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Anticipation
Anticipation –
There is a noticeable lack of Christmas spirit in my family this year. It’s been a long year as my dad battled cancer and passed away on the first of December. The anticipation of Christmas coming has been replaced with a feeling of; “Is it over yet?” I don’t think it’s Christmas per se’ but we’re anticipating the end of 2017 and 2018 to begin.
Anticipation can be a dangerous state of mind, emotion, and spirit. For all we know, 2018 will be as rough, perhaps more so, than 2017. It’s not a pleasant thought but it is a possibility. This is why wisdom teachers discourage anticipation. Life rarely lives up to what we think, or wish would happen. It’s almost always different and this can be good or bad, negative or positive. When life fails to fill our desires suffering, pain, confusion can occur.
So, my family and many others wait in this no man’s land hoping Christmas will not be too difficult and 2018 will be a better, certainly different, year.
blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com
All that’s Left
All that’s Left –
A nasty cold front moved through our area last night and it is cold outside today! The temps haven’t ventured out of the 20’s with a stiff wind and layer of ice covering the places rain fell as the temperatures plummeted.
As the arctic blast forced its way through Tennessee mighty winds shook the big Oak tree just outside our front door. For several hours we’d hear crashes on the tin covering our front porch or in the yard. Each time we’d grab the flashlight, peek outside and see another dead limb had fallen. Our Oak tree for all its beauty, has many branches, big and small, no longer alive that need to come down and the storm, for all its ferocity, did a good job at shaking these limbs from their place among the live ones.
As I stood outside today, letting the dog run, sniff and explore the patches of ice that litters the ground, I thought about life and the storms we face. Most often we do not welcome storms, we do not ask to be shaken, blown back and forth. We like stillness, security and the sense our lives are not in danger of being knocked over. However, if we are self-aware we also recognize that many times it takes these unwanted storms to rid us of the dead, unneeded things of life. The winds may threaten to topple us but they also dislodge places in which we’re stuck.
All that’s left from the storm last night is picking up the branches in the yard. May it also be this way in our lives.
blessings,
@BrianLoging
thewannabesaint.com