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We only had a few days to get ready for Christmas. This is a holiday-event that Linda takes care of. She did most of her shopping in Key West. The Key West retailers are proud to offer American products at a reasonable price. Linda found some great gifts there.

I do appreciate the family gatherings. We had a two-shift Christmas as John’s wife Sheila and two daughters were in Corpus Christi Texas over Christmas.

We brought back from Jacksonville gifts from Ngat Dao that she had brought from Vietnam for every member of my family including my Uncle Howard. He is the only Uncle I have left and will soon be 95 years old. I tried to talk Ngat out of this but she insisted. She brought over beautiful Vietnamese woodcarvings.

It seems that we are losing the true meaning of Christmas. I want to share with you a writing I got from a Newnan Rotarian. It was part of his Christmas message to the Newnan Rotary Club in Georgia. A Buddhist wrote it from Thailand. This woman is an executive with Thai Airlines and every year she takes off a month to meditate in North Thailand. If ever I have read a message that parallels the messages of Jesus, this does.

Live A Life That Matters

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no more minutes, no more hours and no more days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to somebody else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned-or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will all expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will all fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived in the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even you gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you are gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance-but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy New Year!!!

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