Holiday thoughts

The various holidays during December are often a cause of reflection. Christmas, with its message of peace and hope is especially enticing. One of my favorite carols is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I love the ending, "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep for wrong shall fail, the right prevail...." It is sadly ironic that this Christmas is such a time of mourning in our country. At a time of love and hope, we are seeing much hatred and despair.

However, in spite of the sadness in the news, there are still many wonderful people. I have seen many here in Prescott who are doing quiet, little things to make the holiday happier for those around them. Many contribute to so many different worthy causes, all of which make a difference in our little community. The blessings that come from giving are certainly overwhelming.

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, my thoughts become introspective. Have I accomplished my goals for the year? What goals do I want to set for the next year? It provides a sort of report card on my personal progress.

So, how do I see this year? I retired and started writing instead. That has been a true labor of love. Much of the time that I used to spend reading is now spent writing instead. I accepted a new responsibility at church. It is certainly a major change to go from watching over the toddlers to watching over all the adult women. The challenges are different but the rewards are actually similar. I am grateful for the new relationships formed from this change and ache for the difficulties I now see so often. Retirement allows us to visit our extended family far more often. I love that we are seeing all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren so much more. If it weren't for retirement, we probably would not have seen all the football playoffs and championship for our grandson. Retirement has also enabled me to spend more time studying, both for the writing and for my own growth. That has been challenging and fun.

There are still the usual goals not accomplished, including actually becoming less of a clutterer. I set that goal every year. I have made progress in some areas, but one look at my office will tell you that there is still far to go. That will have to remain on the list, I fear. Age has a way of tackling muscular strength, so the fitness goals will have to have more focus on weight training. I think about it but don't do it often enough. That needs to become more regular.

We had a lesson on the Second Coming which caused me to think about what I want to see in the future and what I can do to bring that to pass. My ongoing goal in that space is to continue to increase the unity and support within our women's group at church. I see them as wonderful women with so much to contribute to one another and so much to teach one another. The hard thing is knowing how to help them to do so. I think all people of good will, Christian and not, help raise the level of love and goodness in the world. I am grateful they are willing to do so.

So, Happy/Merry whatever you celebrate, if you do celebrate at this time of year. I love the promise of a Happy New Year, and hope that 2015 brings you joy. 

Advent

The beginning of the Christmas season, Advent, brings a variety of thoughts and memories. I remember holidays of my childhood, those when my daughter was born, and the fun of holidays with grandchildren. The thought that comes foremost, though, is that first Christmas and why we celebrate.

Some celebrate because it is a fun holiday. Most of the Hallmark Christmas movies showcase the tender feelings Christmas brings in our hearts as we reach out in love to one another. This is a great result of the holiday. This can be an important part of the season whether or not one is a believing Christian. As with Scrooge, one he truly understood, it helps us enlarge our hearts in love. This kind of love is an action verb.

Some celebrate because they are commemorating the birth of the Savior of the world, He who came to redeem us all. Our Church has released a video recreation of his birth. It is a good reminder of the reason for the season. For believing Christians, or casual believers, there is an important element that also contains gratitude that God sent His Son to redeem the world. He is the greatest gift ever given.

Just like at New Years' Day, Advent causes me to reflect. I look back on the past year, my progress or lack thereof on my various goals, and I recommit to the various self-improvement plans I practice. I see my personal growth toward a more Christ-like character as my gift to the Savior on His birthday. When I was a child, this was my attempt to be good so Santa would bring me gifts. Now, I realize I already have the gifts and it is important to me to show my gratitude. Advent gives me a jump start on my next year's resolutions and help me come to closure on the current year.

This Christmas, as I send out cards, decorate, listen to the music, enjoy the movies (they all make me cry),read my Christmas books and stories, I will also re-read the Christmas story in Luke and give thanks that I can celebrate Christmas in a country that allows me to believe and practice my faith. To all my friends, I wish a very Merry Christmas. If you celebrate one of the other yuletide holidays, I hope that is a fun and happy celebration as well. 

Once in a lifetime

There are many special events that occur "once in a lifetime." The obvious ones are ones we try to remember and treasure. But there are smaller ones happening almost every day. We need to remember to be grateful for both.

On the larger event front, we are celebrating the Division 1A Championship for the Moapa Valley High School Pirates 9 (see this links for article recapping the game or this video recap. We made the drive to watch each of the play off games because we knew we would not have a chance like this again. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. For us, it is great that Moapa won and our grandson had a chance to participate and make a positive contribution.

