Changes

Bob S.: The traditional [[Christmas]] always has been a big deal for me. When I became a part of Carol's family it became even bigger because their [[tradition]] was even bigger than my own. I have always loved to get presents. ([[Laughter]]) It's one thing I never outgrew. I am still a child in many ways. I have become convinced, however, we probably are too much into the [[material]] side of Christmas and we need to try and get away from that. That's going to be difficult for me because I don't want to do that. ([[Laughter]]). I like the old ways. But I [[suspect]] when the granddaughters get older, and they are teenagers now, I suspect our [[families]] will move away from the old traditional giving of gifts and we will try to find some other way to [[celebrate]] that doesn't involved so much the giving of gifts, material things, but is more the giving of something else. I am not sure what form that will take. But that's what I see happening in my life.

Bob S.: The traditional [[Christmas]] always has been a big deal for me. When I became a part of Carol's family it became even bigger because their [[tradition]] was even bigger than my own. I have always loved to get presents. ([[Laughter]]) It's one thing I never outgrew. I am still a child in many ways. I have become convinced, however, we probably are too much into the [[material]] side of Christmas and we need to try and get away from that. That's going to be difficult for me because I don't want to do that. ([[Laughter]]). I like the old ways. But I [[suspect]] when the granddaughters get older, and they are teenagers now, I suspect our [[families]] will move away from the old traditional giving of gifts and we will try to find some other way to [[celebrate]] that doesn't involved so much the giving of gifts, material things, but is more the giving of something else. I am not sure what form that will take. But that's what I see happening in my life.

Lori: Hmm. I don't know. I try to figure out what [[Christmas]] is supposed to mean in the last six or seven years, and learn new things it is supposed to mean, because me, I just didn't get it. It is supposed to mean something more than something else and I didn't get it! So the last couple of Christmases, maybe four, we've tried to establish [[traditions]] with Morgan and Hannah, something we never did in my [[family]], with [[Advent]], with sharing, and quiet time together, and baking. I think I am in the process of inventing what it all means and trying to sculpt into something more than just material, which is what it was for our little nuclear family. It was really fun, though! But it left me as an adult with the [[feeling]] that there was more to it, but I just didn't know what it was. So, last year it meant spending time together as a family. This year we have done a lot of that because of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_schooling home schooling]. So, here again, it is different this year. So, back to...I don't really know.Aaron: Thank you, Lori, for your [[honesty]] and [[comfort]] in expressing ambiguous [[feelings]]. The discovery of value is one of the major quests of the [[ascension career]]. So, to be unsure is not a deficit. It suggests you are in a [[growth]] [[process]]. And Bob, a belated thank you for your contribution. My TR had his eyes open and was not [[listening]] to me. Virginia, your turn has come. What does Christmas mean to you today?

Lori: Hmm. I don't know. I try to figure out what [[Christmas]] is supposed to mean in the last six or seven years, and learn new things it is supposed to mean, because me, I just didn't get it. It is supposed to mean something more than something else and I didn't get it! So the last couple of Christmases, maybe four, we've tried to establish [[traditions]] with Morgan and Hannah, something we never did in my [[family]], with [[Advent]], with sharing, and quiet time together, and baking. I think I am in the process of inventing what it all means and trying to sculpt into something more than just material, which is what it was for our little nuclear family. It was really fun, though! But it left me as an adult with the [[feeling]] that there was more to it, but I just didn't know what it was. So, last year it meant spending time together as a family. This year we have done a lot of that because of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_schooling home schooling]. So, here again, it is different this year. So, back to...I don't really know.Aaron: Thank you, Lori, for your [[honesty]] and [[comfort]] in expressing ambiguous [[feelings]]. The discovery of value is one of the major quests of the [[ascension career]]. So, to be unsure is not a deficit. It suggests you are in a [[growth]] [[process]]. And Bob, a belated thank you for your contribution. My TR had his eyes open and was not [[listening]] to me. Virginia, your turn has come. What does Christmas mean to you today?

