Another Year

Another Year--

Seeing excitement on the faces of children and teens is all most of us need to say it was a good time-a great time.  Watching faces as gifts are unwrapped is one of the joys of life.  What is inside?  How did the giver know that this was what we wanted most?  The wonder of it all.

A year has passed since we last opened gifts together.  An entire year.  All those days, weeks and months of living.  Watching one season melt into another.  Laughing with one another over some goofy thing that was said or done.  A memory made.  Crying about a hurt or disappointment.  Vowing to learn lessons so that we don't repeat past errors.  Accepting that good and bad are the stuff of life.  It is how we deal with it all that makes us who we are.

Walking through gardens on an early spring day in anticipation of the beauty that will suddenly appear. Summer with flowers and plants full grown make us smile and remember what they looked like the year before. Not quite as large or full.  Fall arrives.  Colors fill the air.  The sun comes at us from a new angle  Blue skies seem bluer.  Everything begins the transition.  Rest.  Wait.  Refresh.  Winter brings its own beauty.  Bare tree trunks against a gray sky.  Cold winds bring shivers.  Scarves decorate necks.  And the cycle continues.

During those seasons some have experienced loss.  The kind of loss that tears at the heart and soul.  A place at the table and in the heart that will not be filled.  Memories everywhere.  Yet, just as the seasons of the earth, humans have seasons.  We are born, we grow and learn, we reach adulthood, we work, we retire, we return to that from which we came.  It is the process that we all will experience.  Some sooner than others.  Memories.

Joy arrives with babies, weddings, new jobs, new friends, something wished for gained.  Joy washes over us like beautiful snow flakes falling on a winter's night.  We see it.  We feel it.  We taste it.  It takes our breath away.  We are encouraged.  Joy has come.  We will never be quite the same.  Joy is that part of us that starts at our toes and leaps from our eyes as we enter its presence.  That thing we long for every day of our lives.

Lessons learned fill the seasons.  Learning when to move forward or when to turn away helps us enjoy a more satisfying life.  We all have choice.  There are those times when flowers planted do not grow.  Do not bloom.  Plants may be planted in the wrong spot.  Too much sun.  Too much shade.  Not enough water.  When we observe a plant or flower struggling to stay alive, we have a choice.  Either we allow it to struggle or we move it to a better location.  The same is true of life.  We may find ourselves in situations that are challenging.  What to do?  Where to go for help?  If we are to bloom and grow to our fullest, it maybe necessary to make some changes.  Easy?  No.  But then, many things in life are not easy.

Memories fill our hearts.  Remember?  Remember when we stayed up late and drank a couple of bottles of wine together?  Remember when we sat around a table and enjoyed a meal and good conversation?  Or played cards and knew the person next to us was cheating?  And we didn't care?  Remember when we took a short trip on the spur of the moment and had a marvelous time?  Remember when we looked at old photographs of our families and felt their closeness?  Remember...These are also the seasons of our lives.  We will talk about them always.  Remember the day we took that trip to Chicago on the busiest shopping day of the year?  Remember when we were stranded at an airport?  Remember when our sweet dog left us?  Hopefully, memories are mostly happy.  Happy times shared.

Now we have made the cycle once again.  We are grateful that we are still around.  Grateful that we can enjoy one more Christmas season.  One more opportunity to love on one another. To make sweet memories that will hold us through the cold winter days and nights.

Soon gifts will be opened.  Eyes will light up with joy.  Thanks will echo in rooms.  Laughter will fill the air.  Another year.  Another chance to get it right.  Another opportunity to tell someone you love them.  To fill life with love and joy. To say I am sorry and make things better. To forgive.  To seek love and peace.   Don't let it pass you by.

Merry Christmas.