Christmas Reflections

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I love this season of Christmas.  I can barely wait each year for the afternoon when our family exchanges ornaments and decorates the tree; for the way we laugh and retell the stories, and one by one weigh down the branches with memories new and old.  I treasure the simple, unexpected moments of togetherness when all of us end up laying around in the living room with the tree lights low, the music playing and the easy conversation that flows.  I love the huge family and friend gatherings with great food, little kids running around and the pleasure of being with those we care about.  Even the kitchen chaos has had a festive feel to it lately... like last night when each of us on crazy schedules came tumbling in at different times, ate our dinner, snacked on ginger cookies, watched the gingerbread house take shape on the table (thanks to Brooklyn), and dipped into the candies meant to decorate it. These are the moments I love and cherish so much.  They are such wonderful gifts.

But there is one gift I cherish more, and sometimes I forget.   It's only when I stop and intentionally set aside some quiet moments to reflect, to pull away from all the hustle and noise, pressure and distraction, that I remember. 

Amidst all the wonderful gifts, there is something infinitely more....the most immeasurable, indescribable, invaluable gift of all: God's gift of Himself to me -- to all of us. He is the gift of fresh, new beginnings; the gift of forgiven mistakes, forgotten pasts, and clean slates.  He is the gift of freedom for our souls. He is Christmas.

A couple thousand years ago, at just the perfect moment -planned before the beginning of time- God did the impossible.  He became small. The creator and mastermind behind all that we might wrap our wildest imaginations around, willingly inserted Himself into time and history, in the form of a helpless baby, born to a peasant girl who was engaged to a carpenter.  And His birth was announced to the shepherds, of course.  God lit up the heavens with stars and angel-choirs singing -- a show for the lowly and lonely and overlooked. 

This is what God always does.  He comes to those of us that want and need him most. He becomes small enough to be born in us,  if we choose to make any room at all for Him in our own soul's manger -- right there in the mess of it all.  And then the Miracle grows in us.  God fills us and spills out of us.  We get to be transformed daily, if we choose, because the creator is lovingly at work within us.

And just like the virgin Mary, who said "yes" to being a vessel wherein Christ could dwell, we have the same choice to make.  Are we willing to say yes, even the tiniest yes, to having God dwell in us?  Are we willing, even when we don't know what it means, when we're afraid, when we doubt, when we're confused and lost in our messy lives, to say yes?  

If we are, if we're willing to make any room at all for God in us, I can't help but believe that we might finally experience a widening of our imaginations and catch a glimpse of Christmas' true meaning and best gift.

Merry Christmas to you all.

words and images © copyright Melody Armstrong 2016

a difficult "yes"

You asked 

something important of me

and I said "yes"

not a thunderous kind of yes

that throws open doors

and reverberates through hallways

but a single

fragile

feather-kind of yes

one with almost no weight 

of confidence

at all

the kind of yes 

that might require some shelter

to keep it from wisping away

with my heavy exhales

i can only trust 

that even in its frailty

You hear it 

that it counts

somehow

it is mystery to me

that You are able 

to take one delicate yes

upon    another

upon           another

and create 

something warm enough

to cover me 

during the cold

winter

drift

words and images © copyright Melody Armstrong 2016

life in transition

transitions

almost

imperceptible 

at times

a quiet whisper of change

  a slight shift of balance

a subtle transforming moment

when one thing nudges up against another

becoming new in the process

it can be a touch 

so gentle in passing 

that unless intentionally regarded

it slips away

unnoticed 

but sometimes 

like a growing, rushing wave

that meets the shore

with life altering force

transitions come

unexpected, untamed, unimagined

leaving us reshaped

unfamiliar

even to ourselves 

all that was buried

beneath layers of busyness

or soul distraction

or forward momentum

surfaces

everything is visible

uncontained

uncensored

just laying bare upon the surface 

of this life we've been building together.

It's a lovely sort of chaos

like modern art

hard to understand

but possibly beautiful.

words and images © copyright melody armstrong 2016

waking in winter

There was another amazing sunrise this morning.  (Is it really the third day in a row that I've barely made lunches in time because I'm too busy taking photos out on the snowy deck in bare feet??)

Another moment to draw in a breath of pure wonder.  And exhale thanks.

What a crazy gift it is that morning after morning, the blazing skies draw our gaze upwards,  urging us to see past the circumstances that squeeze in so tightly, and fix our eyes on the expansive possibilities beyond our yesterday.  Each fresh wash of color and light across the canvas sky comes with a promise that new beginnings are possible again, even today. 

Each morning masterpiece offers a glimpse of the numinous in the ordinary.

It's so much more than my mind can comprehend, but my heart response is effortless.  

It instinctively knows to stop and oooooo and ahhhhhhh and call everyone's attention....it knows to give praise to the Promise-Maker, the one who paints the sky to remind us when we forget.

When my sister arrived at my house this morning, I just knew she would have seen it too.  And sure enough, I couldn't help but laugh a little when she exclaimed that the sky was so beautiful it brought tears to her eyes.  

