Wishing Everyone A Joyous HOliday Season & The Best New Year...

Joy to the world... Joy to all communities around the nation... Joy to you and me ... Joy to this glad and peaceful season!

Historical Dream treasures the richness of ethnicities across our nation ... [our world]. This hOliday season which to many includes November Through the New Year, is a time when fellowship, religious activities, cultural celebrations, spiritual merriments, and peaceful gatherings ring loudest. Jubilations are encouraged. Devotions are proclaimed. Differences are made milder. Gifts from the heart are shared. The priority and joy of family, friends, like-minded folk and the ever special loved one are gloriously beholden. And to me, this and more makes the season so endearing.

Starting with the festive season of November, particular homage is paid to Native American Indians; to All Saints' Day; to Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead); to All Souls' Day (Roman Catholic); to Eid al-adha (Islam); to Baha'u'llah's birthday (Baha'i). Reverence to these beliefs is traditionally baked into the month. December begets the next big occasion to deliver shout-outs of noble words of peace and harmony; and laud denominations of spiritual and religious sentiments. Such inclinations are symbolized through: Ashura (Islam); St. Nicholast Day; Bodhi Day (Buddhist); Santa Lucia Day; Hanukkah; Christmas; and Kwanzaa. By the same token, charitable gestures increase locally and nationally to those in need by the known as well as the benevolent stranger.

It is my wish that from November through the New Year new commitments are made to promote happiness, help reduce suffering, and create a better place in some way - small or large- to all. I wish that joy and love are spread far and wide. Our communities (and world) deserve this level of wishfulness and positive energy.

If buying into the spirit of the holiday requires a bit of a jolt, check out a wonderful poem by the late Dr. Maya Angelou. She embraces the holiday spirit and crystalizes why this time of year can be so special. Dr. Angelou's - "Amazing Peace": A Christmas Poem - helps to bridge lines of appreciation between people from different spiritual and religious faiths.

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem By Dr. Maya Angelou Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses. Flood waters await us in our avenues. Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche Over unprotected villages. The sky slips low and grey and threatening. We question ourselves. What have we done to so affront nature? We worry God. Are you there? Are you there really? Does the covenant you made with us still hold? Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters, Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air. The world is encouraged to come away from rancor, Come the way of friendship. It is the Glad Season. Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner. Flood waters recede into memory. Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us As we make our way to higher ground. Hope is born again in the faces of children It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets. Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things, Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors. In our joy, we think we hear a whisper. At first it is too soft. Then only half heard. We listen carefully as it gathers strength. We hear a sweetness. The word is Peace. It is loud now. It is louder. Louder than the explosion of bombs. We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence. It is what we have hungered for. Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace. A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies. Security for our beloveds and their beloveds. We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas. We beckon this good season to wait a while with us. We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come. Peace. Come and fill us and our world with your majesty. We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian, Implore you, to stay a while with us. So we may learn by your shimmering light How to look beyond complexion and see community. It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time. On this platform of peace, we can create a language To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other. At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ Into the great religions of the world. We jubilate the precious advent of trust. We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope. All the earth's tribes loosen their voices To celebrate the promise of Peace. We, Angels and Mortal's, Believers and Non-Believers, Look heavenward and speak the word aloud. Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud. Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation. Peace, My Brother. Peace, My Sister. Peace, My Soul.