Favorite Quote

One of my all time favorite quotes is from Isak Dinesen, "The cure for anything is salt water -- sweat, tears or the sea." I believe there is great truth in these words. Certainly, with physical ailments, it is often a sweat that signals a fever breaking or a turn toward health. Working up a good sweat can assist the body in getting rid of toxins. Salt water may also be the cure for life's ordinary troubles. Sometimes we just need to pick ourselves up and get back to work. In the day in and day out familiar routine of work we sweat our way through a whole host of issues. Sometimes we need a good cry. I've learned the hard way, that if the tears come, they are a sign that I need to pay attention. Tears are cleansing and they honor the deep emotions that prompt their flow. Sometimes we just need to sit on the edge of the sea, listening to waves lap and crash and whush upon the sand, watching the water continually rolling over and over and over. It begins to sink into us, that to the sea, we are as tiny and as significant as a grain of sand. The awareness of the immensity of the sea helps to put the rest of life into perspective and we begin to remember that compared to nuclear war, whatever it is we are facing just isn't so bad.

May you always have as much salt water as you need, but may those times of salt-water-need be few and far between!

Christmas Tree

My Christmas tree is up. Actually it has been up since last Wednesday (the day BEFORE Thanksgiving). Now granted, the tradition in my family as I was growing up was that the tree and Christmas decorations went up the weekend after Thanksgiving. As an adult, I have not always followed that tradition and in fact, last year, just a couple of days before Christmas, I finally put out a little miniature tree not much more than a foot tall. This year... this year the song line that keeps circling in my head is "I need a little Christmas, right this very minute." So my tree is up ... and it is a 4 foot pink tree swathed in 72 feet of bead garland. It is a bright, silly, cheerful spot in my living room and it makes me smile.

I think many of us need a little Christmas. I think we are longing to re-focus our thoughts and energy on something besides the economic crisis, besides politics with its never-ending commentary and analysis, besides the war in Iraq, besides the crime rate starting to climb. So, yes, we do need a little Christmas; however, we need Christmas in more ways than the happy distraction it can provide. We need Christmas for the message that is at the heart of this celebration. We need to remember Emmanuel, God-with-us. Christmas celebrates the incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth. Christmas is all about a God that loves us so much, that God chose to be born in human flesh, to understand humanity from the inside out. Christmas reminds us that God is immanently close and involved in our world. We need a little Christmas to remember that God is with us, that we are not alone in our struggles, and that God will help us face whatever we must face.

We are not alone. God IS with us, closer than the air we breathe. God loves us with a steadfast, abiding love. This knowledge, this truth lifts my spirits and renews my hope. And my silly pink Christmas tree is simply a symbol that points me back to the center of my faith.