It’s Snow’n Outside, Babe

In the middle of the afternoon, the first snow started to fall.  Starting out damp but transforming into large, white, fluffy flakes which the ground drank as quickly as they fell.  I have been ready for this day for weeks.  Dressed in a knit sweater, scarf, and Christmas tree assembled behind me, I gazed out my window at the true first signs of winter.

I adore the holiday season as much as anyone else.  The blanket of snow that softly cover the ground.  Bare tree limbs dusted with white, silence that moves throughout as life rests.  The smell of warm ovens, thick sweaters, burning fires, and endless songs ringing of Emmanuel’s birth.  Christmas is the season that builds memories each year.  Requiring no vacations to spur the day’s fondness,  only true companionship to brand it’s mark forever.

I cannot say the past several Christmas season where one of joy and happiness.  Somehow I shared my Christmas with strangers who never wanted to share it with me. This season will be different.  I am going to reclaim the season’s warmth and mystery with old holiday habits from my childhood.  Destined to create memories for this season that I will crown with a smile.  

I have found the key to deep and lasting happiness.  It’s not whether you’re a Northerner living among the Georgia Baptists, or an American standing at the top of  Japanese mountain.  The beautiful house in the suburbs, or a spacious loft in the city will not bring you happiness alone.  It’s feeling of being “home” that brings happiness.  Home, is where you build and foster relationships of people who love you, care for you, believe in you, and comfort you.  

I know I will find my “home” and be content with life, when I plant myself where I can grow surrounded by others.  Other’s who smile with me, cry with me, laugh with me, and share life with me.  It won’t matter if my home is a row of Home Depot “man” sheds out in the middle nowhere, as long as I can share the first snow fall with them.