Full Circle

The King and Toad; relaxed and reading Louis L'amour over Christmas vacation. And he tells me he never lets the dog on the furniture!

Trucker with a can of duct tape spray. Everybody needs a can of that! That's my Mom sitting next to him, wishing she had a can of duct tape spray!

I called a friend today who celebrated her 81st birthday yesterday. Yesterday I blogged about time going faster as you get older and how slow it seems to go sometimes when you are young. As most other things, this must go in a full circle. Glady said that time isn’t moving to fast for her the last few days. She lost her husband last month. She just spent her first Christmas without him; she was alone on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Her husband was quite ill the last ten years of his life, so she did not have much time for any thing other than caring for him. Now that he is gone, she says she has lots she should be doing, but not the energy. I told her that is understandable; for one thing because she is 81 years old and for another thing she is missing her husband. I cannot imagine moving on in life after losing your best friend of fifty some years. Time would stand still.

I asked her how Christmas went for her, and she had the sweetest story. A young man, 24 years old, used to live a few houses away from her. In the past, they would make cookies together once in a while. Now this same young man is not her neighbor any more. He has purchased a home out in the country, but has not forgot about her. He called her Christmas day to see what she was doing. When he found out she was sitting home alone, he went to the store, bought a tube of cookie dough, some popcorn and rented a movie. He then spent the whole afternoon with her; they made cookies, popped popcorn and watched a movie. As soon as we were done talking I prayed that my Princess and Trucker will be that thoughtful when they are young adults. I also prayed that I would bless other people in that same way. I have never met this young man, but he and his parents should get a big pat on the back for a job well done!

While talking to her about Christmas; it reminded me of a Christmas several years ago. When the Princess and Trucker were pre-schoolers, my Dad called his Grandma on Christmas to see how she was spending the day. She was sitting in her apartment alone, waiting for her daughter to come and pick her up. Her daughter was going to take Grandma to their house for Christmas dinner. Dad told her that our kids were up at the crack of dawn to open presents, play a new game they had got on Christmas Eve and read a few new books. He also told her that I was on my second round of dishes and we hadn’t even had dinner yet. She told him to tell me to enjoy doing all of those dishes, cleaning up the wrapping paper, reading the new books and doing a ton of cooking because the day would come when I would be sitting in a chair by myself thinking of past Christmases and wondering where the time went. Now my great-Grandma celebrates Christmas with Jesus, her husband and a daughter that died as a young girl, but I remember her words of wisdom every year.

Thinking about Glady and Grandma made me remember to take care of each day as it comes. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Enjoy each day as it comes. "That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" Matthew7:25-27 nlt