Good morning…
With my parents in the performance of the Holiday Choir at their senior living community, this was a good long weekend to come to Ohio for a visit. Sunday was a full day. Church. Kiwanis pancake breakfast with Santa and our extended family. Creating their Christmas card. Getting out ornaments for their live tree. Quality time with my brother and sister, catching up, sharing dinner, giving our parents a photo calendar for the coming year and a collage picture frame and photo album to hold memories we’ve made together as a family. Happening upon the Sound of Music, we finished the night watching the old classic and singing together our favorite songs.
On Monday, we enjoyed a special lunch with our childhood babysitter and a blind friend who lived in our old neighborhood growing up (they also live at the Renaissance). Then after a relaxing day, I sat in the front row for the holiday performance. Our favorite Christmas songs were joyfully sung, both choir and audience, with a Hanukkah song widening the welcome. With my dad donning the costume for Tommy-O-the-Elf, he unexpectedly sat on my lap as he danced past.
Joyful, joyful, we adored our time together.
One of the most meaningful parts of the performance was the reading of a poem entitled Beatitudes for Friends of the Aged by Esther Mary Walker. Take these words into your mind and your heart, just like I have been savoring quality time with my parents.
And so we come to the end of this musing over life. My advice to you is to remember your Creator, God, while you are young: before life gets hard and the injustice of old age comes upon you— (Ecclesiastes 12:1a, VOICE).
As we remember the living God, who came to us on Christmas morn, we feel loved, known and not alone.
…Sue…
