I have a simple request to make, and this idea is certainly not original to me in any way. Please try to find a way to be kind to someone, at least once a day.
Remember that kindness shows strength, not weakness.
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kindness
Have a Happy Yule and a Blessed Solstice!
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I want to wish everyone a Happy Yule and Blessed Solstice–this wish goes to everyone regardless of religious beliefs or otherwise! This is a season of generosity, kindness, and forgiveness. Please try to spread kindness wherever you go.
Also, I am one of the unusual people who loves Winter–I always feel at my best physically and mentally at this time of year. I become more energetic, and I always feel like a child with delight when it snows.
Again–Have a Happy Yule and Blessed Solstice!
Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.
Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.
An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
Quotations from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
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“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”(62)
“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.” (108)
“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.” (92)
“‘God bless us every one!’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.” (97)
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens: The Christmas Books Volume I.
Penguin Classics. New York. 1985.
Favorite Christmas Movies: A New Addition–The Man Who Invented Christmas
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I have several Christmas movies that carry great meaning to me and that I have loved over many years. I have written about them before in this blog, and I will continue to do so. Now, however, I want to make a new entry into my list of favorite Christmas movies.
The Man Who Invented Christmas is an extraordinary film that was released last year. It is a wonderful movie that explores the creative process of Charles Dickens as he wrote the classic novel, A Christmas Carol. The director is Bharat Nalluri, and this work is marvelous! We get a direct entrance into Dickens’ mind as he struggles with his writing. His characters appear and talk to him, which is an excellent touch.
The film is based on the book by Les Standiford, and the stars are Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce. The entire cast, without exception, give extraordinary performances. Christopher Plummer as Scrooge is especially brilliant. Dan Stevens should be recognized as one of the finest actors today.
This film delivers the message of Dickens’ masterpiece, that humanity should be the business of everyone, that money should not be the focus of our lives, and that we should all try to help each other. It will capture your heart and soul, and it is a film I recommend completely! On a system of 5 stars, I give it five!
Please, do yourself a favor, and watch this movie!
World Kindness Day
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November 13 is World Kindness Day, a time that is designated to try to help people in the world be kinder to each other. It may seem like a basic idea, but in the chaotic and, often vicious, world which we inhabit, it is a very good idea. Too often, people are absorbed into their own lives and do not realize that helping other people, simply for the sake of doing it, can make both the helper and the world a much better place. A simple action can extend far past its initial occurrence and spread, like a wave traveling through space, to impact many others.
Take the time today to do one kind thing for another person. It does not have to be a large action; a simple act of kindness has the same importance.
And here is another idea: extend being kind into every day. Try to make being kind a part of your life.
Quotations by J.R.R. Tolkien
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All of the following quotations are by J.R.R. Tolkien
“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.”
“An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous.”
More from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
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I have blogged about this book before, but I am compelled to write about it again. After seeing the new movie The Man Who Invented Christmas about Charles Dickens and his writing of that famous book, I must once again spread the word about his message. By the way, I give the movie a five star, completely enthusiastic, review! Go to see it if it is showing near you.
In the past, I mentioned the quotation from the ghost of Jacob Marley when he comes to Scrooge to tell him of the soon-to-be visitations from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
Scrooge says to Marley, “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob”
I quoted part of Marley’s reply: “Business! . . . Mankind was my business.”
In today’s post, I want to include the rest of this quotation:
“The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were, all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
The rest of Marley’s words clearly demonstrate that the business of the human race is the rest of humanity and not the acquisition of wealth and goods. These words remind us that we are all connected in this world. This admonition is as current in our times as it was in the age of Dickens.
