Christmas is over. After weeks preparing, planning and looking forward the day, it has come and gone. We are still eating up the turkey (turkey pizza tonight, turkey fricassee tomorrow) and catching up with all the wonderful TV we recorded, and the children are still thrilled with all their new toys - more thrilled than I am at trying to figure out where we're going to put them all.
Christmas is over. The children go back to school on 3rd January, the same day I go back to work. And then we have three months of feeling cold and wet before the first signs of spring and lighter evenings start to breathe life back into the world. It's times like this I wish I could hibernate. (Or fly to Florida for 12 weeks.)
Christmas is over. But I'm not feeling quite as deflated as usual this year. In fact, I'm feeling somewhat buoyant. Tomorrow I am going to the Temple with my best friend. The following day, our family are going to Leeds (halfway across the country from us - a four hour drive) to visit family for New Year. So there's plenty to look forward to still, and I'm excited about the new start and new opportunities and challenges 2012 will bring.
One of my favourite new songs of this season is "When the Thames Froze" by Smith & Burrows. The tune is beautiful and the poetry is unusually good for song lyrics. It includes these lines:
"Another year draws to its close
And tired London slows...
So tell everyone that there's hope in your heart
Tell everyone or it'll tear you apart
At the end of the Christmas day
When there's nothing left to say.
The years go by so fast
Let's hope the next beats the last."
Since my personal "Annus Horribilis" in 1996, each year has indeed beaten the last for me, and I do have hope in my heart that 2012 won't be the exception. The wonderful spirit of Christmas is something that those of us who know the Saviour we celebrate at that time can keep with us each day, and it does fill us with hope. So Christmas may be over, but the hope it brings us isn't.
1 comment:
So well put!
Post a Comment