"Does anyone send Christmas letters anymore?"
My brother, Lester, and I were remembering when people sent long detailed recaps of their year.
Christmas letters have been replaced with social networking. Most of us stay in contact with friends all year round so we don't need to send family news.
However, my laptop beckons me. Except my plan for January 1 was to put away Christmas.
What to do? I set the timer in my kitchen. One hour putting Christmas away; one hour at the computer.
This is not a Christmas letter. It's just me exercising my deep-seated desire to put my thoughts on a screen just in case someone wants to read them.
I have often said that I would love to live in a small town and get to know its people and write their stories.
I've talked with several long-time Mandarinites. Often one interview leads to another. Bert Wasmund who had been a volunteer fireman in Mandarin years ago suggested his best friend growing up who reluctantly agreed to the interview. This man said he really didn't have much to say. I was mesmerized.
A year later that man and I are each other's best friend.
My children, my siblings and our mother are all well. On December 18 we remembered what would have been daddy's 100th birthday. He was a wonderful patriarch of our family. Mother will be 99 in March.
In mid-summer, my children's dad, Ray Parker, passed away. A strange as this seems a heavyweight of disappointment was lifted. I really didn't realize that I was still carrying the hurt I experienced almost 40 years ago when our marriage ended. I have appreciated the fact that our children continue to be thankful for the love, care, and spiritual guidance that our family was offered all those years ago.
I actually had some counseling that helped me get to the place where I really did leave all the baggage "at the foot of the cross" as a friend often says.
While I so enjoyed the women's Bible study that I have facilitated since 2016, I knew it was time to give that a rest. I hope instead to do some one-on-one discipleship. We'll see how that materializes.
One of the best things that happened in my family this past year (and yet one of the most difficult at the same time) was that Renee and Wally have moved to Nashville. I'm so happy that she has an opportunity to serve in the pre-school ministry in a large church there. 'Tampa was just so much closer.
I said I should have chosen Philippians 3:13 as my verse in 2021. Of course, I didn't know what lay ahead a year ago. Neither do I know what is ahead in 2022. However, I can say that the next part of that portion of scripture will work well for me
"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
I'm excited about what that might mean in my life. I hope it means more words on a page - and I think my friend can help with that. He knows a lot of people who live in Mandarin (and have lived here a long time).
But first, the timer has gone off and those Christmas decorations are not going to put themselves away.
May your life have enough sunshine
to make you appreciate the shadows
