That Unforgettable Christmas...

Growing up in the north, there was really only one sport that mattered to us kids: hockey. And if you didn’t get a hockey sweater or a hockey stick for Christmas, you were considered seriously deprived. Well, imagine getting both! Pure glory!!

I was about 5 at the time it happened. My father had received some kind of bonus from his work at the steel mill. There was lots of talk about it in the house. But still, with an older brother and sister and a baby in the house, none of us kids were getting our hopes up.

Christmas Eve came and we got our stockings special delivery as usual. My Aunt Mary did them up for us. She used real socks with the second sock tucked inside. (What every kid hopes for Christmas, right?! A pair of socks!)

No matter… there was always an orange in the toe of the sock, an apple in the heel, lots of hard Christmas candy in between and usually the kind of nuts you had to use a nut cracker to open. And I don’t know how many Christmas mornings I awoke with a candy cane stuck to my pillow.

But that Christmas morning stands out among all Christmas mornings for me…and it was clearly reflected under the tree that year. I had never seen so many gifts. And since hockey sticks were never wrapped, I spotted mine right away and immediately thought how great it would be to get a new hockey sweater, too. I had a hand-me-down one from my older brother Peter, but never a new one. Could this be the year?

Well, a picture speaks a thousand words, doesn’t it? It was the Christmas of my dreams, the one to remember forever. Across so many years and so many Christmas’s it’s funny what stands out. But I think I’d trade all the Christmas’s I have ever known for that great one in 1956 when I got the stick and the sweater.

So from my Marilyn and my household, may this year be your year to remember! May it be filled with lasting memories for you and your household. And I hope you like your hockey stick!

And by the way...I'm the adorable one on the right! ;-)

just thinkling

Leave it to George...

I have always admired the art of Norman Rockwell. He expressed so well the fabric of life in a America in his time. It's hard not to warm to his images of Thanksgiving.

But long before him, our first President framed it so well, perhaps none of us can add to the wisdom of his thoughts on Thanksgiving. Can I offer it to you as a worthwhile expression of thanks that would be helpful to reflect on as Thanksgiving day draws near?

Giving Thanks for Thanks Giving

“Whereas, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; Whereas, both the houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore, I do recommend next, to be devoted by the people of the states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country.”

George Washington, 1779

What struck me as I read this the first time was the clear focus on God and on prayer. I was remined that when we are thankful, we honor the Source of our thanks: the Living God. But we also take note of the vision of good men and women who saw the power of thanksgiving to shape the human heart with humble thanks to God. So as we pray during these days, let us thank God for all He is and all He has provided for us in this land.

...just thinkling

What the Bible Doesn't Say Is Important

What Matthew 5:3-12 does not say:
Blessed are the overflowing in spirit, the always ‘up’ people, the always bright and smiley crowd who never seem to be down but always overcoming … for theirs and only theirs is the Km of heaven.

Blessed are those who are bubbling over with joy, who have story after story to tell of how great their experiences of God are and how wonderful their life is going and how things could never be better … for they and only they will know comfort.

Blessed are the strident and the important and the powerful people who write all the books and teach all the seminars and travel the Christian speakers circuit sharing their great wisdom and insights and five easy keys to success… for they and only are obviously the ones who will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the latest technique or the latest teaching or latch onto the latest trend or have read all the newest books that give them the inside track on becoming spiritual giants or finding personal significance … for they and only they will be filled.

Blessed are the triumphant and the winners who go from victory to victory, who need no help and show no weakness and never let God down … for they and only they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are those who do lots for God and never miss a meeting and have their kids in line and their answers all lined up for any question that may arise, who always make a good impression and project the best of Christian conduct at all times … for they and only they will see God.

Blessed are those who are right all the time and “in the know” and have verse for it and can stand head and shoulders over those who are obviously in error in their Christian understanding of truth or practice … for they and only they will be called the sons of God.

Blessed are those who never seem to wrestle in prayer, who always walk on the sunny side of the faith, who are well liked, who have their choices constantly affirmed by those around them and their deeds praised in the gates … for theirs and only theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

And blessed are you when people think you’re the best thing since sliced bread, when they accord you status and glory in who you are and what you have accomplished in life, and wonder aloud how the Kingdom of God ever got along without you up ‘til now … because you and only you will be rewarded in heaven like all the other really significant Christians who are dead and gone but were just like you.

Remembering...

I did a re-write of an old piece of work that is meant to prompt you to simply remember. I used portions of it the Memorial Day Sunday and the smiles it evoked were worth it. When you get to the end, I wonder what you'll be remembering from days gone by that I didn't mention but we're memorable for you.

