INCLUDED)