Goodnight 2008!

I have never understood “Auld Lang Syne”. Perhaps I just never cared to know.

I loved the year that is now behind me for all it’s growing pains and new hopes born. I could spend much time reflecting but than I wouldn’t be looking forward and I might miss the opportunities ahead.

Which way are you looking?

Fly Boy

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We recently were up north, sharing a holiday meal with family. This in itself was tremendously fun but part of what we really enjoy is the clan of nephews! Part of their lawn is next to a gravel yard so there are many hills of sand and rocks. My husband is usually handy with the camera and talking nephews into doing crazy stunts is nothing new. I have to say my stomach did a few flips watching Michael pretend to be jumping off the edge of this sand cliff!

Wrinkles

“As for wrinkles–pshaw! Why shouldn’t we have wrinkles? Honorable insignia of long service in this warfare.” C.S. Lewis

Is The Price Right?

Another Christmas has come and gone. In a mere few days a new year will roll over on our calendars. 2009, what does that mean? What are we really hoping for? A new president will soon take the international stage of public figures and be setting the example for how our great nation should be run.

I haven’t had time to digest any changes. I suspect just getting through day to day matters has kept me preoccupied. I would think that is also what is keeping the rest of America preoccupied as well. We are looking at the changes in our prices.

I haven’t gone shopping in a while but let me vent for just a few minutes. I have a nearby grocery store and in a time when gas prices have dropped by $2 a gallon our grocery prices have stayed not only steady but have gone up. I actually found myself angry when I stood in the produce section. You see this nearby grocery store has really tried to hoodwink the consumer with potatoes. Potatoes have not had a blight but yet our neighborhood store has seen fit to give us bags that offer 2 pounds less and yet our prices have gone up significantly.

My husband and I are blessed to still both have jobs but my anger is righteous. If I am this upset, what are my other neighbors feeling who have been let go from their job? How can a single mother feed her children when being gouged? How is the husband who is a sole provider consistently put food on the table if prices are so unfair?

I have to admit in this hour I long for the corner grocer who knew his neighbors and they were also friends. The business man with a heart to be able to make a living but not suck the life out of his community. May the local farmer come to resurgence and the greedy businesses who only see numbers on the bottom of a page be dismissed!

I Want More

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Most were all there. My immediate family gathered together to share a holiday and a meal. There were those missing this year, but especially those who have gone before us. We were painfully aware of their absence and yet the fact we came together on this special day made all the sense in the world.

Healing; we are in the midst of healing. While we heal, the laughter soothes our bitter wounds and the closeness weaves those we love into our knit. The young ones are growing into young men and the younger ones keep them connected to being young boys still. The young ones keep those growing older connected while we pour ourselves out into these next generations.

I had a front row seat to what love does. Love given freely, love unexpected, love unrestrained. I want more.

Rich Blessing

Christmas morning is here and as I open the blinds it appears to be gray and wet outside. I must get ready to go soon. We are expected up north at my sister’s home who has graciously offered to host our family this year. This is special.

Over the past couple of years some healing has been happening. Love is pouring through our lives and we have been open to receive it. We are finally starting to act like we want to be together as a family and that is a rich blessing.

Taking Advantage To Act Kindly

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He brought me his son’s letter to Santa and asked me to read it. I was so touched I couldn’t speak well. My friend is an inspiration to me and I doubt he knows how much his life touches my own. He is a widower raising his young boy alone and his story is gut wrenching and I know only a tiny fraction about it.

He shared with me how he was going to take his son to a midnight service on Christmas eve and then let him open some gifts when they got home. His son had told him, “daddy I know we can’t afford…..” I could barely meet his eyes as they began to tear. He said his son was so special and sensitive; he was okay with not having much.

As he held his son’s letter to Santa, this father made sure I knew he taught his son all good things come from God. When he looked at me and told me his son also knew God’s goodness flowed through me, I was humbled. There was nothing I could say of any worth. I hugged this man and murmured something about how I hoped he’d have a wonderful evening with his son.

Inside I felt smaller still. Not like I wasn’t worth anything, but like I hadn’t done anything to deserve this man’s sharing of his heart. What he was sharing felt so intimate and personal. I look around my house and see how much I have been given. My heart is joyous. An opportunity has been given to me and I won’t let it pass without taking advantage to do an act of kindness. If I was a conduit than it only seemed right this young man see God’s generous and abundant nature.

Character Food Thought

“What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.”  C.S. Lewis

I find it fascinating when two people are witness to the same event and yet the one with a heart of hope can find even the tiniest fraction of good in the event whilst the cynic picks apart and rejects any hope whatsoever.

Seed Pods

They lay on the ground, looking to be finished with their life cycle and at first glance I hadn’t even noticed them. When the light of the sun shone on their browned husks, red sparkles shined like hot embers or miniature stars gone nova in red heat. The red seeds were so beautiful; they really dressed up the whole pod. I was reminded of small Christmas trees or lovely pine cones. I picked a couple up and put them in my pocket. I suspected if I wasn’t in front of a public business I would have gathered all I could find off the ground beneath that odd tree.

I brought them home and sat them on my table. I enjoy picking them up and looking at them closely. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and these seed pods were unlike anything I had seen before. I marveled at their uniqueness. Even though they were of the same species and shared general characteristics, clearly they had different sides to them. One wore itself in a rather pointed manner while the other was more closed up.

The bright red seeds each carried the possibility of new life in them. If they could find good soil to burrow in and be generously watered, they could spring forth life of their own and multiply. Before they could even have that possibility, it was clear they had to die first.

Gazing at these two pods I can’t help but think about how people are akin to these. We burst forth into being; all new, young and fresh only to learn a clock is ticking. The time we have to walk on this earth is limited. We ourselves have so many seeds of love within us. If we are unselfish we can seek out the good soil in others and plant these seeds. If our clock is generous, we may even be able to water them and watch them bring forth new life of their own. To have enough seeds though, we ourselves have to die first. Die to our selfishness, our self-centeredness, our greed, our envy and especially die to our pride. It’s in the dying where we find our seeds multiply on their own and we are unable to help but give these seeds away to all those around us.

Yes beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I see a beautiful plan and purpose in dying to myself.

(NKJV)Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

(Msg) Rom 8:9 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about.

10 But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells – even though you still experience all the limitations of sin – you yourself experience life on God’s terms. 11 It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! 12 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. 13 There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life.

What Does The Day Offer?

The sun is shining despite the ice cold that has dropped down into part of the world. Now the cold would normally keep me inside but sunshine draws me to come out and enjoy what the day has to offer. I have a vague idea of what sounds like fun but my pals are all pretty busy getting ready for the holiday so I will have to seek out my own adventure. Time to grab a coat and some gloves and be on my way…