My family is back home, and then yes it is home again. Smiles, and little baby feet, my wife’s warm hugs and the feeling that we are all together is something I am deeply grateful for. A warm house, a wonderful job, and yes, the rain. It was a nice day! Maybe it is the Sarah McLaughlin music playing in the background, or maybe it is simply that with becoming a dad has come a sense of purpose, a new perspective on the beauty in simple things, people say that is what parents get as their gift, and it is true. Being a dad slows you down, you learn to walk, you learn to enjoy a moment of peace. You get to watch as your daughter, or son grows each day, learning new words, new habits (sometimes bad) and that becomes purpose, that becomes such joy. I am aware that the weather outside is frightful, I am aware that people are losing their homes, their jobs, their sense of security. I am aware that overseas there is war, and famine and things I cannot even fathom. I have stopped trying to justify these things, and have given up that nagging pain that I may be the cause by not being much of a solution. I have journeyed far in my faith, and feel this Christmas very close to God, in the sense that in all the good and bad we see and experience as humans, beneath it all is a certain grace, something very beautiful and something very peaceful. For the first time in a long time, I feel the optimism of being human, and the joy in our essential freedoms. Of course who know maybe all this goody tooshy feeling has something to do with President Elect Obama. As I said in a previous blog… HOPE!
So, today I give thanks for all my family and friends, the people who took time to send us Christmas Cards, how great a thing this is. For Layla’s wonderful grandparents, aunts and uncles, who shower her with love. And for my wife, whose warm love and gracious nature, never goes unnoticed.
And to our child for teaching me, in a simple smile that life, and stress, and finances, and mortgages, and yes even electronics, are nothing more than a grey cloud in the sky. It all passes, and left behind is the warmth of those whom truly give us love and the peace we seek. And So this IS CHRISTMAS!!
It was a nice day here in the mountain at my aunts to. We were a little impatient with each other at times, but we have her talking to Dragon Naturally Speaking, a new digital camera she can hold in her hand, a day of shopping and getting hair cuts and getting her in and out of bed, mostly just being here for her at Christmas and trying to live the Christmas spirit. I installed a DVD Read Write in her computer, cooked dinner, laughed at the way she talked to the Dragon along with a few Hot Toddies. I took the care giver back and forth to her house the last two days so my aunt could stay up late instead of going to bed at 4:30 or 5:00. I’ve been exhausted and eaten too many carbs but feel at peace for it all, knowing that only we can do God’s work on earth.
I look forward to our Christmas day together at my cousin Janet’s and then at Marilyn’s and a chance to spend time with my own family and with Layla again so she knows her granddad.
I think too that Obama becoming President gives us all hope at this Christmas season although there is so much to do and so much debt that you wonder if anything can be done without it all coming down around our heads.
But God’s love is unconditional for all of us so this is a wonderful Christmas as is every day of the year. Peace on Earth. Good will toward all.
Dad