In The Spirit Of Christmas

It is that time of year again. The last few years have been tough for me, but the light at the end of the tunnel is so very bright now (unless it is just a train coming the other way ).

Today marks a special day for me in my own personal development. I confronted a fear I should never have had, and I beat it. It is for me a major accomplishment, a major, major accomplishment as I rarely let people get close and rarely let them see inside. There is only one other person in the whole world who knows what that accomplishment was. And that one person is all I need to share such a big thing with. And that one person is also a member here at CCF.

Know I bet you are all wondering what it is and you all want to know more, as an insight into someones personal life, even the life of a stranger, is so intoxicating.

Well, I am not going to tell you. It involves two people and it would be disrespectful.

But it is Christmas people! We should all be feeling like we are walking on the moon and we should all be looking away from the commercialisation of this time and seeing once again the true spirit of Christmas! And that is the spirit of love, fellowship and belonging.

I am not an overly religious person, I may not believe in the same God as you or attend your church or strive to live a good Christian, Islamic, Buddhist or other life, but I do strive to be a good person, to accept all people as they are and to judge no one until he or she has shown me their nature.

I don't care what colour you are, where you are from, what sex you are, what your political ideals are, what car you drive or what music you listen to (although if you don't like Pink Floyd, I may have to reconsider )

All I care about is that you are a member of two clubs I feel very strongly about, the human race and CCF. And it is Christmas.

So to thank you all for belonging, to thank all who have made me feel welcome here, to thank you for the friendships, for all the knowledge, for the great place to come to forget the world for awhile, to thank each and every one of you for making this place great and to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas....

I would like to send every single person who responds here with a message of peace and love for the Christmas period, in keeping with the coin theme of the forum, a coin from my part of the world, Australia. It will not be just any coin, for I will be sending you a coin that is given not just in the spirit of giving, but one that will be sent with my most sincere hope that all you are and all you have achieved so far in this life will be nothing compared to what the future holds for you in the coming year.

I will send you a coin that is given in the true spirit of Christmas, hope.


So enough of my rambling and gushing, I am sure you are all split 50/50 either thinking I am a nut case or agreeing with me, but what of the coins?

All you have to do is post a message from the heart to truly express the time of the season. This can be a generic "Wishing you all the best for the holiday season" type message , but that would be a cop out. I would much prefer something real.

As I said, every single person that responds will get a coin. And as a sweetener, the best response, as voted by a yet to be determined panel of experts (most hopefully Bobby and Susan) will receive a special coin that will be posted by the end of next week.

And Bobby and Susan, as I seem to have lost my supporter status during the up and down year, as a blatant attempt at blackmail, if you would be so kind to be the judges, I will take up my supporter status for a full year. (Is blackmail allowed in competitions?) I will do this as soon as I receive conformation of your acceptance. You know I am going to do it even if you don't want to judges, right? (Quickly coming up with a line to cover myself in case the feds come knocking)

I am not sure if our forum Mum and Dad frequent the competition section, but I know our moderators do, would one of you be so kind as to ask Bobby and Susan for me?

This is also open to our moderators, and I do hope you enter, as you are a huge part of the feel here at CCF. What do you have to lose.

And as one final sweetener, I am going to send to one of our moderators a number. If your response, and it must be your actual message, not just the sequence number of the posts, so to be clear, the XX message, which happens to be the XXX actual post, is the right number message, then XX message will win an extra special coin as well.

Sap, expect a message from me that makes no sense

So let me begin.

Merry Christmas to all of you. May each and every one of you, and all those that you love and care for, be safe, happy and content in the new year. May all your dreams have solid plans that lead the way to fulfillment. May you all be loved so completely that no obstacle becomes too large, and no wonder ignored. May you all live like there is no fear, hunger, poverty, war and disease, and if these things affect you, that you forget them for one day and smile because you are alive. For we should all remember, we are only here once and we all have so much to give, so why hold anything back?

Merry Christmas CCF.