The Light of Christmas

I have a friend I've made as a result of years of going to the same dry cleaner's.  She always greets me with a smile and a call out, even if I'm being served by someone else.  I've written of her mother, and her own unwavering faith.  Every once in a while, we have a conversation as I'm handing over my pile of laundry and the ordinariness of my day evaporates.  

"Merry Christmas," I said as I piled up the shirts.  My mind was full of the bills to pay, the pounds gained over the break, the work I needed to still get done for the evening.

"Merry Christmas!" she beamed, "You know, Christmas is a time for miracles.  Christmas time is a miracle."    I felt the beginning of an interruption in the dark chaos of my thoughts.

"Yes.  Yes it is."  Her eyes told me, she held a miracle she was bursting to share.
"For the past eight years, I've prayed."  She told me of how she's been begging for warmth in her marriage, but for years, they've not talked.  "Then on Christmas, I heard Jesus tell me, in my heart, "If you want me to work, you have to move."  and I got out of the way."  She smiled.  "I put my hand on my husband's hand."

"And it's better?" I asked.
"It's better. It's a miracle.  It started on Christmas.  It's a miracle.  You know, Jesus can take anyone, fix anything, anything we let Him!"
"The water is now wine." I smiled.  All my errands still loomed, but they didn't haunt, they couldn't in the face of her joy.

"Yes.  Exactly!  The water is now wine."

A line had cued up while we spoke.  "I'm so happy for you. Merry Christmas!"
"Happy New year!"

The Christmas star is shining at my dry cleaner's.  

Light in the Darkness Meme

The writer of Four Blessings Academy (who I met through Small Success Thursdays), created her own Internet meme, Light in the Darkness.  I like the idea. She put a post of a comedian she got to see in person as a gift for Mother's day.  You can join in at her blog.  

1.  Some weekends, it is hard to get to mass.  I mean you oversleep, you can't find shoes, there's a fight going on, someone started fixing breakfast and so the mass time scheduled keeps getting bumped back.  We were going to the 8:30, not everyone was up, how about the 9, same problem. How about 10:00?  Someone started showering and someone else went outside for a run.  How about 11:30?  Shoes...shoes...where are this kid's one pair of shoes...can we use any other kid's shoes....where are my shoes.... purse....purse...I don't need my purse...what time is it?  What are you doing eating lunch?   So we're going to the 1 o'clock.  I don't like the one. The car needs gas.  We're running late.  We ARE GOING  TO THE FIVE!  Everyone HEAR ME?????  WE ARE GOING TO THE FIVE!   We made it. And for a moment, it was perfect. But there was still a fundamental issue of trying to get all of them to realize that owing to individual impulses, today was spent primarily trying to get somewhere and being mightily thwarted.  

 When we came home... 

2. My husband directed everyone to the backyard.  There is a lot of strangle weed.  He directed us to pull on one vine in particular.  It took all 11 of us (Anna watched but Paul helped too), pulling as one, over and over again, to uproot the weed.  It was over 60 feet long.  But there was something to that 15 minutes of counting and pulling and slipping and ranting at the plant, counting to three and barking about cooperation and pulling and the like, it revealed a truth we'd been trying to drive home, that together, we could accomplish what alone, we could not.  

3.  Some sort of critter got into our garbage last night. I'd made cornbread and chicken for dinner.  This morning, there were drumstick bones and egg shells on the driveway for me to clean up. But the mystery of the moment remained. We'll never know which came first, the chicken...or the egg.