Christmas

When family members die or are away from me on Christmas, I have come to realize that one cannot recreate Christmas past.  It saddens me and that is not what Christmas is about.  We have to find ways, new ways, to enter into the joy.  I have found that the Family Christmas and friends is replaced with more quiet time for memories and reflections.  Christmas has become more prayerful in an interior sense.  I have stopped trying to make something happen.  Parents have that pressure on them for their children.  There is a lot of traveling to close the geographic gap separating people in this big country.  If this is your Christmas this year enjoy it.  I recall those days but they are in my past.  The initial sadness and feeling of loss will not be filled up by activity.  It was a unique time.  Christmas past is like that.  I ask myself what is Christmas for me today?  What is God's plan?  I try to be useful, in service, and prayerful in a meditative way.  I count my blessings both past and present.  Some of the past never goes away, nor is it meant to.  A gift of presence is a gift forever.   Merry Christmas.  No humbug.