Seasons Greetings

Wow, this month has slipped by so quickly. My silence on the blog has only meant that life was very full, this time. As life can be. But thankfully river rapids are known to feed into a gentle pool, which is the case here. I'm looking forward to a long weekend just breathing deeply and enjoying people. My brother is in town with his family this year, and those are always good times.

I wanted to be sure to thank all of your for your company here on the web, and wish you a very happy holiday. For me it's Christmas, and a very wonderful time of year. I didn't catch the spirit of the season full on till yesterday afternoon, but better late than never. The funny thing is that it happened when I stumbled across the cover of a Jackson 5 Christmas song, "Someday at Christmas". (iTunes link)

That Jackson 5 Christmas album is one that has inadvertently become very special to me. It all started when I was about 7 or 8. My parents one Christmas splurged for each other and went together to get a sound system. They came home with a very sleek, modern 8 track tape player. It was beautiful. And they got some tapes for each other and one for my brother and I. Mine was the Jackson 5 Christmas album. I played it every year at Christmas, so it kind of became an integral part of the season for me.

When I was in Australia some years later, I of course didn't have that tape. I mentioned it to a good friend of mine that I had made down there, lamenting that it just didn't seem quite like Christmas without it. But oh, well---I was still in Australia for goodness sake, making it excellent no matter what time of year it was.

She surprised me several weeks later with a flat square package that she wanted me to open right then. When I did, I was astounded. She had scoured the city and found a vinyl LP copy of the album so I wouldn't be without. Keep in mind that this was pre-internet and pre-Ebay, so this was no small feat. The gift was excellent, but the effort I know it required made it mean that much more.

After college when I was starting a new little family of my own and the turntable had now gone the way, but one day I came home from the supermarket triumphantly with a CD copy of my holiday favorite. It was just there at the check out on one of those vintage Christmas music displays greeting me like an ond friend with 5 happy little smiles.

Now in the digital age I've taken that CD and ripped it onto iTunes and put it on my shuffle which I have in my living room hooked to the sound system so we can have hours of seasonal music without ever having to change anything out.

So I hope that this week is special for all of you, with traditions that comfort and novelty that provides new found joys. I'll be thinking of you all.

May God Richly bless you.