JANUARY GEMSTONES

Happy New Year to One and All!!! May your new year bring blessings in all forms to fulfill your goals and dreams!!!

We are fast approaching the end of the monthly gemstones lists but, never fear, there will be something added each month. The gemstone world is vast and there will always be something to discuss.

If you have any questions or specific stones you would like to have expounded upon, please be sure to e-mail me with “Crystal Questions” in the subject line.

The January list has one stone about which I have no clue. It was listed in the Biblical gemstones and is called Hyacinth. The only Hyacinth I know is a flower but it is distinctly possible that it had that name in olden times and reflects the particular color of the stone which, I believe would be blue or possibly an indigo to violet color. In writing this, it occurred to me that it may be one of the family of color-changing stones and may have been a Tanzanite or Alexandrite. I have not found anything about it so it will be left off of the definition list.

Eureka!!! I found what Hyacinth is!!! It is also called Jacinth and is a form of Zircon in the colors of clear, transparent red or yellow. It will now be included in the following list. (I could have edited this to skip the above paragraph and this note but thought it might be nice to show what some persistence, manifesting, following one’s intuition and a good dose of luck can do.)

I wasn't going to send a December Newsletter, but I was at a holiday party last weekend and three people asked me about the December Issue.  This month we have December Gemstones, New Prayer Requests, Monica Who and Upcoming Events.
 
I wasn't going to write anything for this newsletter.  I was feeling all out of sorts.  I thought I might link to a short piece I wrote  earlier this month about sleep and that would be it.  Then, in a burst of words, two articles about gardens: Kale, a Garden Review and Name it Garden.

I want to thank everyone who has joined the Prayer Circle! The hearty response from our membership has been wonderful. Some early members of the Prayer Circle e-mail list may have been lost during November's Unfortunate Events. If you haven't received any of the recent prayer requests you may need to sign up again.

Have a great holiday!  See you next Year.

John Thornton

I've been trying some new stuff in my garden and I want to share some of the results with you. I am in Northeast Ohio, even locally your microclimate and mileage may vary. Experiment for yourself!

I've been thinking a lot lately about sustainability and local food, mostly about the ultimate in local food – home grown.

I've been staying up late. Not for any real purpose, just wandering around the house, doing mindless computer work, doing nothing. I feel guilty about it. There is so little daylight right now it seems a shame to waste it and then burn lights during the night. It isn't insomnia, it’s a quest for quiet.

My mind has been unraveled lately. So much has happened in the last few months and at the same time I feel like I've been running in place. When I am giving readings or teaching I feel at total peace, but the rest of the day I'm (mildly) anxious – like my skin is just a bit too tight. Then I stay up all night and around one or two o'clock I start to calm.

The neighborhood is asleep. At this moment the closest active mind is on the second floor of the house cattycorner to mine, just at the edge of my senses. It feels like the grown son of the widower who owns the house. He's trying to sleep, I think he just got some water and is now back in bed. Everyone else within easy reach is asleep - their thought patterns, deep and slow, don't disturb me the way a waking mind can.

It's 3:30, I'm off to bed. I'll read a bit, meditate a bit, enjoying the quiet, and then I'll drift off too. For a few short hours, maybe just minutes, the street will slumber, hushed by the fallen snow.

DECEMBER GEMSTONES

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Merry whatever you wish…(to be politically correct). There are too many holidays and too many religions to go into the entire list but I wish everyone a Blessed and Safe Holiday Season, regardless of beliefs or non-beliefs.

On a slight side note/pet peeve/soapbox...everyone please take care while driving in the constantly changing weather conditions. The one thing I remember from my driving training, oh so many years ago...(no…I am not telling exactly how many)...is that when the road conditions are questionable such as wet looking and possibly icy, or snowy and slushy, one should lower their speed by a MINIMUM of 5 MPH below the speed limit...more if conditions warrant it. I have always remembered that bit of advice but it seems that the newer driving schools either do not emphasize this or else the new drivers, and some older ones, have chosen to ignore it, believing they are exempt from the common sense precautions.

How many times have you been driving along at what you consider a safe speed which may be just at the listed speed limit and have someone right up on your bumper or whoosh by you like you are standing still? Short of going to a loved ones side or some emergency situation involving safety or hospitals, there is absolutely nothing worth risking your life or others by speeding around in highly questionable weather and road conditions.

Think on this...regardless of how good you may think you may be at driving...you are usually not the only one on the roadway and the others may not be as swift with reactions as you are. Nature and the weather conditions add in a variable which few people can calculate accurately.

The reason for going off on this tangent is my sincerest wish that everyone within my extended family (everyone who visits and reads my articles regularly as well as any first time readers/visitors) has a safe travel and holiday season. Know that someone does care about you, even if you have never met that person.

WELL...time to get off the soapbox and on to the December Gemstones.