December 16, 2020: RE-MEMBER

Marjorie as Gerda in the Snow Queen (addendum to today’s advent calendar)

I feel certain that this holiday season will be both one we remember and one that we take the time to remember holidays past. I know for some of us the notion of nostalgia about the holidays is downright absurd. Even if you did not have a single moment of joy to speak of, try to find some way in which you were gladdened, through something you saw, listened to, or had someone relay to you.

I’ve already told you that the days between Thanksgiving are the most challenging time of year for me.
Starting with my Dad’s only brother, who died Thanksgiving night, through the loss of my first child, my mother’s death anniversary, my nephew Jim (who died of overdose/suicide 15 years ago this Sunday,) my Uncle Jay Dee Patton’s death on Christmas eve, and any number of family fights and addiction challenges, I have to search to find an unscathed memory.

What helps me most is to lower my expectations, as Don Juan told Castaneda, “to almost nothing.”

We would have been in New Mexico this year with my son Colin and his partner Liana. Of course, we had to cancel. Sadly, very sadly, Colin and Liana have split up as well. We are grieving the loss to our family.

As the years go by, I treasure reading holiday poems and stories, listening to music, and simple pleasures of the arts and of nature. I have to think of it as a gift to myself. My personal favorite is A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. What is yours?

So besides taking time to remember, take some time to re-member your spirit, to bring the scattered pieces of your heart and your dreams back together, however that looks to you.

Please plan to join your church family on Christmas Eve for some festive and thoughtful time. You will get information about how to join and when the recorded service will be available in plenty of time!

Until then, stay warm and stay safe!

Cynthia