To My Mother At Christmas –
You Are My Gift Today And Always
(December 2009)

To my mother the writer, poetic one, special friend and gifted person with words of wisdom always on the tip of her tongue and at her fingertips:

Thank you for being alive with encouraging spirit in Christ as you share so freely your thoughts and feelings with me. You take the time, as no other person has, to engage in delightful, serious, light, deep, and silly conversations always with hints of righteousness and good virtue at heart. You continuously with unending energy and commitment offer yourself to me unselfishly until the wee hours of the morning or night upon a moment’s notice.

I have been blessed tenfold, and was able to recognize it early in my life that you, my earthly spiritual guider, would touch me and others as you have been touched by the graceful hand of Christ.

The words that come to my heart and flow out through to my hands I believe are from the grace of God and they make defining imprints on my life, as you have done for me personally through out all my years. I pray that God keep alive the gift of words that come from places within me that are mortally foreign yet spiritually familiar. However, genetically I believe my gift and inheritance was passed down from and received through your model personal lineage. Good fruit does not fall from the tree.

One’s God given gift must be shared and I encourage you, and all God’s church, to record personal feelings of your faith as you will find that the ever more powerful depth of your beliefs will be revealed through this incredible personal journey and process, albeit on paper, but also made strong through prayer and faith, but one that must be left as a legacy to me, your children and generations to come as we all share in the same hope and are all servants of the Lord.

Always your encouraging responses, reinforcing soulful thoughts and traditional ideals are poignant and insightful and your authored lines come to life in my hungry eyes and offer hope to an imperfect world that I am a part of and I look forward to them with a joyful and expectant heart waiting to absorb, learn and be responsible for what I can take on as my eyes are opened to how I live, where I fall short, and the tribulations of mankind.

It's as if what you articulate so simply comes from peoples' hearts and somehow what you note touches mine and inspiration comes from my core full force. I pray that there are many who feel like you do, and as we admit to our shortcomings, we might go into the untapped depths of our hearts and come out different people, ones that would be eager to please God consistently, even more today than the days past that have already been written in stone.

I don't know if its the decorated pine tree, the white twinkling lights, the special songs that are floating through the vaulted ceilings in my warm home, the wonderful precious moments with my husband that I am savoring, and/or my children and grandchildren that I am near to now that I have been able to spend wonderful snippets of time that is making me feel so complete, tender, cheery, affectionate, lively and of course, teary (sniff, sniff).

What I do know for sure is that the presence of God is with me now and always, and with just that, I know that I am blessed and thankful for what I have today, however great or small, it is what should be for me now for God knows what I need and when.

You are one of my greatest blessings and my cup runneth over with tears, smiles and songs of joy of our memories of the past, heartfelt talks, emotional hugs that could not be described with mere words however eloquent, that I hold in a multitude of tiny hidden crevices in my heart that will remain untouched, safe, and sound forever.

I celebrate Christmas this year, as I have in the past, however with more faith, love and compassion in my heart than ever. Perhaps that comes with age and life's trials, tribulations and triumphs (oh sounds like a great title) and a decidedly greater trust and devotion in my heart to my God, Lord and Savior.

I have faith that there is a Heaven and as I look at the nativity scene with Jesus at its center it brings a reality to the almost unfathomable truth that Jesus' coming gave us the birth right to the inevitability of that special place not of this world, and it will be in that place that I, you, and the believers in Christ, will reunite with all our family, friends, and brothers and sisters who will go before or after us.

It is in Heaven that I see my own father, grandparents and all those who have gone to their rest. I miss him, my father, terribly as do many others and my heart is at times burdened with great grief. But then relief comes when the Lord gently nudges and touches me and He brings me comfort and encouragement to continue on as quickly as my next breath.

The miracle of Christmas is an awe-inspiring gift as it almost magically touches and transforms the spirit of humanity. It’s incredible to witness how its reference and mere existence causes a world to change and the aurora of delight and joy find their way inexplicably into our obscure and many times hardened hearts. With lives well lived and equally days gone awry we are able to incredibly filter, experience and tuck away many depths of a mix of emotions and somehow, for the most part, pull through challenges with good cheer as the season settles upon us.

During this special time of year for many of us, we can sink into personal pain from recollections of our losses in the past, relish in brighter times recalled through photographs and moments embossed in our personal memories, and relive and take pleasure in feelings of delight and contentment for wonderful past times spent.

