Sudden Endings

It is time, but we are reluctant.

Everything must come down. The tree disappeared on Boxing Day because it was D.E.A.D. But everything else is still pretty and I don't like to see it floating back into its box. Sad.

Christmas was such fun again this year! Not just the food and the gifts, although they are a pleasure not to be scorned. It is the Celebration that brings family members from afar, giving them time to be. With days off, and no school to interfere (I was a teacher. I know.), everything is so much more relaxed. And there is time to bake! I loved it.

It seems that, with the taking down of decorations, one can see an end to the vacation - a  bit off in the distance, still, but - coming. It is a familiar feeling, well known since Christmas in first grade (there were no kindergartens, then). The almost ecstatic moment we were first released from school just before Christmas, bursting through the big school doors like a manic herd. The seemingly endless hours of play, and eating, and occasional visits to/from distant relatives. The heady feeling of running down the stairs to see what might be under the tree on Christmas morning.

And then - oh woes! - the moment on January 1st when one wakes up to realize it is all drawing to an end. School must be faced, again! Little did I know that my teachers were thinking the same exact thing I was, with the same exact sound of sighing (the only happy people seemed to be Mother and Dad..).

But it is only December 28, with simply bags of time, yet. Right? We can still fit in sessions of baking - scones, perhaps - and the particularly chummy 'talking walks' with the rather stunning son; and watching Clarence saving George in It's A Wonderful Life; and lovely boat rides with small but budding boat drivers (one in pink boots and a fairy dress), the Mallards ever watchful for a snack. 

Those lovely things are particularly inviting, and there is still time to do them.

We were reminded this morning of something that hit home, for me:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." -Hebrews 13:5


Contentment, because God never leaves. A bit different from the usual messages around this time of year, don't you think? Mr. Potter from It's A Wonderful Life could sure use that advice. And I don't mind being reminded, myself.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady