Channeling Your Inner Child

Believe me when I say, December has always been a month that exceeds all my expectations.  Hopes, dreams and wishes are born here in this cold, not too frigid air where ice skating rinks are not yet open outside, nor have the shovels been bent and disfigured from the weight of repeated snows.  Of course, we have those things to look forward to here in the Great Lakes region.
But ahhhh.  The lights, the electricity in the air, bundled bodies with fancy scarves and new coats, shopping lists and boozy office parties.  Why is fun so stressful! No, not everyone gets stressed out during the holidays.  Some people manage to stay above it all, or they opt out entirely.  I actually have sworn to do both of these things in winters' past but never managed to accomplish either.

MMmmmn. The cookies, the baking smells in the air, as flour gets pulled out of the pantry and chocolate sits in the top of a double boiler.  The hors d'oevres, the cameraderie.  Ultimately I am not sure how Christmas has become this huge commercial commodity when in real time the things that most folks cherish and remember are the lights, the sensory overload, the warm, fuzzy friendships, some dating back years, some newly formed and the people we call family who remind us of who we really are.

The need.  That is what grabs me in a stanglehold  each year. How blessed I am and how many have very little to lean on.  So I buy toys, or CTA passes, pick a family, shop for some warm gloves at Target or bake cookies for church.  The endless list of those who have so little...those whose needs will never, ever be totally fufilled--these thoughts haunt me at the end of a warm, wonderful day. So for the least of us...those with nothing, people struggling to survive---for those who are weakest right now-- try to be responsible to help them in some small way.  Don't just fund a Christmas project and be a Christmas angel in an imperfect world, but make a commitment to do something ongoing in 2011!  Happy New Year, Angels.  Make love the first thing on your resolution list!

Gratitude

Truly the experience of grace and the feeling of gratitude emerges from a place within us that can't really be touched in any sort of concrete way.  It is, like love, one of those things that just hits us--often like a ton of bricks.  You know what I'm talking about --it descends...'like the Holy Spirit' (my mom would often say this).
You look around, you experience...what?..... a transcendence.  Maybe you sigh, and say,  "I am so grateful for...." whatever it is! Or whomever it may be!  But whatever it is...I can almost guarantee it's not "this couch!" OR "this set of perfect dishes," or these "500 thread-count sheets"!  Pardon me to those who may disagree.
Usually for me these bright glimpses of gratitude are momentary and almost always involve either people or nature.
This Thanksgiving, I soul search for a new thing to be thankful for.  There are the usual, commonplace, yet wonderful, normal things that always surface annually: family, friends, health, a roof over our heads, a house still worth more than the mortgage left on it-- despite the many re-financings.
This time, this year, I will be thankful for the sorrows that have taught me life lessons, the dark days that have turned lighter at dawn; I will look for beauty in the ugliest and most mundane places, and give thanks for the small.  The small can be quite tall.  Small steps can take us to beautiful places.  And beauty certainly leads us down a path of grace to gratitude, and thanks for all, for every breath, for life!
Happy Thanksgiving, All!

Freedom (down the rabbit hole)

The last of the miners in Chile has been rescued and all is finally done!  33 men trapped for 69 days and a world which cooperated and joined together to help them survive and to finally reach freedom.
When was the last time your freedom was challenged?  Hasn't this incident taught us something about being free?
These men's lives have inexorably changed and the worst thing they have ever faced now becomes the best thing that ever happened to them.

Don't wait for your wake up moment....
appreciate being free.

It's been a few years....

One of my best qualities is that I never give up once I have put my mind on accomplishing something. One problem I do have, though, is that I often temporarily abandon my current pet projects out of boredom or attention-deficit issues and forget about them entirely. Until... I ....remember....AND that is exactly what happened today. Light bulb went off! I have a blog! I actually started one several years ago and tried to understand how the whole thing worked. Wrote a couple of short things and figured out how to post them...and then POOF--I was on to the next latest thing. Luckily, I am following my daughter's blog--an excellent writer, and someone who doesn't abandon projects quite as easily as I seem to--and today she posted a wonderful reflection about her moving to DC and life, and I commented on it and then the realization hit...wait I have a blog.....so here I am again determined to accomplish something--we shall see what we shall see..