Happy? Tag! You're it.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863 This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving. Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She wrote, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution." The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise."

Today I was driving in my jeep with the top down. Wearing my red bandanna and groovy sun glasses, I cruised flying high on an over pass. As I came down the ramp, I felt like I defined freedom. I wanted to throw my hands straight up in the air like I was on a ride at an amusement park, for safety sake, instead I let a primal scream soar up to the blue sky filled with billowing white clouds. The young man in the car behind me roared past me with his moon roof open. He must have felt it too, freedom. He stretched one hand high trough the open roof and gave me the peace sign. Ah, a kindred spirit I thought, smiling bright, I extended my left hand high waving "Peace" to my brother then I laughed uncontrollably. According to Wikipedia,the Peace sign or the "V" sign,or the “victory sign,” is a hand gesture with the index and middle fingers open and all others closed. It was used as a sign for victory during the Second World War by Winston Churchill, originally with palm in...

Everyone knows at least a little something about meditation... For the past few years, I've collected several books on meditation as well as several tapes and CD's. Yesterday before I went to sleep I learned some useful information about getting into a relaxed state quickly. All you have to do is relax your tongue. Physiologist will nod their heads in agreement. Yes,relaxing your tongue is the quickest way to relax your body and mind;I bet you didn't know that, did you? When you lay down to go to sleep tonight and your brain is going a zillion miles thinking ..... just take a few deep breaths and relax your tongue. The next thing you'll remember is waking up refreshed in the morning!

As I sit here clicking away on the keyboard on the eve of 09/09/09 I feel as giddy as a child the night before Christmas. It is undeniable even to the skeptics,the number 9 has something special and enduring about it. It's my favorite number along with the number 3. Since I have no real data about the number 9 and just a hunch that it's significant, I did a little research and Googled "Interesting facts about the number 9" and found 44,000,000 sites with loads of information. In China, the number 9 is viewed as a "lucky" number. Most of the doors in Forbidden City have 9 rows of 9 nails. In the Bible, while nailed on the cross, Jesus Christ expires at the ninth hour. Then, he appears nine times to his disciples and apostles after his resurrection.There are nine openings of the man for Islam. There are nine stages that the souls of Aztecs should traverse to reach the eternal rest. It takes 9 months for a human fetus to develop in the womb. For the analytical...