I know people that these Christmas greetings are late, but I wanted to share this little Christmas something which I found some time ago...

When carols fade in the silence of the night

Listen to a symphony of angelic delight;

Outside of the inns and inside of the out,

The word reveals what life is all about.

Switch off lights from the christmas tree,

Focus your gaze on the one who sets free;

In deep darkness engulfing our world,

Emerges Light, love's fullness unfurled.

Though table be laid and cold be a turkey,

Hasten to that manager, serene, yet murky.

The Family out there, 'mid many a beast,

Dares you to invite the least to your feast.

Give Santa a break, the child gives gifts,

Graces he bestows, sinful burdens He lifts

He taps at our door, for one gist let's plead.

Jesus Himself; is there more we will need?

- Unknown

Making Your Mind Up

Read this awesome book by Jill Mansell, it will give a few good laughs to brighten up your day. Smooth, easy reading, perfect for a siesta in your veranda.

When you're a teenager in love with a wildly unsuitable boy, you expect your parents to object. But Lottie is thirty now, a full- fledged grown up, and she never imagined her children doing the same when she Tyler Klein. He isn't wildly unsuitable, he's a catch. But as far as Nat and Ruby are concerned, he's the devil incarnate.

What's a girl to do? Is she only allowed to associate with men who meet with their approval? And doesn't she already have enough to worry about, what with errant ex- husband Mario upto his old tricks, beloved boss Freddie determined to catch up with old friends before life catches up with him, and best friend Cressida brazenly propositioning strangers in sghops?

Everyone else needs sorting out. Well, that's fine- it's what Lottie is best at. Until the day she discovers that an attack of the hiccups can have the power - just possibly- to change your life...

Memories

The change is upon us now
Something deep inside
Hazy thoughts of yesterday
Dreams we cannot hide.

Like a wondrous, touching film
We see through colored glass
The lazy days of summer
The joy of summers past.

The first day of autumn
A castle on the sands
A monument to memories
To life held in our hands.

- Douglas A. Cox

Gods, Demons and Others

Here is R.K. Narayan's delightful selection of stories from India's vast treasure- house of myths and legends handed down through the ages. Drawing his stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other great Indian epics, Narayan tells the tales as they might be recounted by the wise village storyteller.
In the legends, where all things are possible, one thousand years seem only a second, and good ultimately triumphs over evil. The Devi, who is the personification of the highest beauty and energy, vanquishes the demon Manisha who has invaded the heavens: Manmata, the god of love, is burned up physically when he enrages the austere god Shiva. Yama, the god of death, is persuaded for the first time to relinquish a soul when the mourning but determined Savitri pleads for the return of her husband.
The spectacle of battle, the fascinating mystery of the supernatural, the passion, devotion and laughter of love, the quest of the spirit for eternity- such are the ingredients of the legends. And Narayan's retelling evokes them all with superb skill to provide the reader a treasury of enchanting myths which have for centuries painted the landscape of Indian life and mind.

The Mahabharata

The great Indian epic the Mahabharata is at least 3,500 years old. In its original in the Sanskrit language it runs to one hundred thousand stanzas in verse- by far the longest of the world's epics. Also, together with the Ramayana it embodies the very essence of Indian cultural and religious heritage, laying down values of individual life and society which have shaped the texture of Indian life.
The Mahabharata fairly bursts with an astonishing treasure of riches. At one level it is a great tale with a huge, truly memorable cast of vivid characters- men, noble and ignoble, warriors, saints, kings and women of beauty. Unbearable sacrifice, shining nobility, great courage and virtue, insatiable greed, satanic hatred and sinister intrigue are all part and parcel of the dynastic struggle between two branches of a family which culminates in a bloody eighteen- day war on the plain of Kurukshetra.
At another level, the tragic battle of Kurukshetra symbolises man's constant struggle to distinguish between right and wrong, of choosing correct action over misdeed- issues tackled in the Bhagvadgita which forms a part of this epic and which is perhaps the single most influential scripture of Indian philosophic thought and spiritual understanding.
R.K. Narayan's splendid retelling offers the modern reader a magnificent initiation into the Mahabharata. With the consumate skill of a great writer, he recreates the rythm and grandeur of this epic which has endured through the ages with stonishing vitality.

The Client

Here's another by John Grisham...
Eleven- year old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sought - after dead body of America.
Now mark is caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to cover up his crime. And his only alibi is a woman named Reggie Love, who has been a lawyer for the past four years.
Prosecutors are willing to break all the rulers to make Mark talk. The Mob will stop at nothing to keep him quiet. And Reggie will do anything to protect her client- even make a last, desperate gamble that could win Mark his freedom... or claim both their lives.