IT IS THE CHINESE YEAR OF THE SNAKE; SO TO MY CHINESE FRIENDS IN CALIFORNIA AND HERE, THIS IS FOR YOU. I HOPE IT IS A FORTUITOUS YEAR FOR YOU ALL!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

THE HISTORY OF THE BLACK-EYED PEA TRADITION

You learn something every day. I knew this was a southern tradition, but never knew the story behind it. History of the Black Eyed Pea Tradition "The Real Story is much more interesting and has gone untold in fear that feelings would be hurt. It's a story of war, the most brutal and bloody war, military might and power pushed upon civilians, women, children and elderly. Never seen as a war crime, this was the policy of the greatest nation on earth trying to maintain that status at all costs. An unhealed wound remains in the hearts of some people of the southern states even today; on the other hand, the policy of slavery has been an open wound that has also been slow to heal but is okay to talk about. The story of THE BLACK EYED PEA being considered good luck relates directly back to Sherman's Bloody March to the Sea in late 1864. It was called The Savannah Campaign and was lead by Major General William T. Sherman. The Civil War campaign began on 11/15/64 when Sherman 's troops marched from the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, and ended at the port of Savannah on 12/22/1864. When the smoke cleared, the southerners who had survived the onslaught came out of hiding. They found that the blue belly aggressors that had looted and stolen everything of value and everything you could eat including all livestock, death and destruction were everywhere. While in hiding, few had enough to eat, and starvation was now upon the survivors. There was no international aid, no Red Cross meal trucks. The Northern army had taken everything they could carry and eaten everything they could eat. But they couldn't take it all. The devastated people of the south found for some unknown reason that Sherman ’s bloodthirsty troops had left silos full of black eyed peas. At the time in the north, the lowly black eyed pea was only used to feed stock. The northern troops saw it as the thing of least value. Taking grain for their horses and livestock and other crops to feed themselves, they just couldn't take everything. So they left the black eyed peas in great quantities assuming it would be of no use to the survivors, since all the livestock it could feed had either been taken or eaten. Southerners awoke to face a new year in this devastation and were facing massive starvation if not for the good luck of having the black eyed peas to eat. From New Years Day 1866 forward, the tradition grew to eat black eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck." Pass the peas,Please!

GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012 promises to be a very tough, very ominous year for the citizens of the world.
If we do not take control of our governments and our banking systems, prepare ourselves for armed conflict against renegade governments, we will find ourselves in chains literally by armies or police or by economic chaos.

It will not be comfortable for most of us.

Prepare for your survival. Here in the USA, the Department of Homeland Security, which is a misnomer for the Department of Homeland Insecurity, and a dangerous terrorist to all of us since it is such a powerful rogue agency, if you follow FEMA's directions and prepare in ways such as food storage, you are declared a terrorist. You fit the profile.

My wish is for the global bankers to fail at their attempts, the corporate giants who work in concert with the bankers to wrest our few cents away from us, fail. And for all of us living under the dictatorship of a few, to fight back.

I wish us all strength, courage, safety, security, and all the freedoms and liberties that were given to us after the American Revolution in the 1700s. If you are possessed of that clear vision, focus and commitment, you cannot fail to throw off the chains of what the global elites have in store for us. They are just drooling like vampires, waiting for the chance.

I dearly wish I could say this morning, the old cliches for New Year's.

I do with you health, wealth, happiness and peace, but I think we all know, even if we don't admit it, that there won't be much of that this year.

It's all on our shoulders how the world governments will treat us. If we bow to them, all over the planet, we are lost. It most likely will be a bloody struggle.

Do not capitulate. Never give in. We are in a strange and bizarre world because the handful of people who make up the global elite have planned it this way and this year, it's up to us to mold it so that we can all exist in security and peace.

The less government control we are under, the more peace we will have.

I have to thank you readers of this blog from the far corners of the globe. I never thought I would reach so many of you. You, individually, and I connect almost every day. Do I have any animosity against you? Of course not. We are each just people trying to live our lives the best way we can and are of like mind.

Our problems come from our governments which are too powerful. True freedom and liberty comes from small governments where the people limit their power. Here in America, a dictator has shown his true colors and exposed himself. And he must be stopped. He needs, and many of those in our Congress need to be arrested for treason and acts against the people and the state.

