Christmas Ornaments as Ebenezers*

One holiday tradition we established was buying ornaments after Christmas, wrapping them up for the next year’s tree.  Another was always having a fresh tree until the year I invested in an artificial tree . . . I didn’t think it looked so bad once the ornaments were in place; although this was not a universally accepted opinion. 

I don’t remember exactly which year we packed away all the decorative trappings and tree – but, we haven’t decorated a tree for many years, preferring to enjoy the ones our kids and others create – especially since in God’s providence, we travel at this time.  

Doug's Sister's Tree 2013

I now use some fresh greens, and a few holiday ornaments, recently collected to mark the season.

 

Our Mantel 2013

In her blog, a friend asked what do you love about your tree this year, after sharing pictures of baubles that anchored her heart to joyful memories of Christmas past. (Working Moms Weekly) Coincidentally, this was the year I inventoried some of our ornaments – well, three boxes of them, splitting them up between our kids and into a keep pile, and discard pile. So, her question made me think back to favorite trees . . . each we declared was the best ever . . . until the artificial one.

Decorating Christmas trees over more than 30 years, generates quite a collection of ornaments, not to mention more boxes of decorations, a few of which I inherited. Nearly all of the most favorite Christmas decorations and ornaments were the ones that our kids gave us, or made. So, I re-gifted most of them back.  The best ornaments, real and remembered, included:

·      a peanut shell, wrapped and decorated as baby Jesus, now long-gone, was our son’s kindergarten era gift to us;

·      a clothes pin swaddled in white and pink, a friend’s commemorative of our daughter’s first Christmas;

·      a crafty reindeer with a tiny tinsel swag, and

·      a little salt-dough lamb.

I just wish I could give with them the warm-fuzzies I felt each year unwrapping them.

We still are storing [too] many Christmas decorations in our daughter and son-n-law’s attic. But nothing compares to these treasures, and the memories they stir up.  I remember  the dearest children ever, family and friends who came to dinner, sometimes bringing gifts of ornaments and leaving memories of laughter and good conversations.I remember misunderstandings, frustrations, and failures that have disrupted friendships – stinging, when I unpacked these seasonal trinkets.   

From art classes, I have learned what is light and gay never looks so bright and appealing as it does against some dark edges. That’s not  a bad image for all the Christmas ornaments, real or just remembered,  glistening against the dark evergreen trees -- even artificial ones, or the ones I remember.

“The Christmas tree is a symbol of love, not money. There's a kind of glory to them when they're all lit up that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy.” ― Andy Rooney, Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit

 

Christmas 2013

*Ebenezers – stones of mercy, guidance  and comfort, even the ones I tripped over. (1 Samuel 7:12) Please God forgive me for stumbling others on their journey.

The Christmas Spirit 2014

We Can't Download PEACE*

Yesterday, I opened some windows and crisp clean air blew through the house, making me think of a quote that I first liked, and then realized I wasn’t sure what it meant the more I thought about it:

For the spirit of Christmas fulfills

 the greatest hunger of mankind.

~ Loring A. Schuler, editor of The Ladies Home Journal, 1928-1935.

 

It’s a charming corroboration that the delights of the holiday season -- gifts, lights, decorations, music, food, and festivities -- make us feel special. 

Like the unseen fresh air that filled up the rooms, the spirit of Christmas is wafting around and about me – stirring me up, even though I am more like a Grinch than an elf. This spirit urges me to give gifts worthy of the love I have for all my people – and bids me hope I get gifts reflecting their love for me.

Is giving and receiving love then what fulfills the greatest hunger we have?

Yes, but . . .

My humble opinion remains that our greatest unfulfilled hunger is for peace:  peace -- within ourselves, with those we love, amongst our fellow man, and with God – the God who so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son – not to condemn us, but to save us. (John 3:16-17)

Whatever spirit of Christmas is goading us to make or buy presents, God’s Spirit wants us to listen – amidst this wonderful old world’s babble sounds -- and hear Him – urging us to accept His gift, then in His love give the gifts that are incalculably costly – grace, forgiveness and restoration. In our own strength, none of us has the resources to give these love gifts. In the strength of Him whose birthday we say we celebrate, though, we can be lavish. 

 Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Christmas Cards and Charles Addams

Dealing With Folks Who Won't Open Their Mail

*Source for Image: Jorodo

Back in the Saddle, So to Speak.

Christmas is officially over – we arrived back in Dallas to see all the Christmas decorations that stir up happy hopes, gone until the day after Halloween 2014. Our wreath remains, though – and hey, since it’s not drooping or brown, it stays!