Our lives are full of once in a lifetime opportunities, though, and we missed one because we had to choose. During the semi-final game, our stake at church participated in the Phoenix Temple dedication cultural celebration. Youth we know danced with all their might while we were driving home from a football game. We chose our immediate family over our church family, because, after all, family is the most important. There are often choices like that to be made. 

We have missed attending important family events in the past, such as a granddaughter's baptism, a graduation and baby blessing, because of work obligations. We are happy that we are now in a situation where family can have the priority over work. Along with the aches and pains of getting older, there are some blessings such as family. (Also, senior discounts).

Other once in a lifetime events are baby blessings, a first step, recitals, graduations, ordinations, baptisms, weddings, etc. With the wonders of technology, we can stay in touch and develop relationships with family members who do not live nearby. That was much harder when I was raising my daughter. I am grateful Facebook lets us share and record these events.

Our lives are filled with blessings that are truly once in a lifetime. Other blessings occur each day, but these too can be appreciated for the wonders and miracles they are. That paper for school, the talk in church, successfully learning to ride a bike, mastering a gymnastics or cheer move, all of these are miracles to celebrate. Every holiday is a once in a lifetime event. Let us never forget to celebrate the daily miracles in our lives by noting them and giving thanks.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.


 

Life gets so busy

Life always seems to be so busy. When I was a child, there was always something more to do. I never managed to accomplish everything I wanted to do. One summer, after I got the reading bug, I read all the chapter books in the local library children's section. Some I liked and reread. Most were not particularly memorable and I ignored them. (This worried my parents so much that we went to summer camp every summer after this one.) This was not quite all I did that summer as I rode my bike to the library every day. At least I got some exercise, although my eyes were quite blurry by the end of each day with so much reading. This actually helped the term I took three history courses in college. That was a lot of reading every day.

As I grew older, other things were added to my days. Piano lessons, dance lessons, practicing, and eventually school sports all took a fair amount of time on top of the homework assignments.

Some people think things will ease off after they get out of school, but that really never happens. If you are truly living your life, there are always activities. Some of these are social. Some are family. Some relate to work. Some are for recreation. It is easy to over-schedule ourselves and our families. If we make informed choices, the busyness is manageable.

I read a number of blogs that help me keep my focus on simplifying the busyness in my life. I have cut back on some recreational choices so as to free up time for family choices. Right now, we are in a stage in life where we want to participate as grandparents. When we were both working, that was difficult. We often had to sacrifice grandparent responsibilities to work requirements. Now, we have fewer conflicts of that sort. I am grateful that I have more choice about which family activities I can join than I had when I was working full time. I look forward to this new season in our lives.

If you find too many sacrifices required, perhaps you need to assess what you are committing to that creates these conflicts. At times, we have few choices. At others, we have many more options. We can always choose, we just cannot always choose the consequences of those choices. I am grateful for the current options I have around me that allow me to choose the family more often.

Gratitude for a multiplicy of blessings

November is a time of year when we are reminded of all the wonderful blessings in our lives as we prepare for Thanksgiving. It seems a particularly appropriate time to say thank you.

I have a wonderful extended family. I am grateful for the opportunity to be Facebook friends with many of them. This allows me to have more awareness of their lives than I otherwise would have since we no longer near one another. I have relatives that have been there for me when I needed a kind word. They are caring, loving people.

My daughter is married to a helpful man who is actively engaged in the raising of their children. It is always fun (and chaotic) to visit them or have them visit us. The family is full of sweet, loving children.

When I married the Pro, I inherited step-children and step-grandchildren. They have now added step-great-grandchildren. They are all wonderful people. Trish, the Pro's first wife, was obviously a caring, loving Mom. Since she is no longer around, having passed on many years ago, I feel I am proxy for her to ensure that her family gets a loving grandma/mom figure from that side of the family. While there are other grandparents/great-grandparents as well, these wonderful people deserve as much love as I can give. They have welcomed me as a family member and given me a great deal of love which I want to return.

With us retiring this year, we have more opportunity to visit the little ones in our family. Grandparenting is fun since you get the littles only in small doses. However, it is a true blessing to see how loving all of our little families are. The parents all love each other and it shows. They all love their kids, and that shows too. We are grateful for their love.

We live in a beautiful part of the world. The views are spectacular, the weather pretty nice 10 months of the year, and the small-town atmosphere fun. We are blessed with a fairly comfortable life style, fairly good health, and (for the most part), fairly sound minds. We have many opportunities to serve and contribute to the community. We have many friends and acquaintances.

Although there are many things to dislike in the world, there are many more for which to be grateful. At this season of thanks, I choose to focus on those, and to turn my back on the others. Thank you for being a part of my world.