"The journey we begin as we answer the call is long, and filled with all that we have been and all that we will become."  Cairistiona Worthington

Do you remember those little plastic puzzles that had movable squares within the frame? The point was to move the small squares until you could form the complete picture that would become visible as you moved pieces around and around trying to find the perfect maneuver that would spell success.. When that happened…voila! Your picture was complete. That's how these days after the Christmas season seem to me, as we move the tree this way so we can put the chair back over there. The table goes to the side so we can put the box that holds the things that only come out at Christmas where the table sat. And so it goes….on and on until, eventually, order is restored and the picture becomes complete again.

I love the feeling of Christmas in our house. The twinkling lights, the smell of evergreen, the decorations that we have collected over the years, all holding their own history, their own story. But I am also glad when it is time to take the tree down, put away all the 'extra', and work from a cleaner slate. It somehow fits the spirit of a new year. "The ordered space is the ordered mind.", someone said. And, for me, that is true.

Each new year is also like those plastic puzzles. There is the frame of what is to come and the little squares that we are called upon to move this way and that way until things begin to become clearer. Ahh…we say…so this is how it's going to be. The picture of this particular year in our lives becomes visible to us in small increments, sometimes becoming very clear and other times all in a jumble, waiting for a few more moves to get any sense of where we are headed. This is the gift of a new year.

The boxes are on their way back to the attic now, safe until next year when they will be unpacked to help us create a Christmas scene. By that time next year, the small squares of 2009 will have been moved into near completion and the surprise will be over, the puzzle solved.

I hope the task of creating the picture, of solving the puzzle, will be mostly filled with good times, happy times and I will be given the gift of patience for the work of its creation. I pray for courage and tenacity for those moments when the puzzle becomes too difficult and I want to give up in frustration. 

This is my prayer for us all……………