I am not quite ready to pack away even the minimal decorations . . . an anomaly for me.  Only a few are ones we had in Maryland – but they along with ones we “inherited” from Doug’s mom, or collected on our estate cruises, they quietly remind me Christmas need not end because one day is over.   

Our Cards!

A simple pleasure this morning was opening the Christmas cards that accumulated in our absence – God has given us wonderful family and friends! It’s a delight to be remembered – and to remember.    

Slowly sipping coffee, and reading the newspaper – another satisfying anachronism, I learned that American Idol returns tonight and that the government has figured out a back door into my computer – not exactly news. I think I prefer knowing about the return of a  talent show than the reality that the horse is long gone out of the privacy barn.

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

Will Rogers

Hacked!

It happened again – someone commandeered my credit card and made three 4-figure charges. And because of their felony, our use of the card was suspended for the time it took to receive new cards.  This hardly seemed fair . . . but “fair” is not what Jimmy Carter said to expect in this world. (The context of this quote is worth reading! )

 Source*

It was an experience somewhat akin to our losing electrical power in the recent ice storm.  We got by – but the consequence of having lost our capacity to buy was as unsettling as no heat or light.  However, being slowed down by circumstances beyond our control – and resting this time from shopping – was not all bad.  The awareness, of how quickly I can lose the creature comforts and financial security I take for granted, neatly dovetailed with the mixed messages of the season.

The news says there is no peace on earth – the holiday says, Ho-Ho-Ho. And, our holidays seem more connected to presents than the presence of God.

I say I believe in a power greater than myself. When I see how cold and dark our home can get, however, or how limited I am without that 3”x2” plastic card, God reminds me my words have meaning, and consequences.

“Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13-12  ~ The Message)

It’s one thing to urge people to turn to God – especially during Christmas; it’s another thing though to live each day believing it.

·      To perceive Christmas through it`s wrapping becomes more difficult every year. ~ E. B. White (The second tree from the corner)

·      We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience. ~ Dietrich Bonheoffer

·      Selfishness makes Christmas a burden, love makes it a delight. (Author unknown)

The trick is loving and living wisely after Santa’s come and gone. (John 13:34-35)



Photo Source: Nightmare

Christmas Past is Too Soon Here

This year’s celebration felt like being inside our production of “The Nutcracker”—lots of lovely encounters with wonderful people, all ages and stages. (Doug and I being the oldest) To have been part of our kids’ Christmas celebrations remains the greatest gift! All the little and big joys of Christmas Day 2013 – they were no dream! Yep – we feel like we’ve been crowned king and queen of the land of sweets!

Color me satiated . . . and not just because of all the yummy food, that was the day’s fare. I can’t say I ate too much . . . But I sampled all the fare — and smaller portions of luscious food can fill a girl up right well!

However, enjoying all those dishes with family and good friends was the true gift that keeps on giving. To quote a Facebook post: “I think the older you get . . . the things you really want can’t be bought.” (Although, every present we received was exactly what we needed)

Reflecting on this year’s celebration, I didn't know I still had that much party in me.  And maybe that was a good present, too.  

More light than we can learn,

More wealth than we can treasure,

More love than we can earn,

More peace than we can measure,

Because one Child is born. (Source)

Christmas lights still twinkle, but the continual caroling through the auspices and generosity of public broadcasting and those who support it is over.  Hearing the sublimity of the hope that God intersected human history was been quite a tonic, for this hope does not disappoint, especially as   news of power outages, and shipping woes – and bombings, and blustering crowds out the jewel of joy that was mine yesterday,

Gentle reader, as we get back to the business of living in and through uncertain times. May that hope be yours in abundance!   

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and  we exult in hope of the glory of God.  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ^and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5)

A related and worthwhile link before packing away this year’s memories:  

It's the Gospel Truth -- so, take it or leave it

Winter Solstice

The shortest day of the year – allegedly-- has dawned the brightest since our arrival in Annapolis, and the warmest.  It’s now warmer here than in Dallas, with temperatures tomorrow topping 70. Go figure.

Outdoor Christmas lights, while not at the insane levels that illumine the Park Cities, are more abundant than I remember. Once upon a time, I thought displaying too many Christmas lights was tacky – what was preferable I thought were decorations reminiscent of colonial Williamsburg. I still remember the first – and only – garden club meeting I attended; they taught us how to make “natural” boxwood wreaths. I never drew upon that wealth of information again – I never had access to boxwood was my excuse of choice.

