Paul's Day

 Today is my eldest son’s birthday.  Paul was born in “Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.”  I was a junior in college and we were living in a 35 x 8-foot trailer on the college campus.  Paul’s first bedroom was a wardrobe closet in that trailer where the “porta-crib” just barely fit. 

“Swiftly flow the days…One season following another…”.   

Henri J.M. Nouwen wrote:  Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: “Thank you for being you.” Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.” No, we say: “Thank you for being born and being among us.”

On birthdays we celebrate the present. We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen, but we lift someone up and let everyone say: “We love you.”

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

 

January 4, 2024

Christmas is more than a day!  Christmas is a season—twelve days—not one!  Thus, my Christmas greeting cannot be considered late!  

I want to share what Christmas—at least the first eleven days of the season—had to say to me in my eightieth year of life.

I’ve come to know in a whole new way that Jesus is in both the light and the darkness.  The world, since that first Christmas, is a world walking in darkness and seeking the light.  Every Christmas we are reminded of how dark it is…and every Christmas we hear again the good news that the Light has come and “the darkness has not overcome it”!  

I’ve had a deep sense of Emmanuel (God is with us) this Christmas.  God has come to walk with us, to keep us company, to guide us along every road of our journey.  I sense this in a way never experienced before.

Every Christmas we are given the “renewed invitation not to be afraid and to let him—whose love is greater than our own hearts and minds can comprehend—be our companion (Henri Nouwen).”

Christmas is not just about a personal sojourn with Jesus.  Christmas is also about transforming the world with the power of love.  That is our task.

I hope your Christmas has been meaningful and life-giving.  The work of Christmas, as Howard Thurman reminds us, has just begun.  

The First Day of Advent

 

My New Year 2024 begins today—the First Sunday of Advent.  I will light the first candle on the Advent wreath this evening. With the lighting that candle I will begin to prepare myself for the Christmas Promise—that Christ might be born in the Bethlehem of my heart in some new way.

Advent is the beginning of my new year, because….

Advent is a very special time... a time of promise

     it is a time of preparation for the new about to happen

     it is a time of new beginnings

Advent is a time of expectancy...a time of happenings  

    annunciations are heard if ears are opened   

    dreams are dreamed and guidance given

Advent is a time of giving birth to God

     we carry God around with us and do not know it 

      it is a time for a new birth within.  

Advent is a time of waiting, waiting

     for mountains to be brought down; hills to be brought low

     for valleys to be lifted up; crooked places to be made straight

 Advent is a time of moving...a time of transition

     it is not a movement backward, but forward  

     it is moving me, you, and the world to a place it has never been

Advent is about newness...a time for the "New Things"

     it is a season of receptivity and openness

     it is a time of new vulnerability for me, for you, for God 

Advent announces a Way...a time of new dreams

   it is a time to sing our own song, dance our own dance

   it is a time of searching and for finding

Advent is all of the above...it is kairos time

   it is a good time to start anew, to begin again.

   Advent is the time to follow your star. 

         

      

A Smooth Return

We are home after our jaunt across the pond and our 9-day visit in Howden in the United Kingdom.  We had a wonderful time visiting Katie, Liam and my two great granddaughters:  Elodie and Rosalie. There were no delays, no re-bookings, and no change in  flight schedules on our return trip.  We left Manchester yesterday at noon, arrived in Atlanta, passed through customs, and caught our flight to Philadelphia without a single glitch.  My faithful friends, Adam and Sheila, were there to pick us up and drive us home.  We arrived at 11 PM and were greeted by a sign in the kitchen (and a full fridge) welcoming our safe return.  It was a long, long day for us!  John at 83, and "yours truly" at 80, managed just fine even though we were both suffering from some kind of flu or cold bug.  

We weren't as spry this trip as we were on the last one in November 2022, but we DID IT, HANDLED IT, and ENJOYED IT!  Why, we might even go on a cruise together in early 2024!  Just want you to know...no one of us is ever too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream, or to venture into new territory.  These can be DONE, and HANDLED, and ENJOYED!

The End of A ‘Oliday

We’ve had a lovely Holiday (vacation) in the village of Howden in East Yorkshire.  Now it is time to say “goodbye” to the United Kingdom and return to our homeland.  Katie, Liam, Elodie and Rosalie came to our “Oliday Ome” for lunch today.  (My great granddaughter has a Yorkshire accent and drops the “H” in “Holiday Home.”)  We said “goodbye” to all except Liam, who will drive us to Manchester tomorrow.  Goodbyes are never easy.  Is it even possible for a 3-year old little girl to understand such a concept as “goodbye?”  Of course, it isn’t!  Why, I confess that even I, an 80-year old, find it hard to grasp the concept. 

Words and phrases evolve over the years and take on new meaning.  In the 13th century, the word “nice” meant “silly, or “ignorant.”  The word “egregious” now means “really bad,” but use to mean “remarkably good.”  The word “goodbye” was first used in a 1573 letter written by an English scholar:  “To requite your gallonde (gallon) of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes.”  “Godbwye” is a contraction for “God be with ye.”  What does it mean to say:  “God be with thee?”  God be with thee, Katie, Liam, Elodie and Rosalie!  God be with thee United Kingdom!

This Imperfect World..

Not everything works perfectly at home or away from home.  We started our UK holiday with flight delays and cancellations.  We ended up in London instead of Manchester.  But, Liam was there waiting for us, driving us a long distance in the rain to our AirBnB, which was all set for our arrival.  Some things work.  Some things do not.  In an imperfect world there is no guarantee for things to go right—and there is no guarantee for things to go wrong.  There is no guarantee for anything at all.  The sun has been shining 80 percent of our time in Howden; rain has been minimal.  That’s good!  The temperature has been in the mid-60-degrees almost every day.  That’s good!   We’ve had a wonderful time with family—no hiccups.  That’s good!  You see, even in an imperfect world, with no guarantees, there is a certain joy in being “alive” in it!  In such an imperfect world, I fit in perfectly!

The Special Day Has Arrived

Katie and I were talking on the phone back in February.  She told me Elodie was wondering why her Grandad did not pick her up after school.  That was the moment I decided to make this present trip back to England—for the sole purpose of being available to pick Elodie up from school.  Today that is going to happen!

Immediately after that February telephone call with Katie, I called my brother to see if he might want to travel with me again.  He called back the next morning saying “Yes!”  And here we are!  TODAY I will pick Elodie up from school.

Photos of my great grandchildren are not posted on social media.  Last year, however, I posted a photo of Elodie’s “little Red Shoes.”  I do so again, because those little Red Shoes speak volumes… 

“In fact, the red shoes are never tired.  They dance her out into the street, they acne hr over the mountains and valleys, through fields and forests, through night and day.  Time rushes by, love rushes by, life rushes by, but the red shoes go on…”