Monday 15 December 2014

Merry Christmas!


Nan, I love you - You're the best!
This whole 'rant' began to take form after my recent 3 a.m. TV viewing of 'It's a Wonderful Life'.  Through my bleary eyes, I watched and blubbered as the message of the tremendous ripples created by every life, unfolded and enfolded me:

I have two notes that I carry in my pocket;  one is a list with my children's names on it, the other is a little note from one of my granddaughters that reads, 'Nan, your the best'.  There is no greater compliment and nothing that warms the heart and says thank-you like those simple words - Honest words of love that come straight from an innocent heart.

 When I think that I have screwed up and wasted my time - that the efforts that I have made to try and contribute something positive to the world have been small and insignificant, I put my hand into my pocket and feel the love that emanates from those two well-worn notes, and I am reminded of what our bottom line in life should always be: growing love, in whatever directions our lives takes us.

The Advent calendar is running out, together with those yummy daily chocolates!  May I suggest that we make up a special 'pocket box' for the remainder of the season: In the days left before the celebration of the birth of Christ, let us place notes in His 'pocket' - notes that say, 'I love you - You're the best!'  and sign our names to them.  On Christmas morning, we can be sure that He will reach into His pocket, and feel those notes - notes well-worn by the love of His hands, as he has taken them out and read them every day - Better than chocolate!
 
Merry Christmas!

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Welcome Christmas!



Christmas has spread its wings and is soaring towards us - How wonderful!  It is wearing its finest garments - feathers of magnificent colours and textures; in its voice, a multitude of songs - of every note and nationality.  Love adorns its eyes as it sings in flight to meet us.   Hope fills its heart and bursts forth in hymns of peace on earth.  Let us welcome this beautiful, fragile guest with care; prepare our homes generously - put aside our dingy garbs of doubt and skepticism and dress ourselves in the beautiful love that is within us. 

 We all know the wonderful feeling of watching others opening gifts that we have given them, chosen with love; of seeing them benefiting from and using those gifts with joy and excitement!    Let us take a close look at how we have used our own gifts - those that the spirit of Christmas has given us and waits expectantly for us to open, time and again.  Have we recognized the great love that went into choosing them, or will Christmas arrive and find its gifts unopened and unappreciated, when the world is so much in need of our sharing? 

As Christmas draws close to us, it is a confidant to all of our hearts' true desires.  Let us open our hearts and trust that the unique gifts that Christmas brings to each of us are the most fantastic gifts that we have ever been given.  Let us take great joy in opening them and recognizing those riches: building blocks for hope, love and peace.   Then let us open our arms and truly welcome Christmas.