Christmas, 2018

 Sometimes the best inspirations come at the last minute.  I should be packing up the car and heading up to Moscow for our family’s sock gift exchange, but my morning reflection encouraged me to write down my thoughts this morning.  This is what I read from Genevieve Glen, a Benedictine nun:

                 How do you experience emptiness and expectation as your look forward to

Christmas:  How do you hope for God to fill it---friends, family, peace among 

quarrelers, or material pleasures to dull your painful longings:  How can 

you  cultivate a hope emptied or of self and ready to receive God’s gifts? 

So these are the ways my heart has been filled with hope this holy season:

Trees of Hope!  I delivered 21 trees this year to people who’ve lost a spouse or loved one, to someone facing her 27^th surgery, to a homeless woman, to a family of a nephew accused of vehicular homicide, to people struggling with a kinds of health issues.  Getting hugs and thank you notes filled some of my painful longings…

Christmas Letters!  I received a three page handwritten letter from a neighbor who serves a 40 year prison sentence for video voyeurism and sexual battery.  The Idaho prisons are full so he’s now in Texas.  His words give me hope because he admitted to feeling blessed and being grateful for the little things blessing his life.

Uplifting Emails!  My sister, Joan’s life often makes me grateful for my own.  She struggles with a grumpy boss who rarely thanks her for anything.  She lives a rather isolated life, writing daily to achieve her dream to be a famous published author.  Her Email read,  “Thank you for the unexpected gift check.  I have gotten a lot of joy from my kitchen and will put this toward a new dishwasher.  Every day I smile when I use my new microwave. Never imagined I'd have a beautiful kitchen or how much joy that would give me.  I can't believe I live in this beautiful house.”

Family Promise!  I had the privilege of providing a meal to a homeless family on Wednesday.  Jocelyn, her mother, and two children moved to Lewiston when a typhoon destroyed their home on the island of Saipan.  Her brother plays baseball for LCSC and they’d hoped to live with him.  But the landlord said “no” so she and the children now sleep in different churches every week.  Our local Red Lion Inn will house this family for the three days of Christmas this week and also over New Year’s!

Locomotive Park!  There are lots of pictures of families enjoying Locomotive Park on Face book these days.  And people or long-distant cousins recognizing the vision and dedication my brother, Larry has to this project.  People share the pictures when they realize it is one of the best light displays in the country. 

Pillowcases!   I offered to help my sister, Marilyn, make 22 pillowcases for her daughter, Karlee’s students in an impoverished school in Jefferson County, Colorado.  When Marilyn first offered to make the pillowcases Karlee said, “well that’s a great idea Mom, but most of these kids don’t even have a pillow to sleep on.  So Marilyn ordered 22 pillowcases from Target and had them delivered to the school. 

Season of Advent!  I have several publications I read every day during Advent.  The morning prayer time always brings me a sense of peace during the busy days before Christmas.  This year I shared a word for each day with my grandchildren, sending them a text with my word for the day and why I chose the word.  I know it’s a Grandma thing – a gift that costs no money or anxiety about what to buy for these beauties in my life!

Cancer!  My cousin’s daughter has a rare form of lymphoma and is currently undergoing chemo for the second time this year.  She considered herself cancer free just months ago, but now is back in the throes of cancer treatment.  Her words from her caring bridge blog gives me hope this day, “I've heard several people describe their life and journey through cancer as BC (before cancer) and AC (after cancer), terms which seem so poignant now within my own experience.  Depending on which thoughts I choose to tune into, at times I feel a deep mourning for how carefree life truly was before cancer, and yet others I am grateful to the perspective afforded on life that I know I wouldn't have been able to see before going through something so life altering.  Ahhhh....its not always comfortable but I am growing, I am breathing, and in the words of the great Jon Kabat-Zinn, I know that there is more right with me than wrong with me. Andy, the kids and I couldn't be more grateful to be wrapped in the endless, boundless love that we are surrounded by....from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for lifting us up.”  

Family Stories.  My daughter-in-law’s father, Dan McCarthy, celebrated his birthday on Christmas Day.  He wrote hundreds of editorials for the Cleveland, Ohio, diocesan newspaper and his daughter, Mary Pat, compiled several into a book, which I re-read recently.  He described a trip from the base in Boston to his hometown in Ironton, Ohio, in which he had to ride a boring train, a bus, and eventually hitchhike to his home. 

I'm delighted to be writing my own story, thanks to a gift from Dena!  I am filled with hope as I contemplate all God's gifts to me over the past 70 plus years.

 

Christmas Music!  I’ve been bemoaning to anyone who would list that I cannot play CD’s in my new car.  My brother, Larry, gave me over a dozen Christmas CD’s over the years and I’ve enjoyed listening to each one.  Today I received a small package that contained a thumb drive with all my favorite Christmas music on it.  Colin spent hours transferring these music files to a computer and then onto the thumb drive.  It’s truly a gift that opens my heart this day. 

Christmas Gifts.  Anne asked me early in December what I wanted for Christmas.  "I need nothing," I told her, "but I'd really like peace, love, harmony in the world."  She remembered my comments and Colin presented me with this ornament to hang on my tree.  He designed the image and then printed it on a small piece of foam board!   Karen gave me this precious ornament, a family picture that I can hang on my tree.

The words, "blessed" speak to me about the incredible gift my family is to me.

White Christmas Eve. I woke up, in Moscow, on Christmas Eve to the magic of snow.  The electric power had been off since 4 AM, so I sat in the dark and reflected on the beauty of the landscape covered with snow.  

Even though our news is filled with the government shut-down, the stock market falling, and other bad news I prefer to have hope, knowing that God's love surpasses all understanding this Holy Christmas Day.