Sometimes simultaneously, separately, privately, and oddly with no conscious effort of our own, planned out thoughts or routines to move us through the bumps, ups, downs, cracks, or less traveled roads, we can experience the most incredible diverse blend of emotions within ourselves with no real evidence to the world that we’ve been through a whirlwind of memories, experiences, or accounts bitter and sweet, and then somehow our intricate minds bring us back to that spirit of Christmas and an odd stillness and wholeness as mysterious and miraculous as the birth of Jesus consumes us.

That's what peace and love of Christmas is about, the merry times, smooth rides, the roller coaster, the dark days, the insignificant moments that add up to life all incredibly and perfectly blended together in a meringue of hope that creates a comforting warm serenity that relaxes us, a calm and harmonious feeling that sustains us and that is incredibly and euphorically absorbed in our intricate psyche and turns into something wonderfully touching, stirring, pure, white, gentle and as light as whipped cream.

I pray for many healthy years with you, my mother, for there’s so much for us still to share. Also at this time I believe you’d join me in prayer for the people of the world to work toward peace and harmony (such a cliché – however so desperately needed and yet blatantly ignored). We have the blessing of today and the one’s to come, God willing, to make a difference. But more importantly we have this Christmas and a definite tickle under our red noses to remind us that we have the love of God and each other to support us in good times and bad, celebrations and remembrances, in the cold and darkness, in the light and all the times of our lives. We also share in the miracle of life in our present and for our future, and together we can with unity receive the love of Christ and the incredible life to come – all these blessings from our God who so loves the people of the world!

Merry Christmas to you Mom – and if you don’t mind me taking this opportunity to wish a Very Merry Christmas to all the followers of Christ – may your love for Him grow daily, and your heart grow closer in fellowship with your neighbor – a stranger is only a stranger because you haven’t talked, offered your helping hand or acknowledged him just yet. Love the world as Christ showed and loved us.

With all my love and yours in Christ, Me!

(Cec – the eldest of your children, I hoped you knew it was me – just in case – you were unsure – because you do have other incredibly gifted children - who might have such thoughts written in their hearts or in a personal journal about their mother.)

P.S. Thank you Mary, Mother of Jesus, for receiving God’s gift of the incredible blessing on your life and for raising and giving your Son to the world for its salvation!

Inspired by: (Mom - your “coming out” – the world must know what I have known – just smile as I do everyday when I think of you!)

(Here's my mom keeping it real! - Not to worry Mom, your other writings won't be posted here, they'll be in our book!)

Cecelia.... Of course I absolutely loved, loved, loved it (“Writing posted: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”). All so true. Why are we humans as we are? I hope your message gets to every single being possible. I smiled with pride of course through the entire time reading and agreeing, wishing I hadn't been responsible for the very behavior you write about.

Wouldn't it be lovely, and pleasing to our dear Savior if we all took your Wisdom and Advise and followed it without failure. But, we will read and agree, and feel the warm determination to change because the feeling during this time feels right and so good! (God like of course... ) And of course we become so determined. Oh, we all may try for a time but before you know it.. we go back and slip into old habits without giving it any thought.

I hope we hang on a little longer this time round, because today at this time and under the circumstances many of us are experiencing, never believing we would ever come to walk in these shoes... whatever that may be, of course different for all of us. We all have thought it would never happen to us, to someone else but not us. We need compassion and a God like love of ourselves, for each other, be it not only family but neighbors and strangers.

Well, listen to me going on! If just my prayers would be answered, that your message be read and read again, and that whoever reads it really gets it. That they carry out what at this time of the year comes with ease and with apparent "sincere warmth in their hearts". (You know... you kind of feel it.) I do see and cross paths with a lot of smiling faces and greeting these days, some that I initiate and others actually connect with me first. It's very enjoyable!

Forgive me if I got off message.... Your message is truthful & "WONDERFUL" as always. I got unnecessarily a little carried away. (It's late after midnight so I didn't read this before sending it off to you.)

Well, my darling daughter, I am losing it, but you, you're a "Winner" and I'm humbly proud to be your Mother. I love your work, I know He loves you and I certainly can't imagine how I could love you more!

Of course this note comes from just "Me",

oxox's from your "Mom"