Windows of Opportunity...

Tonight is New Year’s Eve. There is a lull now between supper and the moment when company arrives here to play games until midnight and ring in 2006.

I thought that this image went well with the idea of a new year holding new possibilities and undreamed of opportunities. What will this next 365 days hold? What unexpected wonders will we discover? What chances will each of us have to be lights in other people’s lives? What stars will we reach for? What bonds of friendship, love or community will we weave with those around us?

I close this year of 2005 with the words I hope will reflect the spirit of what I take with me into 2006... that ability to look beyond the everyday.

‘To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.’

-William Blake

ADVENT FULFILLED...

The girls and I helped decorate our church for Advent this year while Nick was home with his back injury. Tonight, he and I sat and watched the girls sing with their junior choir at church and the promise of the advent season is fulfilled.

When they read the passages from Luke’s gospel, I found myself getting lost in the litany of the familiar words...

“Rejoice with exceeding great joy...”

“Fear Not! For behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people...”

Word of hope... timeless messages that speak through the centuries, steeped in tradition, wonder and glory. This is not everyone’s faith..there are many celebrating light in the darkness in other ways over the next week...

Tonight, those ancient words were new again and ignited my candle in a way that I shall carry with me all year long.

FRESH BEGINNINGS...

Today was a Storm Day and we woke up to a world of white. The backyard and deck were a perfect blanket of freshly fallen snow. Of course that didn’t last long when we turned the kids out to play with two friends from across the street. Soon there was a snow fort and tons of “footyprints” all over what had been a perfect, unblemished field of snow.

Sometimes life makes us feel like that slightly trampled backyard. Life had rumpled us and we wish that we could just make everything smooth and white and new again. Sometimes, new beginnings are as easy as the dawn of the next day. Sometimes, they require great effort on our part to make changes and forge new beginnings. Sometimes, life sweeps in like a snowstorm and makes a new beginning for us, just like today’s quote:

‘For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.”

- O’Shaugnessy

LIVING THE JOURNEY...

I woke up sobbing from a dream just minutes before our alarm went off this morning. Tangled wishes and frustrations working themselves out of my psyche I guess, dreaming of other roads not taken. It reminded me of a quote that I went looking for, oddly enough from the movie “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”. It is a great reminder that we can only live our lives in one direction and that there is no sense looking over our shoulders instead of marching bravely on.

“Live the Journey... for every destination is but a doorway to another.”

May I always be reminded to look towards the next step, the next dawn when my feet feel frozen in one spot!

PREPARING FOR THE SEASON...

Last weekend was absolute chaos. I don’t think I was home for much more than sleeping up until Sunday afternoon. Saturday night was our local Santa Claus parade and both of my girls were on their school’s float. The theme this year was Christmas Around The World and Queen Elizabeth School tried to incorporate many of our international families who have just moved to the area. Part of the display included a window painted to look like some of the store windows you see this time of year... and guess who got asked to do it?

Considering this was painted in just over an hour on my knees in a freezing cold garage, it turned out quite nice. I love how they put a light behind the window right where the moon had been painted in the sky. It made me think about the quote for this long-overdue entry.

“There are two ways of spreading light;
to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

- Edith Whorton