But having a “fresh” door decoration was as important to me as having a live tree was to Doug and the kids.  Some years, it was almost the last minute until I got a wreath up . . . and it dawned on me when assessing them, that “tacky” was an adjective with broader boundaries than over-the-top outdoor displays.

An unexpected and fulfilling delight remains the 24/7 Christmas music available on the public radio station, WETA : many familiar carols—but oh so many more pieces and artists that I had never known.  So rich are all the words, so delightful the music – as a rich a fare for my heart, as the lights are for my eyes!

 God, keep me from just humming along, and ignoring this freely available supply to all who will listen fresh spring of hope and help!

Americans who do not believe in the birth of Christ, much less His life and death, still enjoy the trimmings of the celebration the church observes. So, Christians here can freely listen and sing our faith we who walked in the dark have seen a great light. (Isaiah 9:2) But plenty of Christians cannot – especially the “long-suffering, war-torn, not going anywhere Christians of Syria.”

[Associate Professor at the Lebanese-American University Habib] Malik admits of the three monotheistic religions in the region, “Christianity is most beleaguered.” Muslims have captured territory and control political power. Jews have found sanctuary in the modern state of Israel. “But native Christians in the region have none of this. They tend to be weak and scattered communities … repeatedly subjected to pressure from oppressive regimes and Islamist groups.” (Syrian Bishop Antoine Audo)

Therefore, as we party this holiday, enjoying all the American church proclaims and our nation permits  – remember those who suffer. Pray for them, and their oppressors. God help us all to believe the Christ in Christmas!  

AP Photo: Targeting Children

Decking the Hall

All around me – lights beaming, gaily decorating trees and buildings; familiar carols resounding on the public radio station; reconnecting with family and friends – the Winter Solstice soon upon us never fails to rev me up. 

“Fast away the old year passes . . .”

We attended a pageant celebrating Christmas, hosted by the tutorial overseeing our grandchildren’s schooling. Children’s sweet faces and voices, their earnest performances – expressing the hope and joy of the season: God so loved us He gave us His Son.   

But, like so many Christmases past, the brilliance of the season, both secular and sacred, contrasts with the dark reality of disease, despair and depravity. MS and cancer haven’t taken the holiday off – nor has the anger and dysfunction, disrupting too many families disappeared just because it’s Christmas. 

Life hurts!

And if the pain of living were not enough, a few people have figured out how to silence those who object to their conduct, which defies God. Folks, all for whom that Baby came, whose political correctness reacts and punishes a Christian’s comment on the obvious, do nothing when their government rewards itself at the expense of those who fought to protect its citizens. (Are We That Cruel?) All the lights of the season do not seem to illuminate our minds to see how dark the darkness is. (The Culture of Death, continued)

Bah-Hug!  

Making sense of suffering, I can’t, apart from the hope that an infinite personal God chose to involve Himself in the world and lives of all He created.

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidian mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood they’ve shed, that it will make it not only  possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened. (Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, chapter 34. Cited by Tim Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, page 154.) 

Morning Has Broken

Christmas in Annapolis

We don’t have a live tree this year – or even an artificial one; nor do we have any decorations in the little apartment we have rented for the Holidays. But its location fills our hearts and minds with memories far brighter and more reflective than lights and ornaments could prompt.

We are in the top floor of what was once a carriage house for a Georgian mansion, Acton. It is within hailing distance of the homes in which we raised our kids, on Conduit Street and Southgate Avenue.  How many times did we hurry through these streets, taking too much for granted the ambience and wonder that bolls over the many tourists crowding its narrow streets. 

Wonderful as Dallas is – its Mac-mansions, placed side-by-side with Annapolis’ bevy of Georgian beauties, don’t take my breath away the way the Hammond Harwood House or the Paca House and Garden does.  Nor can any of the astoundingly lavish Christmas lights for which Park Cities’ residents are famous outshine the memories of the annual Christmas parties at the Chase Lloyd house, or the candlelight tours of the Hammond Harwood House, in which I was also a docent, before the most wonderful kids ever changed forever how Doug and I “did” Christmas! 

No – our abodes were not like these mansions – but living in their proximity, and being a tour guide in the early days of Three Centuries Tours sure gave me a sense of “ownership.”  Distance and time have not dissipated that sense, nor the gratitude I have for all that God enabled when I remember. And no decorations could make this Christmas merrier! 

So, what fills me up right now are all those memories of preparing for and enjoying so many Annapolis (and Severna Park) Christmases, especially with our kids, and now with their spouses and kids. It doesn’t get more splendidly festive than this!  

·      One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.  ~Andy Rooney

·      Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.  ~Eric Sevareid

Reviewing My "Gift" List

The sun is doing its thing this morning – toasting up the frigid air, even making ice-dead fall leaves sparkle.  It’s as if Friday’s icy storm plastered all the leaves in place, defying them to fall. Tree limbs, however, crashed down – all sizes and shape-- their ugly debris so stark in the warming morning light. I avert my eyes, and stare at the wordless evangelist across the street, bathing my heart in the familiar strains of Christmas carols . . . anticipating delights too soon over. Thankfully, the garbage men pull up, and carry off the debris – reminding me the hope of this season is Christ can and will make something of ice and storm damaged relationships and circumstances, but He expects me to get off my high horse before I fall!  

The Wordless Evangelist 

Wishing not to be overly metaphorical – but unable to resist, the morning’s message makes me think about family, friends – even acquaintances -- with whom connections are frozen, or broken. Some, I know I could [help] repair; some, it will require a power much greater than myself to warm things up. And too many are gone because death snapped the relationships as decisively as the weight of ice overwhelms the trees’ branches.

Life’s too short, a wise person, or two, observed, to put up with brokenness, especially if I can do something about it. If there is a grudge I can let go of, let me put it down. If there is a grievance – let me screw up the courage to go to that soul who unwittingly, or wittingly, upset me. 

Love prospers when a fault is forgiven,
 but dwelling on it separates close friends.

A single rebuke does more for a person of understanding
    than a hundred lashes on the back of a fool. (Proverbs 17:9-10)

And may I have the grace and good sense to hear a rebuke that must needs come my way! When I am wrong, being prompt to admit it, is a segue to sanity. 

 Anyone who loves to quarrel loves sin;
 anyone who trusts in high walls invites disaster. (Proverbs17: 19)

So, I rereading Proverbs 17 as an early Christmas present to myself, and those I love. Maybe it could bless you, too, Gentle Reader?

·      Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it. ~Author Unknown

·      A relationship becomes easier when you realize that you don't have to be the one at fault to be the one who's sorry.  ~ Robert Brault

·      A stiff apology is a second insult.... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.  ~G.K. Chesterton

Anticipation

Winter weather threats of sleet, or snow in Dallas kept the weathermen worried, and they had non-stop advisories for the past several days; forecasts were grim – freezing stuff would arrive by Thursday evening. No, the stuff will be here Friday morning; well, maybe not until Saturday evening.  Better prepare, the rain and freezing slush will affect churchgoers Sunday morning! Oops, we meant Sunday night. Or, Maybe Monday will be the day of bad weather. Oh, wait: temperatures are rising and the sun should appear this afternoon.

Oh! Sun’s out!

I am exhausted, worrying about being house bound and out of power because that’s what freezing rain and snow can do in Dallas.  

Anticipation can wear a girl out.

Then, a friend asked if I realized, that this time next month, Christmas would be in full swing.

Well, of course I knew December 25 was coming . . . just not so soon.

Christmas – the celebration by His followers of the conviction and hope that God entered human history, born of a virgin, to die in our place, paying the cost of all our sins, so we might love life without fear of disaster, disease or death. (Help Thou my unbelief!)  Unfortunately this toxic trio is still at it --  sowing seeds of apprehension deep within me, reminding me of Carly Simon’s lament -

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I'm really with you now
Or just chasing after some finer day. Anticipation

Anticipation can wear a girl out.

But, this year I welcome it, even tough I am unprepared.   Like those non-stop weather advisories, the lights around Dallas are starting to twinkle – the stores filled with holiday hoopla urge me to be ready – buy one more thing: something big is coming!  But now, anticipation need not wear this old girl out.

As my own expiration date looms closer, as news of the world presses in, as some dear  folks I know are deeply hurting, today I cranked up the Christmas music -- especially the great processional we sing the first Sunday in Advent:

. . . O come, Thou Rod of Jesse's stem,

from ev'ry foe deliver them

that trust Thy mighty power to save,

and give them vict'ry o'er the grave ... (words: O Come, O Come Emanuel)

Anticipation . . .  

Welcome to the world’s celebration of “Christmas!” Many may miss its warning and wonder – preferring the lights, the music, the “magic . . .” (I may miss it too if I don’t get it together!) But right now, for you gentle reader, here’s the best advisory I can offer: 

For unto to us a child is born . . . Isaiah 9

 Sing with me! And see if this doesn’t remedy your holiday anxieties!