She thinks He did it just for her.

words and images © copyright melody armstrong 2016

fresh starts...happy 2016

My favourite moments of the Christmas season are those I spend alone or with loved ones, reflecting on God's gifts in my life.  The most immeasurable, indescribable, invaluable of all being God's gift of Himself to me -- to all of us. 

He is the gift of fresh, new beginnings; the gift of forgiven mistakes, forgotten pasts, and clean slates.  He is the gift of freedom for our souls.  

A couple thousand years ago, at just the perfect moment -planned before the beginning of time-

God did the impossible.  He became small.

The creator and mastermind behind all that we might wrap our wildest imaginations around, willingly inserted Himself into time and history, in the form of a helpless baby, born to a peasant girl who was engaged to a carpenter.  And His birth was announced to the shepherds, of course.  God lit up the heavens with stars and angel-choirs singing -- a show for the lowly and lonely and overlooked.  

This is what God always does.  He comes to those of us that want and need him most.  

He becomes small enough to be born in us,  if we choose to make any room at all for Him in our own soul's manger -- right there in the mess of it all.  

And then the Miracle grows in us.  God fills us and spills out of us.  We get to be transformed daily, if we choose, because the Creator is lovingly at work within us.

And just like Mary, who said "yes" to being a vessel wherein Christ could dwell, we have the same choice to make.  Are we willing to say yes, even the tiniest yes, to having God dwell in us?  Are we willing, even when we don't know what it means, when we're afraid, when we doubt, when we're confused and lost in our messy lives, to say yes?  

If we are, if we're willing to make any room at all for God in us, I can't help but believe that we might finally experience a widening of our imaginations and catch a glimpse of Christmas' true meaning.   

May 2016 be a year for fresh starts and saying "yes" to the best Gift of all.

Love and Hugs,

Melody

H A P P Y    N E W    Y E A R   T O   A L L    O F     Y O U!!!!     FROM ALL OF US!! 

all words and images © copyright Melody Armstrong 2016

my fall manifesto...revisited

i want to......

-laugh every day --no matter what
-let thanks to God be the first thoughts on my mind
-listen, really listen, to my kid's stories -- even when I'm trying to "get stuff done."
-make crabapple jelly and juice

-pay attention to my life (and read Buechner when i need reminding)

-sing loudly in the shower

-grumble less about busyness

-accept

-eat slower...savour more

-juice, juice, juice and love the art of it

-pull out recipe books when I get the cooking blahs

-remember that cooking blahs are an amazing problem to have

-make family opportunities to give

-get out with friends more as a couple (without kids)

-write often. whenever, wherever, whatever

-stop to write love notes...even if they are on plain paper :)

(this love note i wrote for my Dad was still stapled to the inside of a 

cupboard door in his garage, years after it was written...hmmmmm)

-give longer snuggles at bed times

-plant life (tulips and gladiolas)

-celebrate small victories and maybe losses too

-keep eyes wide open for beauty everywhere

-rediscover the Bible and let its life land fresh in my soul

-share it, share it, share it (whatever "it" it)

-less wine

-walk to the forest more (lay in moss &listen to stillness)

-lace up in these cooler mornings and get out in it

-say "yes" when the big kid wants to go for a drive

-cinnamon bun dates with boy in braces 

-make mall dates with preteen queen of the house

-watch net flix with hubbie (more TV? )

-play (especially if it's snowing in Sept!) (like mom, 87)

 -enjoy home days to the fullest

-read to the kids

-get more music (non 80's haha) on the family ipod

-find some great audio books for our long drives

-set aside days where a fleece onsie is full fashion

-bake with the kids and enjoy the mess

-create...create...share...

-be true to my creative self and indulge whenever I can

....and the list goes on.....but thought I'd share a few with you. 

hugs and love,

Melody

(p.s. I've included some links to older posts in case you're in the mood to kick back and read a few other related pieces.  Enjoy!)

words and images © copyright Melody Armstrong 2014 

a step into autumn

It's always just one step, at first.  Even though I love almost everything about autumn, my other foot still drags a little --lingering in the last shadows of summer light.  For some reason, I'm hesitant to empty my pockets of summer's riches even though I know I need to make room for the new treasures I will discover on the paths ahead.
    

This making room --this letting go, it's the very thing I need in order to see beauty in this moment, to receive the gifts of the present. 

There are so many new paths to explore.

There are new palates of colors to fall in love with.

And if I am willing to keep my eyes wide open along the way (not closed in a day-dreaming revelry of yesterday's warmth), I wonder what I might find?

    

May your emptied pockets be filled with new gifts of beauty today.  


words and images © copyright melody armstrong 2013

seeds and growth

Seeds.  Such tiny things.  So seemingly insignificant yet they are the perfect encapsulation for life and promise.

But new growth takes time.  Once these little globes of potential are tucked beneath the soil, you can't do anything but watch, weed and surrender to the process - even when it's painfully slow.  You can't rush it.  You can't control it.   

