December 24th, 2009
That we can catch our breath
“…And this is how I see you / in the snow on Christmas morning / love and happiness surround you / as you throw your arms up to the sky / I keep this moment by and by”
—Sarah McLachlan
“Each winter as the year grows older / we each grow older too / the chill sets in a little colder / the verities we knew / seem shaken and untrue // …Yet I believe beyond believing / that life can spring from death / that growth can flower from our grieving / that we can catch our breath / and turn transfixed by faith”
—William and Annabeth Gay
“And all around / reminders of you / are everywhere I go…”
Ahh, the Christmas Eve update. Even as lxforever seems to falter, you can always (almost always?) count on the C-mas Eve update, circa 1998. Yes!
I write this one from bed in my old room in Madison. Jeff is next to me playing Zelda on the DS (that DS is pretty sweet, I must admit), my Dad’s snoring away I’m sure, my Mom is still in the kitchen putting together some food while Jenny keeps her company watching Bing Crosby. We just finished a marathon session of games—almost five hours, maybe?—that started with BS/I Doubt It and ended with massive old-school Trivial Pursuit madness. Sometimes I really can’t believe how much fun I have with my family. We just couldn’t stop laughing.
There’s more I could write or want to say than what I will, but some of this stuff just isn’t suited for random publication any longer. Ha! But I think the two quotes above kind of do it for me, and not just in the obvious ways. You know it’s been a little bit of a rough kind of a year, and not the one I was expecting in some ways, but everywhere I go I’m so grateful—so lucky—for what and WHO I have, or have had—either way. Thank you.
So here’s to a most wonderful Christmas eve and day, with loved ones or with thoughts of loved ones (LeRoy for many of us Masons, I’m sure) …however you can swing it, wherever they may be. And to those lacking this fortune of sorts, that things may turn around soon. I’m cozy and well-fed, laying here listening to the wind wail outside while my dear love turns to me and says that there’s nowhere else he’d rather be right now—just as long as he’s with me. Pretty much the best. Good night.
“Yet I believe beyond believing / that life can spring from death / that growth can flower from our grieving / that we can catch our breath / and turn transfixed by faith.”