“Christ is the foundation but the well is deep, and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be refreshed by it.” (A quote from Richard Baxter, cited in A Book of Days for Christians by Richardson Wright, November 25)

Doomsday?

So, the Mayans’ prognostication didn't happen – yet. Some cartoons have been funny, especially the one that relates the Mayan calendar to an Oreo.  The Mayan Doomsday Calendar may seem like many ancient superstitions, we readily ignore – But as I fell asleep the other night, I wondered: Okay, what if . . .

Every human, the Bible says, bears the image of God, including the ancient Mayans. Their dread may have been evidence of His imprint.   Solomon saw this:

 Yet, God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

I believe every human heart knows something bigger and smarter has been at work, and we are torn between wanting to rule and being governed. Our restless hearts seek a resting place; we long for peace. But we resist God’s offer, preferring our own way; and are shocked when He, who is a Person, reacts. (Isaiah 65 )

Scripture never says explicitly when – or how God will sort things out. But we know from the Bible it has begun – with Christ’s coming, His death and His Resurrection and Ascension.  And we know God’s people are not exempt from the consequences and pain with which His plan comes.

Are the natural disasters like Sandy or the 2004 tsunami, or the massacre at Newtown, Connecticut, or the personal tragedies and stumbling blocks we encounter daily, God’s sorting our of His people and this world?  

I don’t know.

But, I believe that the tribulations we are enduring in America and in all the other nations are like persistent ringing bells: Alarming to many, annoying others, but sweet to some.   

Bells are a symbol of the Christmas holidays – church bells tolling, calling people to worship, and announcing a day celebrating Christ’s birth. But fewer Americans hear them; some Christians ignore them, or misunderstand their melody.

 . . .  Rather than declaring the suffering of their neighbors to be deserved, [Christians] should work and pray for the common good. (Peter Wehner)

I hear those bells,

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men." (I Heard the Bells on Christmas Morn)

Mr. Longfellow and I may have our differences, but he was right about this: God isn’t dead or asleep. He is appealing now – showing modern types like us how Mayans feared destruction, and repeatedly He is showing the way through and from despair, disappointment and destruction.  (John 14:6 )

I believe God will arise and renew this world; He will not destroy it.  He will punish wrongdoers, and preserve those who are sheltered under His wings – those who freely chose to be chosen. (See the prophet Zephaniah )  And I believe He is at work now, too, doing things, permitting things to get everybody’s attention – to call us to, or back into a right relationship with Him.

 And I ask for ears to hear and a heart that responds to message given the shepherds long ago for both thee and me dear reader.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

(Luke 2 )  

Image source 

TMI

I created a problem on my humble blog when I figured out how to upload pictures from my camera and change the background on the header. For all my fiddling, trying to make the blog appealing, I made it too large for the memory of other people’s computers and e-readers.

 I returned to the simplest version the hosting site offered: “Dynamic.” 

Dynamic comes from a Greek word meaning power – and power is a word that means a transfer of energy in physics, or the ability to influence people’s behavior.  And the design that the hosts put together conveys ideas more quickly than the former blog because its display is simple and pictures on the list of blog entries are easier to read. Less verbiage to wade through – it's like I went from an 80’s mindset to almost the second decade in the new millennium. 

Twelve years ago, awaiting the year 2000, btw, I was wondering if the sky would fall when all the computers in the world crashed as the New Year dawned. Many of our friends were making serious plans for huge outages, shortages, and other problems springing from being too dependent on grocery stores, ATMs and cars. Even now, describing the craziness is too much information, so, I offer links: The Problem  and The Panic.

By the end of 1999, we realized we had missed the chance to stockpile, harvest wheat we never planted, to grind into flour for bread we would never bake in the solar powered ovens we never built. So, we went to the Red Cross Website and followed their instructions – a handy reference for any who live in the path of hurricanes or tornadoes. (Y-2K Checklist)

We  set aside a two weeks supply of soup, bread, bottled water and toilet paper; we bought an alcohol-fired cook-top, batteries, and hand-cranked radio. We filled up our gas tanks and also bought two 50-gallon plastic drums, and filled them for flushing and washing. If the worst happened, we would have avoided being part of the problem for maybe a week or ten days – and perhaps we could have helped others a little. 