Virginia: Well, certainly the [[traditions]] that our [[family]] has, I really appreciate. I love having the [[Advent]] setup and our Christmas eve of listening to the "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol A Christmas Carol" by Dickens] for 35 years, which is very meaningful, warms my [[heart]], and still makes me [[cry]]. I realize that the words that I had put on a Christmas card to one of my former aids this week is really the Dickens Christmas Carol. What I have set up in my own [[tradition]], in that when I am doing Christmas baking, I am [[listening]] to the "Forgotten Carol". It is wonderful! It warms my heart and makes me cry. My aid had given me this story about ten years ago and in the note I sent to her I said that the [[transformation]] of Constance Louise to Connie Lou is what Christmas is all about. I think that is the transformation that takes place for Scrooge and it can take place in our own lives if we [[realize]] the [[impact]] of how God [[expressed]] Himself in Christmas.

Virginia: Well, certainly the [[traditions]] that our [[family]] has, I really appreciate. I love having the [[Advent]] setup and our Christmas eve of listening to the "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol A Christmas Carol" by Dickens] for 35 years, which is very meaningful, warms my [[heart]], and still makes me [[cry]]. I realize that the words that I had put on a Christmas card to one of my former aids this week is really the Dickens Christmas Carol. What I have set up in my own [[tradition]], in that when I am doing Christmas baking, I am [[listening]] to the "Forgotten Carol". It is wonderful! It warms my heart and makes me cry. My aid had given me this story about ten years ago and in the note I sent to her I said that the [[transformation]] of Constance Louise to Connie Lou is what Christmas is all about. I think that is the transformation that takes place for Scrooge and it can take place in our own lives if we [[realize]] the [[impact]] of how God [[expressed]] Himself in Christmas.

Aaron: So, for you, Virginia, Christmas is [[transformation]]?

Aaron: So, for you, Virginia, Christmas is [[transformation]]?

Bob S.: Having your cake and eating it too!

Bob S.: Having your cake and eating it too!

Aaron: To use the words of our friend, [[Gerdean]], it is the [[pleasure]] of the [[anticipation]] and the [[pleasure]] of the fulfillment at the same time. [Ed. Note: a concept in the "[http://www.odellbowen.com/tzm_home.htm Zooid Mission]", which she authored] Wonderful concept. Marty, what does Christmas mean for you these days?

Aaron: To use the words of our friend, [[Gerdean]], it is the [[pleasure]] of the [[anticipation]] and the [[pleasure]] of the fulfillment at the same time. [Ed. Note: a concept in the "[https://www.odellbowen.com/tzm_home.htm Zooid Mission]", which she authored] Wonderful concept. Marty, what does Christmas mean for you these days?

Marty: Probably some of what has already been said. The last couple three or four years we have tried to work towards getting away from [[materialism]] and more toward giving ourselves through hand made things, or trying something like that. I particularly agree with Carol that, without needing Christmas once a month, but some of the [[ideas]] of helping others who are less fortunate, helping those that don't have [[family]] or whatever. That definitely needs to be done more. That, to me, is one of the big parts of [[Christmas]].

Marty: Probably some of what has already been said. The last couple three or four years we have tried to work towards getting away from [[materialism]] and more toward giving ourselves through hand made things, or trying something like that. I particularly agree with Carol that, without needing Christmas once a month, but some of the [[ideas]] of helping others who are less fortunate, helping those that don't have [[family]] or whatever. That definitely needs to be done more. That, to me, is one of the big parts of [[Christmas]].

Aaron: Rather than saying you have no specific answer I [[compliment]] you on the multitude of [[images]] that you verbalized. Have you realized that when [[Michael]] come to this planet to be Jesus, he was coming to a [[dysfunctional]] [[family]]? ([[Surprised]] comments from group) That was love, that He chose Urantia, probably as the most dysfunctional planet in His Universe. So I commend you on your [[perspective]] with your [[family]] and I also say that you are building a functional family with your children and your [[spouse]]. As Christmas proceeds I [[predict]] you will more and more flourish in the functionality and the love of your [[family]] setting. But it is [[wise]] and loving of you to still stay connected to your dysfunctional family, even as Michael is still [[connected]] to this one. In fact, we all here to help this dysfunctional aspect to diminish and finally be eradicated, as you know. Well, Isaac, it is your turn.

