Tis the season for
beauty, blessings and peace on earth. And
this is certainly a time to celebrate what God reveals to us. As the weather
gets colder my attention turns indoors. And I am constantly reminded of the
great peace that I get from being outdoors! I feel blessed to be outdoors often
wherever I am and it gives me great satisfaction, in addition I feel close to
God. Here in Tennessee we have some decently comfortable days even in December. So getting outside is still a daily adventure usually. I'm a gatherer so when I am outdoors I enjoy finding things that I can use
to decorate for the holidays inside. We have holly growing wild in the woods and it is so pretty with it's red berries. Due to the many pine trees behind our home I have collected
an abundance of pinecones too. This brings to mind the ultimate patience of my
husband on my first train ride ever from New York City to Rehoboth Beach,
Delaware many moons ago. We had flown from Tennessee to New York City and taken
a train to Rehoboth to visit our friends. It was my first such excursion.
Somewhere along the way I had found and collected a bunch of pinecones. As we
got ready to leave my husband asked me what I had planned to do with them and
where did I plan to put them on the way home? I said that I would get a bag and
in his rushed state he said, “nah, I'll just put them in the bottom of the
cardboard hang up bag cover that the airline put our hang up bag in”. I looked
perplexed I'm sure! We were fresh out of college and his college antics were
still in his blood, so he grabbed the pinecone and his dirty clothes and dumped
them all mixed up in the bottom of the carton. The train was a bit late and we
had to lug things around at the station, it was hot and crowded and when the
train got there I was a bit startled at the mad dash to board. See, I was a
young polite Southern girl that was not use to the hustle and bustle. So, I
politely waited and we were some of the last to board because, I let everyone
in front of me/us! As we paraded down the aisle with all of our STUFF in tow,
on the now mobile train, I noticed that I was alone...when a looked back my
husband had stopped. Immediately I
realized what had happened, the bottom of his cardboard carton carrying a
plethora of pinecone mixed with his dirty clothes, (“undies”, some still wet
from beach basketball games and swimming) all were strung out about 20 feet
behind him and some very attractive young women had alerted him of his mishap
followed by loud giggles. He seemed only slightly flustered and later we laughed
but at that moment he probably wanted to RING my neck! I still have most of those
pinecones stored away with Christmas decor after 33 years together!
Christmastime in the
past has often been a time of emotional stress and at times been downright
depressing. Admittedly it was my own emotional climate. I use to get agitated,
nervous, frantic and overly frustrated with my unrealistic need for everything
to be "perfect", that it made it hard to enjoy CHRISTmastime! So
needless to say becoming more peaceful has not happen overnight! I have made a
choice not only at Christmastime but throughout the year to be more peaceful;
less stressed and enjoy life. This Christmas I didn't do as much decorating. Instead of 4000 or more clear lights on our artificial
tree we got a live tree for the second time in over twenty years. I may have
put over 1000 but at least it was an improvement to the three or four days that
it took to erect the 12 foot spectacle of visions in my head with all of those
lights. And that's just talking about
the tree! Never mind the garland down the stairs and fireplaces and the list
goes on. This year things had to change even more. My husband had taken a new
job and he had travel nine out of the last ten weeks. And we had to be in
Beckley, West Virginia for the official takeover of the new University of
Charleston, Beckley campus. And we laughed
that those pinecone had to go too dadgumit!
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