The Ottoman Society A Fine Furniture Consignment Shop
We invite you to a unique buying and selling experience in our bright and welcoming store. Find exceptional consignment items or bring us your treasures, Monday thru Saturday. Jill Wightman & Jennifer Morales
13408 Watertown Plank Road Elm Grove, WI (Located behind Great Harvest Bread) ____________________
262-786-1786 Hours: Mon.-Sat., 10-5 pm.
GOD’S CORNER
Thursdays, 10-7pm.
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www.theottomansociety.com
All it takes is one Key Piece to make your house a home. Our distinctive home furnishings will surround you with warmth, style, and comfort. We offer design and color consultations for any room. Tuesday-Saturday, 10-5; Sunday, 11-4
W282 N7148 Main Street, Merton. www.keypiecesdecor.com 262-337-1728 30
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WHAT DOES CHRISTMAS mean to you? Christmas is not any of the things with which it is usually associated. It is not Christmas cards, some pretty, some comic, some formal with only the engraved name of the sender, some including a detailed account of the family accomplishments during the eleven months preceding, some religious. Christmas is not presents, nor is it the sudden fear that we have forgotten to send a present to someone who should definitely not be forgotten, and then rushing out the last minute to purchase a gift that costs much more than we had intended to spend. It is not parties supposedly toasting the spirit of the day. As a matter of fact, Christmas is not the conviviality so often predicated as the Spirit of the Christmas season. Christmas is not indulging oneself in Christmas cookies, candies, stollen, et al. It is not a season for reckless gourmandizing; nor is it proclaiming “Merry Christmas” to one and all as one proclaims “Have a nice day” regardless of storms or blizzards. Christmas is not a plastic tree gaudily decorated nor is it a sturdy balsam ablaze with lights. Christmas is a private acknowledgement of a very special occasion whose significance lies in the consciousness of the individual. It may be based on legend or fantasy. It may be based on a stirring sense of a spiritual presence and power that defies explanation and yet is possessed of a
by Ger trude M. Puelicher
depth of joyous peace. This blessed cause for celebration is love as fine as steel and fragile as crystal. Love must hold firm like steel; it cannot be shattered like crystal. Love is the essence of selflessness, the epitome of givingness. What would happen if each of us who celebrates Christmas would spend just 15 minutes on Christmas Day sending love into the world, to everyone—stranger, family, enemy, friend, neighbor, business associates, relative? What would happen if children learning to say words were taught not only “I love Mommy,” “I love Daddy,” but “I love everybody?” With love, of course, must go faith. Christmas is faith. Faith in what? If scientists can develop synthetic life, where then is God, the Creator of the Life Force that is individualized as you and as me? With what are we tampering when mortal man believes it lies in his power to create life? If faith is, according to Hebrews XI “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” then should we not recognize without any question that God and the life that God has individualized as you and I are one? Yes, Christmas is many things to many people. Fundamentally, however, must it not be a conscious realization of the Christ Spirit that dwells within each of us and that will govern our days with peace and love for all humankind according to our acceptance of its presence and power? n E X C L U S I V E LY Y O U R S