Aaron: Rather than saying you have no specific answer I [[compliment]] you on the multitude of [[images]] that you verbalized. Have you realized that when [[Michael]] come to this planet to be Jesus, he was coming to a [[dysfunctional]] [[family]]? ([[Surprised]] comments from group) That was love, that He chose Urantia, probably as the most dysfunctional planet in His Universe. So I commend you on your [[perspective]] with your [[family]] and I also say that you are building a functional family with your children and your [[spouse]]. As Christmas proceeds I [[predict]] you will more and more flourish in the functionality and the love of your [[family]] setting. But it is [[wise]] and loving of you to still stay connected to your dysfunctional family, even as Michael is still [[connected]] to this one. In fact, we all here to help this dysfunctional aspect to diminish and finally be eradicated, as you know. Well, Isaac, it is your turn.

Bill/Isaac: Everything that has been said I share to some extent. I think in my [[childhood]] [[Christmas]] was the high time of the year. Especially I remember one Christmas [[morning]] when my sister and I had gone to bed with dreams of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus Santa Claus] in our wee little heads, and we believed it. There was no Christmas tree in the house. The next morning we crept downstairs and it must have been around five or six o'clock in the morning. Here was this gorgeous Christmas tree which had appeared as though by [[magic]], hung with tinsel and paper chains while underneath the tree was this train track and a sled standing against the wall! That is a totally [[materialistic]] thing but it was just wonderful. We had the [[family]] things. We went to the Christmas dinner over at the grandparents house, the big family thing. But I knew it was a special time for some reason. As a child I mainly enjoyed it because of the toys, but also the sense of family. I wasn't in a very [[functional]] family either.

Bill/Isaac: Everything that has been said I share to some extent. I think in my [[childhood]] [[Christmas]] was the high time of the year. Especially I remember one Christmas [[morning]] when my sister and I had gone to bed with dreams of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus Santa Claus] in our wee little heads, and we believed it. There was no Christmas tree in the house. The next morning we crept downstairs and it must have been around five or six o'clock in the morning. Here was this gorgeous Christmas tree which had appeared as though by [[magic]], hung with tinsel and paper chains while underneath the tree was this train track and a sled standing against the wall! That is a totally [[materialistic]] thing but it was just wonderful. We had the [[family]] things. We went to the Christmas dinner over at the grandparents house, the big family thing. But I knew it was a special time for some reason. As a child I mainly enjoyed it because of the toys, but also the sense of family. I wasn't in a very [[functional]] family either.

But what does it mean to me now? Right now it means what we are doing tonight, having [[friendships]] and [[experiences]] with people on a level I never knew when I was younger. When I was in the ministry I had a vague [[idea]] that that was what I wanted to do, to have this kind of family experience, and to some extent that happened. But it was nothing like what it is now. Like Virginia, I like the scenery of this house. I love the snow outside and the [[opportunities]] for sledding on the driveway and skiing, if we get a little more snow; and having people over and having their kids come and share in all of that. I also have a Scrooge part of me that grouches about the [[materialistic]] thing. I guess that's it.

But what does it mean to me now? Right now it means what we are doing tonight, having [[friendships]] and [[experiences]] with people on a level I never knew when I was younger. When I was in the ministry I had a vague [[idea]] that that was what I wanted to do, to have this kind of family experience, and to some extent that happened. But it was nothing like what it is now. Like Virginia, I like the scenery of this house. I love the snow outside and the [[opportunities]] for sledding on the driveway and skiing, if we get a little more snow; and having people over and having their kids come and share in all of that. I also have a Scrooge part of me that grouches about the [[materialistic]] thing. I guess that's it.

As some of you were talking about withdrawing from such an emphasis on [[material]] things and looking more to the spiritual [[meaning]] of [[Christmas]], I mused that in a [[culture]] that is based on an economic system depending upon [[growth]] in order to provide [[profit]], how will your [[reaction]], etc., affect your [[comfort]] in the [[future]], if a decline in materialistic [[consumption]] continues to depress your economy? This was going to be my question. But I will answer it. The [[inevitable]] result of a [[materialistic]] ascension is to reach a point of decline. In advancing [[cultures]] on [[other planets]] the [[service]] motive, which is the thing that most of you have emphasized in your remarks, the service motive increases as the profit motive declines. People [[adjust]] to living more [[simply]]. The understanding that needs and wants are not identical becomes [[clearer]]. As philosophy, religion, and [[spirituality]] gain more and more approval and support in these advancing cultures, there are not the withdrawal [[symptoms]] which occur in a culture totally materialistically oriented when it fails to continue its upward ascent.

