Time, Legacy

Christmas day has come and gone, the season yet to be over.  A variety of thoughts and feelings have  been plaguing me.  The various Christmas movies watched get me to thinking about friends and family. The stories cause me to pause, and ponder life, abundant blessings, and choices.

With all that said, words managed to flow into the menagerie below..   left raw and unedited.

The day has come and gone, the feeling fleeting

Lost opportunity, lost chances for meaning and value

Close but lost, the bells of failure peel their pall

Desires of her heart unfulfilled, broken pieces

Unidirectional, time plods ever onward, ever forward

Looking rearward can change nothing behind the present day

Save the choices of the morrow yet becoming

The precious seconds tick away, with no mind for their use

Actions and consequence interlocked with time and choice

Neither to be undone, only applauded or forgiven,

Be the good or not, actions falling the mind, master or slave

Legacy anxiously awaiting the revelation brought with history

The diminishing peel of the bells echo ever more softly,

The present imperceptibly washes away to time long ago

Yet memories keep it alive for better and worse

Learning from failure may not be failure at all

New chances for redemption come with the next tick

Courageous decisions bid against cowardice, change is difficult

The constellations, the north star, learning provide the atlas

Navigation, course correction ever present ever available

Small course corrections, made by the smallest rudder

Vast, unfathomable changes in destinations, whether intended or not

Vigilance, awareness, the map, and small corrections

Arrival to new shores, or the best of the known returned

Successful passage, or shipwreck the captain alone chooses

The ship of action, time, opportunity

The map of grace, forgiveness, compassion

The navigation the Captain selects

Choose wisely my Captain,

See the truth, be the good

Seek justice, mete mercy

In all things look for love

Time moves on

Formulaic

It’s the season for sappy Christmas movies, and we’ve been watching quite a few on Netflix and Hulu. The pattern is predictable, most often there’s a formula of heart ache and new love and in the end true love and a sense of justice prevail. The movies portray Christmas as the magical time when anything is possible, in that the goodness in people will triumph despite all odds. Here’s the thing; though I know the perfect happy ending is coming I’m still sucked into the story. The scripts are almost always a bit over the top, a little silly and contrived.  The unrecognized artist or musician get their break or reinvigorate a lost passion. The workaholic slows the pace of life down. The estranged father shows up just in time to celebrate his daughter’s new designs. It’s magical, and I love it. I think deep down we all do.

Go back to the classic Christmas movies of a Miracle on 34^th Street, or Holiday Inn and you find the same sappy formula. The very slim odds of success are beaten, and love blossoms along the way. Time hasn’t changed what society holds most dear – family, friends and love. The formula appears to be fairly easy in film. Sure there are the plot foils to keep the interest, but we all know the happy ending awaits us.

Real life is more challenging. Sure the goals are the same – to have friends, family and love abound. The success in business and life are still the desires of our hearts. Living off set with no script to follow is far more difficult. Can you say plot twist? Life has a way of throwing us off course in both little and huge ways. Jobs and careers are not always full in our control. Health can be fleeting. Relationships can fail in so many ways. That’s why these formulaic Christmas movies draw us in, we still hope and dream of the Christmas miracle. The other aspect of these formulaic scripts is there is always a point where a risk has to be taken. Risk in real life can be pretty daunting, because unlike the movie, there is a chance of failure. That’s just how it is.

I wonder though, if we all took a chance at living a gracious and generous life what the world might look like. What would it look like if we all slowed down, put the cell phones away and talked with each other? What kind of community would we have if we gave each other the benefit of the doubt? What might it be like if we all learned how to apologize? What results could we have in our families if we could truly forgive and move forward together? You can easily tell me I’m a dreamer, and I will not argue. Just tell me though, what would it be like, and why can’t we all take a step in that direction?

For me, I want to be a part of that formulaic script. I want the friends and families that bring love to the equation. I want to share generously, and love dangerously. I dare say we all do. For us Christians, as imperfect and hypocritical as we are (we’re human after all), this time of year brings focus on the grace of God through the birth of Christ. It’s the foundation of Christmas- The Christmas Miracle. The Peanuts Christmas Story tells and shows it in a wonderful way. That’s the spirit I think we all want to capture, and in some ways that’s what all these movies are after. As I said, I want to be part of that script.

Merry Christmas all,

And with that,

Good night.