The Tree

hello all
What happened to Thanksgiving? I mean really? Well it's Thanksgivingmas. The day we eat turkey and then we move to Christmas. Friday is this huge shopping day! Oops moving right along...
My daughter and I went to NYC on Saturday. We picked the coldest day thus far in the winter but it was still fun. To be honest we stopped before we went to buy a bus ticket and reconsidered...but then decided we'd go. It was fun.

Thanksgiving was not in evidence, Christmas was...

We checked out the plays that had tickets available and then went to get something to eat on Time's Square. It was a great lunch with a waitperson who made it really fun. Then we walked several blocks to Rockefeller Center and could see 'the Tree'. Of course it was wrapped in scaffolding so that the trimmings could be applied. It would be beautiful when it is lighted.
But right now it was bound. It reminded me of how we bind up Christmas and holidays in expectations. We wrap them up with what was and what might be and sometimes in these thoughts we miss What IS. What is around us each day. What brings us joy and what brings us hope and what memories bring us peace.
When I visited with my aunt and uncle not long ago we talked about what they remembered about Christmas. They asked me what I remembered. I spent every Christmas with them until I was 23. It was fun and they seemed to enjoy all the things I remembered.
The tree I think for many symbolizes "what is and what was". When you enter into these holiday-days I think you also might consider putting this very time in your memory and make it wonderful.
Be gentle with yourself.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2008