Up the Sunbeam

Celebrating is the easy part.  Lights, laughter, favorite food and sweet treats, songs that set bells a-jingle and us all warm and tingly with joy, and the Baby in the manger . . . yes, celebrating falls easy into our Christmas lives. It's living Christmas out in the gritty grind that is sometimes very, very hard. I must choose my words wisely to write this, I beg your patience for being deliberately vague about details. I don't WANT to be nice.  I don't WANT to pray for them. Mama Grizzly is growling low and menacing in me and I would like to unleash her to tell them about themselves.  I could have stood it if they had hurt me, but they hurt my cubs, and now are adding insult to injury--the Mama Grizzly crouches, ready to spring, everything in her screaming for the chance to put them in their place! Photo courtesy of freelargephotos.com, Copyright © 2010 David Chudnov All stirred up inside, alone in my living room, I called home to my parents to vent my m...

-- A surprise text message broke up the monotone of the workday. Drummer Boy was 4 stories below asking me to meet him there for lunch in an hour. Delighted, I shared the fun surprise with coworkers who "ooohed and aaaahed" over the marvel of an 18 year old son choo sing to come hang out with his mother! I beamed. We filled up the 30 minutes of my lunch break with talk of many things . We laughed and shared and caught up on things we haven't had as much time to talk about since I've been working--after all, for all his 18 years, I have been a stay-at-home -mom, ALWAYS there, ALWAYS available. It's not easy to adjust when things have changed from how they've been your whole life! As we got ready to go our separate ways for the afternoon, he spoke very grown up words of gratitude for the sacrifice I'm making to help the family--his description, not mine. He knows that this is a job for the purpose of a paycheck, and that there is no passion inspire...