We wanted to say "Merry Christmas" to everyone this quite Christmas Eve…as Sean and I sat down to dinner we reflected upon how lucky we are in this giant world (yet, at times it seems so small, doesn't it?). We are so thankful for all the people in our lives and for all those who have helped shape the people we have become…we are so thankful to have good health and the ability to think critically, make our own decisions, and live life the way we feel it should be lived. There are so many people we know here that will never have the opportunity to experience the things that we have been able to see, hear, breath, eat and read. This is a very special Christmas for us because the commercialization has been entirely eliminated and we have gotten down to the real nitty-gritty that is Christmas; reading about the birth of Jesus in the scriptures, listening to Christmas music, enjoying our time together and reflecting upon the true meaning of this wonderful Holiday – which can mean something different to everyone. Compassion, sacrifice, caring, sharing, cookies, spending time with family, feeling a special something that only comes during this time of year…
We love you all and hope that you have a magnificent Christmas this year!
I just wanted to leave you with the following that I came across during one of my many reading sessions – it puts into words some of the feelings I have during this time of year (especially if it is a white Christmas):
Fine old Christmas with the snowy hair and ruddy face had done his duty that year in the noblest fashion, and had set off his rich gifts of warmth and colour with all the heightening contrast of frost and snow.
Snow lay on the croft and river-bank in undulations softer than the limbs of infancy; it lay with the neatliest finished border on every sloping roof, making the dark-red gables stand out with a new depth of colour; it weighted heavily on the laurels and fir-trees till it fell from them with a shuddering sound; it clothe the rough turnip-field with whiteness and made the sheep look like dark blotches; the gates were all blocked up with the sloping drifts, and here and there a disregarded four-footed beast stood as if petrified 'in unrecumbent sadness;' there was no gleam, no shadow, for the heavens too were one still pale cloud – no sound or motion in anything but the dark river, that flowed and moaned like an unresting sorrow. But old Christmas smiled as he laid this cruel-seeming spell on the out-door world, for he meant to light up home with new brightness, to deepen all the richness of indoor colour, and give a keener edge of delight to the warm fragrance of food: he meant to prepare a sweet imprisonment that would strengthen the primitive fellowship of kindred, and make the sunshine of familiar human faces as welcome as the hidden day-star. His kindness fell but hardly on the homeless – fell but hardly on the homes where the hearth was not very warm, and where the food had little fragrance; where the human faces had no sunshine in them, but rather the leaden, blank-eyed gaze of unexpectant want. But the fine old season meant well; and if he has not learnt the secret how to bless men impartially, it is because his father Time, with ever unrelenting purpose, still hides that secret in his own mighty, slow-beating heart.
The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans)
Book Second – Chapter 2 The Christmas Holidays
Love and Peace to all and to all a good night…
~em & seansean
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