CowPi Journal

I received this story from a good friend who had a choice to make. She said I had a choice to make also. I have chosen. Now it is your turn to choose.
The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 5-year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive wrapping paper. Money was very tight, and he became very upset when the child pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a box put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father Christmas morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”
The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty. He spoke to her in a harsh manner. “Don’t you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there is supposed to be something inside the package?”
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty! I blew kisses into it until it was full!”
The father was crushed. He fell to his knees and put his arms around his little girl and begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. It is said that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems, he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had carefully stored it there.
In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our family, our friends, and God. There is no more precious possession anyone can hold.
You now have a choice to make. You can accept these precious gifts and share them, or you can deny they exist and leave the treasure of the Christmas box unopened for yet another year.
In this season of hope, my hope is that everyone I know and love will accept their Christmas box and will hold as sacred the treasures contained within.
Merry Christmas

All is gift.
Your next breath is gift.
Reading this sentence is gift.
Your next thought is gift.
What you feel in your heart at this very moment,
    whether it is happiness or sadness or something else,
    is gift.
You are a gift.

When, where, how, and to whom do you thank?

Are you going to keep the gift,
    or give it to someone?

And I wonder…
    is that the difference
    between heaven and hell?

While everyone’s lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I have done

— The Killers

Ahhh! The perennial question every holiday Christmas season—to “park and walk” or “cruise the lot” for the best parking space?

Leave it to researchers to analyze the efficiency of these two strategies to find a parking space in terms of time saved. According to this article “Parking Space Roulette” at Science News Online:

…in their model, the “park and walk” approach takes an average of 61 seconds, from entering the lot to reaching the mall entrance, whereas the “cycling” [cruise the lot] strategy requires an average of 71 seconds. The first approach usually involves more walking, but you tend to get to your shopping faster.

I wonder if their model included a factor for congestion of moving cars (and people) in the parking lot. The article implies that they did not. That would greatly increase the time for the “cruise the lot” strategy.

Anybody who has had to park at a Wally World Super Center knows to avoid the area nearest the entrance like the plague, even at midnight. Besides taking an eternity just to drive through that area to find a parking space, they make you wait a second time just to leave.

Hmmm…reminds me about my prayer for patience…