Month: December 2020

How Do You Measure This Year?

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Normally on December 31, I look back on the year and remember. My favorite way to do this is through my memory jar. While I don’t want to ignore or forget this year, my memory jar is much emptier than usual due to musicals missed, trips not taken, meals not eaten in restaurants, friends not seen, etc. It was hard for me to write a post-it that said stayed inside today again and get excited about it.

So, I am looking back through pictures and blog posts and Facebook posts that remind me of this year. Amidst the struggle that was this year, I am looking for times I was grateful. I am thankful to have work that is fulfilling and uses my gifts even as I did it in new ways this years. I am thankful for my family and friends who love and support me as they let me support them. And I am looking with hope to 2021 that we will remember the challenges of 2020 and become more compassionate toward ourselves and each other.

God of the Ages, 2020 is on its way out and it will not be forgotten. Our hearts broke this year as we said goodbye to too many people. Our lives changed this year as we covered our faces, stayed home when possible, and learned to distance. We cried and worried and wondered what was the right thing to do. Too many of your children are without work. Too many of your children are sick and lonely. What will happen in 2020? Can we possibly learn from this year? Can you mold us into more compassionate people? Can we remember that we are not isolated beings and instead part of community? Hear our hopes for a better world in 2021. Heal this world and heal us. Amen.

Peaceful Christmas!

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Wherever you find yourself this Christmas, I wish you a very peaceful Christmas.

Whatever emotions you are feeling this season, I hope you find moments of peace this Christmas.

However you are observing this season, I pray you know you are loved this Christmas.

Whether we feel prepared or not, the Christ child is being born anew in this world. “And the weary world rejoices!”

May the hope, peace, joy, and love of Advent be with you as we welcome Christ into our lives again!

Getting Through December

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We are halfway through the month of December. When I was younger, December was a month full of joy, happiness, and expectations. December meant time with relatives, once a year traditions, good food, and so much love. This wasn’t the same for everyone even when they were young. And as I have aged, I have become more aware of the range of emotions that the month of December stirs up for people. For some, December is a month filled with grief and sadness and regret and loneliness. For some, December is a time of not being able to live up to expectations. For some, December doesn’t bring the peace they long to find.

A song that sums up for me the less discussed feelings of this month is Over the Rhine’s “If We Make It Through December”-“If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be alright I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine”


I invite you to keep this idea in your mind as you move about the next half of the month. For so many this month won’t look like they have hoped-families may be celebrating via Zoom instead of together, empty seats will remind us of the loved ones who are no longer with us, finances may be tighter than other years, fears of illness may be causing additional stress, and so many other stresses and worries and fears and concerns and possibilities may be keeping people up at night. And if none of this is true for you, it is true for someone you know and love.

So as much as I would love to end with some cheerful words to made everything work out perfectly like the end of a perfectly scripted Hallmark movie (that was not an attack on Hallmark movies which bring much joy to so many), I am going to ask us to do the hard work. I am going to encourage you to sit with the hard feelings and not rush past them. When this month doesn’t meet your expectations, live in that feeling for awhile. When you are missing your loved ones, focus on the memories for a bit and allow yourself to be sad or cry or miss them. When you can’t imagine how things will work out, be angry and live in the heartbreak. And when you are ready, reach out to someone and share how you are feeling, write your feelings down, say out loud that the month of December is hard for you. If none of what you have read mirrors the way you have ever felt in December, I encourage you to be on the look out for those for whom these words ring true. They need you this month.

Hear again the words of the song as our benediction.

“If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be alright I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine” Amen!