Realize how blessed you are

A little over a year ago I wrote about the holiday journal that I started in 2003, the year we celebrated our first holiday season in this house.  (Read that post here.)  Earlier this week, on a quiet evening in front of the fire, I wrote my entry for this season, covering all of the events from Thanksgiving through New Year's weekend.  I realized when I was through that it was about so much more than just those events -  it was about all that had happened in the last twelve months.
In February of last year, my brother was diagnosed with brain cancer.  Since that time he's had surgery, radiation, chemo, the diagnosis of a new tumor, and then gamma knife radiation for that tumor.  Just two days after Christmas we received the news that the gamma knife radiation was successful and that the tumor was gone!  What joy!
In July my husband and I spent a wonderful week in the mountains with his brothers and sister and their spouses.  The weekend after Christmas we traveled to Florida for the funeral mass for our sister-in-law who was diagnosed with stage IV cancer soon after that July gathering.
The time with those we love is precious.  I never feel that I have enough of it, but every second I do have is blessed.
I ran across this video earlier this week - it says it beautifully. "Life is not an emergency." Slow down.  Pay attention.  Hold hands.  Say "I love you" every chance you get.  Cry together, laugh together, share meals and jokes and books and ideas and memories.  Realize how blessed you are.

A journal to be shared

In 2003 we moved from our home of 23 years and began life in a new home. With the first holiday season in this new home I started a holiday journal, a journal which now contains many pages of reflections on family holiday celebrations.  This isn't a private journal, but a journal to be shared.  In the first year, when we had a joyful houseful of guests for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I asked everyone who was willing to write something in the journal. There were 13 entries that year. In the years since, when we haven't had as many family members here to write directly in the journal, I've asked that others send me something to place in it - and so I've stapled e-mails and stationary in the pages. When Hal wrote columns about the holidays, I put those in the journal, too.  In 2007, the year we were blessed with three additional grandchildren, I included the photo from our Christmas card.

Each year at Thanksgiving I bring this journal out and re-read the entries from years past. I am reminded once again of the great gifts we have been given even as we've suffered the inevitable losses of living in this world.
We've rejoiced at the marriage of our son and my brother and at the births of six grandchildren. Twice we've woken the day after Christmas to find snow falling. We've gathered on Thanksgiving in five different homes, all of them warm and inviting and full of love. Family members have been diagnosed and treated for cancer, have undergone and healed from surgery, have graduated from high school and college. Our children have moved to new homes.  Our son graduated from law school, our son-in-law took the bold step of going back to school to become an orthodontist, our daughter will graduate in May with a Master of Library Science degree. We've grieved the loss of both of Hal's parents and my father.  We've made the decision to focus on the gift of presence rather than presents.  As the years have passed so swiftly, we have found comfort in our traditions while embracing new ones.  We have been strengthened and blessed by our love for one another.  We look forward with hope to what the new year will bring.
I only wish that I had started this journal many years ago.

Blessings to all of you in this new year!