TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON, MERRY CHRISTMAS...

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...a time to heal...a time to laugh...a time to dance...a time to embrace...a time to keep silence...a time to speak...a time to love...a time of peace..."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

The past 14 months have taken quite a toll on me in many ways and there is so much I could but won't say about this passage of time other than it was a season of turbulence and it has come to pass.  I have entered into a new season.  While the physical world outside my window lies fallow in its drab bare bones winter chill I have entered a season more akin to spring, blooming and joyful, a time of healing.  While I have been absent online I have been, am being, fully present just living.

I've taken time to laugh...one little grand dressed in a glittery costume sprinkled me with magic "pixie nuts" so I could fly and made me giggle.  Another grand pronounced me "so old school" and cracked me up.  The Handy Hubs and I fell into a fit of laughter that rolled in waves until we lost our breaths and our eyes watered, it began again every time we looked at one another.

I've taken time to dance...the tiniest grand adores music and does this little circle spin wiggle clap giggle in time to the tune.  We have adopted it as a family thing and it is amazing fun to have old and young alike circle spin wiggle clap and giggle together.  

I've taken time to embrace...mostly I have embraced my family spending lots of time with them, gathering them back home in my nest and smothering them with mothering love.  Little celebrations of nothingness just family, food, fun, conversation, laughter, and heart sharing, those things that really matter.

I've taken a time of silence...especially here online and mostly in my heart.  I have needed this time of withdrawal as part of reestablishing my life and creating a new pattern that fits new circumstances.  A lot of things felt like pressure to me and I had to assess what was most needful to direct my time and attention to.  I have embraced this time of silence to think, feel, pray, and process.  It has been my wintertime season of laying fallow like a farmers field.  It felt as if I had emotionally been plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a growing period in order to restore my productiveness.

I am now taking time to speak...to hopefully encourage you all that there are seasons of strife in life but they are just that, seasons, they do pass.

I am taking time to love...loving my family and friends by making them a high priority right now.  Loving my faith that keeps me afloat.  Loving my home back to its former state by cleaning and  sprucing.  Loving this Christmastide with its physical shine of tinsel and glow. Mostly I am loving the heart glow I get from a tiny little baby in a manger full of hay, born in a stable long ago on Christmas day.

I am taking time to enjoy the gift of peace...a peaceful mind of knowing I now have a great team of caregivers to help share the care of my mother.  Peaceful emotions reign now that situations and circumstances have settled themselves.  A peaceful heart that rests in the hands of Him who can handle burdens bigger than I can even imagine.  A peace of knowledge that rests in the truth that to everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under the heaven...

I wish you all the most blessed Christmas and happiest of New Year's.

blessings,

Sandy

P.S.  I will catch back up with you in the New Year!