As some of you were talking about withdrawing from such an emphasis on [[material]] things and looking more to the spiritual [[meaning]] of [[Christmas]], I mused that in a [[culture]] that is based on an economic system depending upon [[growth]] in order to provide [[profit]], how will your [[reaction]], etc., affect your [[comfort]] in the [[future]], if a decline in materialistic [[consumption]] continues to depress your economy? This was going to be my question. But I will answer it. The [[inevitable]] result of a [[materialistic]] ascension is to reach a point of decline. In advancing [[cultures]] on [[other planets]] the [[service]] motive, which is the thing that most of you have emphasized in your remarks, the service motive increases as the profit motive declines. People [[adjust]] to living more [[simply]]. The understanding that needs and wants are not identical becomes [[clearer]]. As philosophy, religion, and [[spirituality]] gain more and more approval and support in these advancing cultures, there are not the withdrawal [[symptoms]] which occur in a culture totally materialistically oriented when it fails to continue its upward ascent.

Right now your country is contemplating a [[war]], as you know. [[Pray]], my friends, that the circumstances which are bringing this about, both the objective [[facts]] and the subjective [[interpretations]] may be inclined toward peace and away from the shedding of [[innocent]] blood. Pray also for these descendents of two brothers whose sibling [[rivalry]] has escalated into a [[catastrophic]] tension. I refer to the decedents of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac Isaac] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael Ishmael], their sons and daughters. Pray that those who have peaceful hearts will be heard, that they will have the [[courage]] to speak out and that the [[wisdom]] of the great people of this last century will be [[listened]] to once again. May peace on earth, good will among men, indeed, come about. Thank you for [[participating]] with me. This has been most wonderful. Let us stand now and conclude.

Right now your country is contemplating a [[war]], as you know. [[Pray]], my friends, that the circumstances which are bringing this about, both the objective [[facts]] and the subjective [[interpretations]] may be inclined toward peace and away from the shedding of [[innocent]] blood. Pray also for these descendents of two brothers whose sibling [[rivalry]] has escalated into a [[catastrophic]] tension. I refer to the decedents of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac Isaac] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael Ishmael], their sons and daughters. Pray that those who have peaceful hearts will be heard, that they will have the [[courage]] to speak out and that the [[wisdom]] of the great people of this last century will be [[listened]] to once again. May peace on earth, good will among men, indeed, come about. Thank you for [[participating]] with me. This has been most wonderful. Let us stand now and conclude.

Klarixiska would like to close our [[meeting]], if Virginia will transmit, otherwise, Isaac will.

Klarixiska would like to close our [[meeting]], if Virginia will transmit, otherwise, Isaac will.

Klarixiska(Virginia): God of [[peace]], God of [[love]], God of [[justice]], God of [[mercy]], God of holiness that knows not the [[turmoil]] of sin and [[evil]] except as He sees His children: We would pray that this God would put these attributes within the [[motivation]] of all who call Him "Father". We would pray that the words of peace on earth would [[become]] a [[reality]]. We would pray that each would be able to take the hand of the one next to him/her in [[honest]] [[belief]] that they together make up the family of God. Hear our prayer, Oh God, and help us to make Your love a reality on [[this planet]]. So be it. Amen.

Klarixiska(Virginia): God of [[peace]], God of [[love]], God of [[justice]], God of [[mercy]], God of holiness that knows not the [[turmoil]] of sin and [[evil]] except as He sees His children: We would pray that this God would put these attributes within the [[motivation]] of all who call Him "Father". We would pray that the words of peace on earth would [[become]] a [[reality]]. We would pray that each would be able to take the hand of the one next to him/her in [[honest]] [[belief]] that they together make up the family of God. Hear our prayer, Oh God, and help us to make Your love a reality on [[this planet]]. So be it. Amen.

(It was suggested to conclude the meeting by singing the Christmas Carol "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Bells_on_Christmas_Day I heard the bells on Christmas Day]"which was done) Here is the text:

(It was suggested to conclude the meeting by singing the Christmas Carol "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Bells_on_Christmas_Day I heard the bells on Christmas Day]"which was done) Here is the text:

I heard the bells on [[Christmas]] day

I heard the bells on [[Christmas]] day