What made News Year Eve that year tough was our son was overseas, and daughter was at a party. News came that Australia made it – then India and finally Great Britain survived. When we stepped outside to greet the New Year, the year before the third millennium, we breathed deeply and were never so glad to see Christmas lights as we were on that new morning!  (Explanation)

The problems Y-2K posed seem small compared to the threats we still face.  The run up to Y2K’s problems though may have equipped Wall Street to rebound after 9/11/01.

·      What have we learned in the past twelve years that could help us cope with storms like Katrina and Sandy?

·      How have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made a difference in us who are stateside?

·      Has our thinking about debt and deficient spending changed so that we could manage in a major financial crash?

·      Have we thought about the fact that death follows hard on the heels of disasters and outbreaks of diseases?

My friend, Lucy Higginbotham, writing for the White Rock Lake Weekly described what to do in the first few hours of a crisis – like a huge storm: Like your own funeral, the time to plan for an emergency is not after the fact, but before, she said.  

Three things are critical: first, we must be equipped to care for ourselves and/or those in our households. Second, we must know our neighbors, determine their needs and their resources and have a plan to address both. Third, wanting to help is good, but knowing how to help in a way that does not endanger you or others is best.  (White Rock Lake Weekly – November 12, 2012)

Before the unexpected happens – whether wars, or rumors of wars, weird weather, (like a gigantic tornado in Italy!) or illness, betrayal, or disappointment, plan now: 

·      Rejoice in your portion.  ~The Talmud

·      Beware the barrenness of a busy life.  ~Socrates

·      Eliminate physical clutter.  More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter.  ~Terri Guillemets (The Quotegarden)

And don’t let what you think about Christmas past wreck what might be a fresh understanding of the season we are about to observe, both Christians, or “None’s.” 

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

(Isaiah 9:6)

That’s not too much information, is it?

Turning a New Leaf . . . What Potential?

January 1, 2012 – Dallas

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. 

Edith Lovejoy Pierce, an English poet whose life and work has been condensed on the Internet with this one quote, is a kindred spirit. Her sketch of New Year’s Day is how I feel starting a new journal -- and I am about to begin the twenty-fifth year of journaling. This year could be a big change again (Opportunity) perhaps like the 1^st of January 2005  was: a time of an unforeseen relocation, and uprooting. 

I’ve selected this year a small yellow leather calendar diary – a “desk journal” -- that will accompany me everywhere.  Its part is to remind me of the years, months, and days and keep track of all I hope to do. It will be  a companion when I wait alone in restaurants for friends; an aide memoire to what I am learning – and with its world maps, a concise tutor showing me how slight I am on this wonder-full planet!  Seven years ago, I began using these elegant little volumes, replacing the colorful spiral-bound notebooks that had been my companions. Whether spiral or leather bond, the first page – crisp and unstained with coffee, tears, or sly squiggles made by my children or grandchildren, each promised a fresh start.  

The birds are molting. If only man could molt also -- his mind once a year its errors, his heart once a year its useless passions. - James Allen (British philosophical thinker, author of As a Man Thinketh.) 

Maybe that’s the reason for resolutions?

I start 2012 with no resolutions – Oscar Wilde described them as checks “that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” But I start with a few regrets – as some once kvetched: “It wouldn’t be New Year’s Day with no regrets!” The journals remind me – when I write honestly – how my regrets are better goads to good judgment than highfalutin promises!  

But today, as of now, no scribbling accuses me.    Today, I feel as Harold Acton, a British author in mid -20^th century wryly observed:   

So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. 

The sheer beauty of this day in Dallas – brimming with sparkly sunshine and cool air – fills the senses with hope. The trees, now leaf-less, don’t seem barren, as they might seem on a gray chilly day. (Vivaldi’s WINTER ) No, they seem like a mom in the early stages of pregnancy – shyly announcing a time when new LIFE will delight and enchant, driving away despair and worry that the news of this day foretells -- coming economic woes, political and religious battles; plus the knowledge that friends are coping with unexpected stuff. 

Today, the glass is half full! A day of small beginnings is nothing to despise! (Zechariah 4:10 )

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room-by-room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives . . . not looking for flaws, but for potential.  ~Ellen Goodman   

The HOPE of potential!

Oh – the amaryllis survived our separation – and has yet to bloom – Maybe another week before the natural Christmas decoration will come forth?

  So, dear reader -- May all [our] troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions! ~Joey Adams – comedian. And may the memory of God's gift in Christ be a comfort and help -- much more than any journal could be -- and as fresh and lovely as the amaryllis promises to be.