The Afternoon of Life

The Year in Review   What a very busy year!   January was the beginning of “life coaching”.   Struggling to move from depression and grief, I joined forces with a very godly coach (Tommy Echols...thank you) to help get life back on track.   Mom’s loss the previous September pulled the rug out from under me in ways I couldn’t have imagined.   I had not realized how much she was part of me…the person I turned to for guidance…the person I turned to for sharing good news (or difficulties).   How I still miss her.   But life kept going and I needed to jump back into the fray. Sizeable checks had arrived from the inheritance my parents left.   This was not money I ever wanted…it was not money I wanted to keep.   So I gave away over half of it…to struggling family members…to friends who needed a boost to help them along their way…to a church that has faithfully cared for us through the years and to the college ministry in South Africa that had blessed me so richly several summers ago

    Today I sat with men and women who are nearing the end of their lives. They were happy men and women… They joined me and my friends singing Christmas songs and Christmas carols. It could have been my imagination…but the seemed especially engaged in the songs about Jesus… The songs about the “real” meaning of Christmas. The smiled cute smiles during the Santa songs… But they closed their eyes as if in reflection as we sang of the baby in the manger, And the angels heralding the good news.   They sang with great joy to their world…and I got to see it and hear it. And they seemed lost in a silent night of their own as we softly joined them in the hymn. It’s easy to get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas… In Santa and his elves (especially with little ones who “get it” this year for the first time). It’s easy to be disappointed because I can’t give everyone I love everything they want. But today I gave someone something they wanted… At