WHAT MATTERS?

It’s one week before Christmas Eve. Are you ready? How do you know?

This year is turning out to be much different from past years. Less flurry and scurry at my house. Fewer moments—actually, none at all—of anxiety and breathlessness about “being ready.”

There has been time to shop for food that will be consumed by my two daughters and me during their visit next week.

Sewing and knitting projects I took on for other folks have been completed and delivered, leaving time for my own endeavors.

Our family Christmas get-together was moved to January 2—and that move opened up extra days for me to build little quilts for great-grands.

Decorating is not a big thing for me, and hasn’t been for many years. I find the Advent season a quiet time of preparation; my house will grow more festive next week, but for now, it’s just right.

Baking? I baked two kinds of brownies and took them to a local business that has helped my house stay warm and dry for many years.

Cooking? Not really . . . just cleaning veggies and arranging them on a tray with one or two kinds of dip (made from scratch), slicing cheese and adding pickles and little beef bites, covering with plastic wrap and delivering the whole thing with a smile to folks who also have kept my life on an even keel for years.

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In ways that count, I am ready. My heart and mind are focused on the coming Christmas season as a time of celebration—when God sent love into the world, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

All the trappings—large or small—point to that event.

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Are we ready? Check in with your heart and mind. You may be more ready than you realize.

[No pictures again this week--my ISP and I are rapidly coming to a parting of the ways. Hope to have better service next week. Have a good one!]