I want you to simply remember. As we used to tell our kids, remembering is going backwards in your mind. So go back ... back before the Internet or Microsoft, before Ipods or Ipads, before cell phones or blackberries, before Playstation or Nintendo or Xbox, before WiTV and SUV and DVR. Way back...

I'm talking about long, long ago. All the way back to hide and go seek at dusk. To Red light, Green light. To hopscotch and double dutch and the playground sounds of girls rhyming out word while skipping. To jacks and marbles, to kickball and dodge ball. To Giant Step, and May I? and Red Rover and Hula Hoops. To Scooters and Schwinn Bicycles. Are you there yet?

Back to the taste of salty lips from eating too many sunflower seeds. Back to smarties and penny candy, to Jolly Ranchers and Wacky Taffy, to Red Wax Lips and orange popcicles you had to split down the middle with your sister. Back to the Good Humor man. Back to the milk man and the bread man, to the fuller brush man and the Avon lady all coming to your door.

Back to running through the sprinkler, sitting on the curb, jumping down the steps, jumping on the bed. Reading comic books by flashlight. Transistor radios tuned to a world series game being played in the middle of the day. Pillow fights, sleeping in a tent in the yard counting stars, playing in the rain. Running till you were out of breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Being tired from simply playing all day. Remember that?

Back before Cheers was only a re-run, before bicycle shorts and bicycle helmets, before seat belts and sun block and hand sanitizers. Way back. Back to watching Saturday Morning cartoons, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Fat Albert and Road Runner, He-Man and Superman,. Rainy Saturday afternoons with the Three Stooges or Abbot and Costello or Art Linkletter.

Then weeknights of the Honeymooners, then Jack Paar then Johnny Carson. Way back to when you actually had to behave and be good so you could get to stay up to watch Leave it to Beaver or My Three Sons … Andy of Mayberry or Happy Days… the Flintstones or the Muppets. How 'bout back to Howard Cosell and the beginning of Monday Night Football.

Catching frogs in a creek or lightening bugs in a jar. Collecting bubble gum cards and actually chewing the gum. Playing with a sling shot or playing with your first Barbie Doll. Owning a red rider bb gun or your first cabbage patch doll. The smell of a ball glove and the relief of not being the last one picked. Climbing trees and big family picnics. Back when it was ok to play Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians. Back when danger was a sharp pointy stick or a mean dog.

Back to when a large square drawn in the dirt was considered a fort with walls and you could not get in. Back when a big cardboard box was a days worth of fun. When a towel tied around your neck gave you the ability to fly. When you pretended to be invisible and began to think it might be working when your parents pretended not to see you. When blankets spread over the dining room table and chairs kept the monsters out.

Back when grandparents were really, really old people. When around the corner seemed far away and going downtown seemed like really going somewhere. Real terror was getting lost and real relief was being found.

Back to when it seemed everybody went to church and nothing much was open on Sundays. When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you had one. When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got there. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When popcorn popped in a pan on the stove with oil, not in a bag in the microwave. When laundry detergent boxes had free glasses, dishes, or towels hidden inside the box.

Back to when your mom wore nylons that came in two pieces and all phones hung on a wall in the kitchen. When all of the male teachers at school wore neckties and the female teachers had their hair done, everyday. When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. And, you didn't pay for air for your tires. And, you got trading stamps to boot!

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him, or make him to carry groceries into the house, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When it was considered a rare and great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. And when milk went up two cents a quart and everyone talked about it for weeks.

Back to when they threatened to keep kids back a grade in school if they failed...and then did it. When being sent to the principal's office felt like a death sentence and still that was nothing compared to what was gonna happen when you got home.

Back to sitting on the porch, back to hot homemade bread and butter. Back to an ice cream cone on a warm summer night. Three choices: chocolate or vanilla or strawberry. A million mosquito bites it seemed and sticky faces and fingers. And the dreaded moment when your mom would lick a Kleenex and then wipe your face with it.

Back to when summer seemed endless and you just hated having to come in at night. Back
to memories so rich with life you might wonder where all that life has gone. But boy oh boy, those were some days.

Now…didn't that feel good just to spend time remembering?! They were good experiences then, and they're good memories now … when we remember to think about them. And that’s the problem: we forget to remember.

...just thinkling

The Postponed Life

This blog is based upon a quote sent to me by a friend. I have taken the quote captive and written what follows.
Most of us are prone to the same fatal flaw. We keep waiting for life to begin … to kick in, in earnest. We are convinced in our own minds (which is the easiest place to be convinced!) that what we are experiencing now is “life backstage” and the real life we’ve always longed for is waiting for us as soon as the curtain parts. It’s like real life is somehow, in some mysterious way, awaiting us just ‘round the next bend in the road. We are waiting, it seems, for some corner to turn, for some moment to come, for some event to happen that will make everything different from what it has always been.

