Today’s post is the monthly reflection from the December 2008 issue of The Front Porch Newsletter. If you would like to automatically receive The Front Porch e-newsletter on the last Thursday of each month just click here to sign-up for your complimentary subscription.
It is hard to imagine coming to the end of a calendar year and not reflecting on the 12-month trail which lies behind you. It will never be experienced again, except through lessons learned.
In looking back we can rediscover that which is old and it can become new again! I was reminded of this as I was recently going back through some of our old annual family Christmas letters. This excerpt, below, was the closing paragraph of our 1999 Christmas Letter. If you remember … we were feeling a bit vulnerable, at the time, because of this major “crisis” called Y2K. Wouldn’t you give anything for our most challenging crisis to be a little Y2K issue? All of life is relative! Today, we once again find ourselves in fragile times. And so maybe these words, from our 1999 letter, ring just as true today as they did then. Maybe even more so!
“And so as December arrives … it’s time to once again pull out all the Christmas decorations. As we were decorating our tree last week, the inevitable happened. Someone dropped one of those Christmas balls. Crash. And another. Crash. Every year. It is the same thing … we break at least one of them. Whoever invented those things anyway? How impractical can you get. I mean, you use them year after year. Soda cans are more durable and they get used only once. What were they thinking? At first glance it appears they weren’t thinking at all. But then again, maybe they were. Maybe their message was to remind us just how fragile life can be. This year, as in every year, one breaks … and we were reminded. Treat it gently. Hang it with care. And as you work … periodically step back and see the beauty.”
Life is, in fact, very fragile. This year was another reminder of just how fragile it can be. As you bring closure to this year I hope you will step back and search for lessons learned. But most importantly, regardless of your circumstances, look around and see the beauty within the fragile nature of your own life!