I learned it again this spring as a huge patch of our lawn struggled to come back to life.  While tender shoots of green were popping up elsewhere, this one section remained stubbornly brown and dry.  (The fact that it was buried beneath a skating rink from November to March could have had something to do with it.)  

So we added seed and loam.  Then we watered and waited.  Nothing much seemed to change so we did it all again in mid July. 

More loam...more seed...more water...more waiting....and still pretty patchy.

There are places in my soul that feel this way sometimes.  

Plenty of seed gets planted and watered, yet I am bare and showing in too many places....nowhere near the lush, green lawn I'd imagined.  It seems to be taking forever to become the person I want to be.

As a result, I'm constantly learning what it means to wait and to trust this process of death cycling into life.  The seed that holds so much promise and potential is only produced once a plant begins to die.  I forget that sometimes --that the dying process is always intimately connected to the beginnings of new life.  Too often, I'm looking for a short cut.  I want instant results --- and by the way, I don't want anything to have to die first!!   

It's September and the grass is almost completely filled in now.  Woooo Hooo!!  Just in time to be covered with an ice rink again this winter.

And maybe, just maybe......after a little dying, a little planting, a little watering, and a lot of waiting, some of my patchy places have filled in a little too.

Thank you to the One who died to make me fully alive.


Words and images © copyright Melody Armstrong 2013

to unfurl

New life unfurls......quietly and secretly but always courageously. 

Year after year I am amazed that something so small and delicate as a crocus can push through even the hardest ground with a perfect mix of tenacity and quiet, breathless grace.  

I love crocuses especially, because they are one of the first secret signs of new life emerging after seemingly endless winters.  When everything is still brown and lifeless, these tender buds of purple break the spell of winter and replace despair with hope.

I think about the new growth surfacing in me.  Sometimes it seems so small, so hidden away in secret and barely noticeable that it might not even count.  But it does.  IT COUNTS!!  Every tender, green shoot that peeks through the sometimes cold, hard ground of life is a miracle I am meant to celebrate.  And so are you.

You may feel a little stuck right now in that in-between phase between winter and spring where there is so much potential, but nothing seems to be happening.  It's brown and dusty and new life still waits to unfurl.  Please don't discount the crocuses......the tiny buds in your life that are easily overlooked and sometimes even stepped on.  Don't miss the real wonder of it all --that new life is springing up all around in you.  Nothing can keep it back.  There is so much green just about to unfurl.  

Don't give up hope and be sure not to step on the crocuses.

word and images © copyright Melody Armstrong 2013

winter white forgiveness

What if, right in the winter of our souls, we saw it......the beauty and purity of the dazzling forgiveness that Christ offers to wash us in?  

 And what if, right in the middle of that icy frozen state of our own unforgiveness, we experienced a melt?

...and the frozen hurts, preserved over the long soul-winter,  started falling away...one drop at a time, till just our tender hearts were left?

What if, in our own process of being forgiven and forgiving others, we found freedom to flow, a fresh water stream, clear right down to the bottom of us? 

AND WHAT IF...in the words of the lovely hippy urban girl:

"...she remembers that beauty rises up from the ice shards of life"?

May your winter soul, and mine, be warmed by the pure beauty of forgiveness - both given and received.

With love,

Melody

photos and text copyright©Melody Armstrong 2013

new beginnings

The gift of every sunrise is the invitation to begin again.    

will you

say "yes?"

In the midst of our morning rush...I kept peeking out the window and watching this sunrise expanding.  I didn't really "have time" to be awed and amazed.  (After all, didn't I have three lunches to make, the clock to watch, cereal bowls to rinse and peacekeeping duties over the usual sibling squabbles?)  But the lights and clouds were transforming before my eyes. It would all be over soon.  I didn't want to miss the show.

I DIDN'T WANT TO MISS THE INVITATION.  

And so, even though it was 8:01 and the bus would be zooming by in 2 minutes....even though I didn't know if the kids' teeth were properly brushed, even though lunches were still on the counter... even though, even though, even though.....I called all three to come and be amazed at the beauty. 

ISN'T THERE ALWAYS A SPARE MOMENT TO STOP AND BE AMAZED AND ANSWER THE CALL TO BEGIN AGAIN? 

I'm not sure what circumstances each of you are facing today.  I know that some of you, dear ones, are weary, right down to the very core of your being.  I know that for some of you, just getting out of bed and facing a new day requires more courage and energy than you think you have.  I know that most of you are needed - and it's so hard to be needed when you feel like you have nothing to give.  To all of you, I send this glorious invitation - a glimpse of light and promise of hope.  And May God's tender words echo through you soul today:

"Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion, comfort all her mounds of ruins.  I'll transform her dead ground into Eden her moonscape into the garden of God, a place filled with exuberance and laughter, thankful voices and melodic songs."(Isaiah 51:5-6 The Message Bible)  

photos and text © melody armstrong 2013 (unless otherwise cited)