Breaking News: December 7th, 2009

This was first written on Dec. 6th, 2006 in commemoration of first good settling snow for the year. I'm making first snow as a moving holy day from my perspective. It's a rebirth of the life that winter gives, winter is not death, but it is a different sort of life we are often ungrateful for. A child who has but a few winters they can remember knows how to celebrate this holiday as they become renewed with joy and play. The complainers dampen our spirit and work makes us forget how to play with simple nature, no admission charged.

This story is something I like to put out on First Snow. It is a true story, not a news story only because everyday events are not news. I hope you enjoy this, send it around and give blessings for the magic of snow and every other everyday delight.

Breaking News: The Real World Today

Today, as the earth rotated in orbit around the sun, the interaction ofthe sun’s energy and the earth’s ecosystem and atmosphere provided lifefor 6 billion people, and countless numbers of members of other species.Millions of people told other people that they loved them, andinterestingly, the same number of people was told that they were loved.Large numbers of people became new parents or grandparents, and committedto loving and raising children.

Many thousands of people fell in love.Hundreds of thousands of people made love. Many people died a peacefuldeath surrounded by loved ones. A lot of people in virtually everycountry in the world today started new jobs and businesses, kept or foundshelter, gained access to clean water, took medicines that made themhealthier, exercised, cooked meals for each other, prayed, meditated,attended school or university, recovered from illness, made a healthylifestyle choice, quit an addiction, used a condom, helped theircommunity, were helped by someone and a great deal of people laughed untiltheir sides hurt.Millions of people had mutually beneficial relationships with animals suchas cats and dogs and both wild and farm animals. Hundreds of thousands ofpeople appreciated nature, many others did something to protect it.Scientists all over the world made discoveries that enhanced ourknowledge, and if used wisely, these will improve many people’s lives.

The nearly unnoticeable phenomenon of people, and other organisms, finding delight in a small or big thing occurred with a frequency that is hard totrace. These include but are not limited to enjoying a morning coffee, asunset, singing in the shower or elsewhere, noticing a squirrel preparefor the winter, the genius of nature, an uplift from an animal, watchingthe water, skipping stones, watching children discover something, fixingsomething, random acts of kindness (especially anonymous ones) etc. Manycountries passed laws today that protected their citizens. Hundreds ofthousands of crimes were solved. Useful things were invented or designed,projects and events were planned, and a great deal of groups of peoplecollaborated to make something good happen. A surprising number ofconflicts were resolved, both within and between people, families, nationsand even between nations. Vast numbers of people engaged in interestingconversations and the reports coming in today of people coming up withcreative ideas have overwhelmed this journalist. There are even reports ofpeople attaining enlightenment or finding God. Millions of people todaymentored someone. Close to a billion people met someone they had never metbefore. Hundreds of thousands of people made a friend. 12,002 peoplecalled an old friend they hadn’t seen in years.

Today, the temperature fell below zero at cloud level, this createdbillions of dazzlingy beautiful crystals, each entirely unique, which thenfell from the sky coating the ground in soft, white, feather-like cover.It is the first time this season this has happened, meteorologists aresaying that it will occur frequently over the next few months. This causedsome to worry that we would have too much of a good thing, but experts advise us to be cheerful throughout, as it is known to prevent disease and extend life.

These fascinating events were downplayed by a local politician who isquoted as saying “It’s an average day, we feel that this government hastaken the right steps and these are the results.” An unimpressed citizencommented, “I don’t know what all the fuss is about.” But, the mostrevealing comments on today’s events came from a six-year old who woke upearly today, looked out his window and, jumping on his parent’s bed said“It’s snowing! Come on, get up, let’s go make a snowman!”Precise statistics were difficult to obtain on today’s events, some citingthat statisticians, on average, spend less than .0002% of their timestudying good things that happen (except one renegade statistician whocame up with the stat about calling old friends). In researching thisarticle, this journalist attempted to search “Google” for number ofmarriages per day, but this sophisticated search engine must havemalfunctioned because it’s first result was “Divorce Rates - DivorceStatistics Collection”.

Many bad things did happen today. These are covered at length in othernews articles. So please, protect the planet, love each other, and finddelight every day – so this story gets more of the balance.