Remember - it's in our hands.

It's a classic struggle of right against left; of good and evil. From our Bible:

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right,
but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)
Thus sayeth the Lord. Amen

I wish you well, with all my heart.

Stay safe and be strong.

God bless.

From Virgil - Quote of the Day

"I have tried but reached only disaster; I have battled but broken my lance; I am bruised by a pitiless monster; that the weak and the timid call chance. I am old, I am beat, I am cheated of all that youth urged me to win; but name me not with the defeated, for TOMORROW, I BEGIN AGAIN."

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! TOMORROW'S ANOTHER WONDERFUL DAY!

And here is our friend's column - Dr. Thomas Butts...

On Beginning Again

by Dr. Thomas L. Butts

There is something humbling about having to begin again with some project we assumed we could get right the first time. There are some for whom failure the first time around is not only embarrassing, but absolutely unacceptable. For those who hold this view of reality, a project is abandoned after a first-time failure. That is why there are so many who have given up on so much, including life itself.

We have just ended a year in which so much has happened that so many never dreamed could happen. The landscape is strewn with victims. Many systems and sectors of our social and economic fabric have failed. A systemic failure is not singular. There are thousands of people who were not directly employed by some failed system whose lives have been adversely affected. Many are depressed and discouraged by what they have lost or may lose. Psychiatric hospitals nationwide are reporting that admissions have more than doubled due to people suffering extreme stress about home foreclosures, job losses and plunging stock prices. The fear and turmoil are palpable.

Have I left any of you out of this picture? I doubt it, but if I have, the picture can be expanded to include you--and me. There are so many people who are struggling in a web they did not spin.

What to do?! I recall a short piece of poetry attributed to Virgil, the great Roman Poet. See if it speaks to the situation in general and you in particular. "I have tried but reached only disaster; I have battled but broken my lance; I am bruised by a pitiless monster; that the weak and the timid call chance. I am old, I am beat, I am cheated of all that youth urged me to win; but name me not with the defeated, for TOMORROW, I BEGIN AGAIN." Can you hear that?

There are many people who at some turn in their lives come to see that their original life goals and dreams have not been realized, and probably never will be. A business failed, a marriage ended up on the rocks, a child brought home a load of trouble you cannot fix, somebody died or somebody left us in one of the many ways in which someone can go away. There are a thousand things (most of them unexpected) that can unhinge life and leave us anchored in the zone of desperation. Most of them can happen to any of us. Perhaps some one of them happened to you in the past twelve months.

Our life-story has far less to do with what has happened to us than with what we do with what has happened. We have all had enough misfortune in life to make a pretty good case for our being unhappy, if we choose to respond to reality in that manner. We forget, or never learned, that the most likely atmosphere in which creative changes takes place is in the atmosphere of crisis. The crisis of adversity is often life's way not only of telling us that something has gone wrong, but that we need to make some changes in life. It has been said, and I agree, that when you are down to nothing, God is up to something. Stay tuned to that thought.

It was good insight on the part of Virgil to suggest that we wait until tomorrow to begin again. In the throes of adversity we all need some "crying time". Any person who hopes to have the strength to "watch the things you gave your life to broken, and stoop and build them up with worn out tools" (Kipling) most allow some time for regrouping and healing. It is important to take time to grieve what has been lost. We may even need the temporary use of self-pity (that easy, cheap, warm emotional anesthetic, which we have in such abundance) to get us past the grief and hurt. Just don't get hooked on it!!

Do not despair with people who need to relive their hurts, voice their bitterness and take a few shots of self-pity. These are feelings with which you may best liberate yourself by expressing them on the way to a more noble resolve. If the expression of these negative feeling are blocked by well-meaning friends, you will likely have to come back and deal with them at a later and perhaps more inappropriate time. Be patient with the wounded, especially if you are one of them. Given time, space and an empathetic ear, they are more likely to come out whole on the other side. You can know that a person has made it to safe ground when you hear them say: "Name not with the defeated, for tomorrow I begin again."

May this new year offer you so many opportunities that you will have to puzzle over which to accept; and may all your "tigers in the dark" turn out to be kittens in the light of love, both human and divine.

If you wish to send a comment or ask a question of Dr. Butts please use: tlb@gulf1.com