Thursday, January 7, 2021

An Empy Shelf: a new year reflection

Dear Christa, 

Putting away Christmas always seems like a bigger job than putting it all out. Decorating FOR Christmas is anticipation, joy, and celebration. But, when all the holly and jolly and every nativity is taken off the shelves, there seems to be a barrenness.

 

That’s not always bad. It’s kind of like everything is clean and new. The dusted shelves seem to say, “Hey, it’s a new year. What will you place here this year? Will it be the “same old, same old”? Or—something fresh? Something new, something wonderful?

 

In January, the Colorado winter settles in for real and for long. I dislike the cold and the dry. I long for summer long before it arrives.

 

Yet, winter is fresh.

 

Sometimes, the cold makes me wrap my arms around myself and beckons me to push inward, away. Yet, sometimes, the cold on my face in an afternoon walk tingles life. I breathe in deeply. I can drink in the fresh and the new. And when winter snow swirls around my face, it can lift my spirit upward.

 

So, what will this New Year bring? It will mainly bring what we put into it. On these empty shelves, we’ll place some old and some warm, but I am looking for more. I’m looking for something new, something fresh, something wonderful.

 

Happy New Year, Christa!

 

—your old friend,

the parishioner who doesn’t do anything