And so we convince ourselves that life will really begin after we get past this test or finish high school or university or when we get married, or after we have a baby, or perhaps have another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough for us to be free of them for a few hours and we figure life will begin when they are old enough … it’s then that we’ll really begin to live.

After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly begin really living when they are out of the house and out of our hair. And so we go on and tell ourselves that our life will begin when our spouse gets his or her act together, or when we get that promotion or get that better job, or when we get a nicer car, or when we get that new house or that new furniture, or when are able to go on that dream vacation, or even when we retire.

Meanwhile, real life passes you by. It’s like the ol’ Bruce Springsteen “Better Days” when he wrote, “I’m just sittin' around waitin' for my life to begin, while it was all just slippin' away.”

So truth be told, there's no better time to begin living than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with things to wade through, challenges to struggle past, hurdles to climb over. It's best to admit this to yourself now and decide to live, now.

The famous marching band composer, Alfred Souza, once remarked, that "For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, some time still to be waited out, some debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were actually the content of my life."

So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds. Stop waiting until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire.

Stop waiting until you get married, or until you get remarried, or until Friday night, or until Monday morning. Stop waiting until you get a new car or new home, until old your car or your old home is paid off. Stop waiting until spring or summer, until fall or winter, until Christmas or New Years.

Stop waiting until the first or fifteenth, or until your song comes on the radio, or until your show is over, or until you've gotten over him or gotten over her. Don’t even wait until the turn of a day to decide to begin to live.

‘Cause what you are postponing is your life and you can postpone it until you die if you want. But know this: life is the journey, not the destination. And that journey is too magnificent and often too short, to postpone and miss altogether. So choose to live it, beginning now.

...just thinkling.

Rethinking Spring Cleaning

I have a two car garage that only holds one car. What does that tell you? Right! I’ve got a garage full of junk. I made a promise to myself this winter, that when Spring came, I would ruthlessly clean the garage. I’m going to throw out all the clutter of life I’ve been collecting for no real reason.

Still, every year, when I try to throw out the junk we’ve collected over time, I can’t bring my self to do it. You know the stuff. Souvenirs from vacations. Tourist trap trinkets. Old car parts, old collectibles, old stereo equipment, and plain, old stuff. I’m a tourist in life: I collect stuff along the way that really should never have been picked up in the first place.

So what do I do with all my junk? I re-arrange it. Stack it differently. Hide it behind something. I promise myself, I’m going to be unsentimental this year but every year the clutter of life just seems to grow. The evidence of being a tourist in life is never more in view it seems, than when I clean my garage.
The Psalmist says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.” (Ps. 84:5)

Ps. 84 calls us to the Biblical tradition of being pilgrims and not tourists. And there is a difference...and it’s a big one. A tourist goes through life collecting the kind of stuff that fills the garage. A pilgrim realizes they are on a journey, and the things they collect along the way are more baggage than blessing. Pilgrims travel light because the destination is more important than the sights along the way.

So here comes Spring. It’s time to keep my promise to myself and clean the garage. And maybe its time to approach it like a pilgrim and not like a tourist. Maybe its time to approach all of life that way.

...just thinkling.

Our Prayer for Haiti

Our Prayer for Haiti

Kind Father, God and Creator of all things,
we have been stunned once again by an event
which seems so unnatural
and yet is called "natural disaster."

We have no words to answer the "why" which we feel…
No wisdom to explain away
these unexplainable areas of life.

Keep us from attributing this event
to an assumption of Divine judgment or Heavenly reprimand.
Keep our hearts from the hubris or the smugness
that imagines we alone know or understand
what really cannot be understood.

Keep us from spiritual pride
that tempts us to form definitive opinions
and speak assuredly for God when God has not spoken.
We, who are so distant from the scene
of such tragic sorrow,
move us from opinions to true compassion.

Kind Father of this bent and broken world,
Give us hearts filled with kindness and gentleness
to be servants to those in need.
Remind us of your gracious love in the midst of sorrow,
and your ability to work miracles when all hope is faint.

We pray for those who suffer in Haiti even now
and for those who await rescue.
For relatives, for the children,
for mothers and fathers,
sisters and brothers,
grandparents, aunts and cousins.

For the survivors who question
what more they might have done.
And for those who must keep on keeping on,
in spite of it all.

For the leaders,
for those who bring aid
and those who await news…
strengthen and encourage them we pray.

Now unto you, O God,
we take the burdens of this hour
and place them in your divine care.
For all you do and are doing,
seen and unseen,
we give thee thanks,
Eternal God of All Creation,
we wait on you.
Amen