AS I WRITE this post, I am under a quilt on our bed in our guest room, a tumbler of hot coffee beside me. It’s 6:50 am, on Saturday, December 21, and I’ve been awake since, oh, 4:45 or so, a hundred thousand thoughts tumbling around in my head they way they do when it’s dark and you can’t quiet or corral them. We’ve moved to the guest room because we are doing a small addition to our house, renovating the master bedroom area and adding a sweet writing space for me that will look over our pretty back yard. It’s an exciting time, with my novel coming in June, and with early reader copies just this week in the mail to reviewers, influencers, folks who might offer a blurb. A box should arrive on my doorstep any day and for the first time, I’ll hold in my hands the story I imagined as I began to write it in 2013.
It is so, so exciting.
And it is Christmas. Christmas is here! Or nearly so, as I look at my very long list of holiday To-Dos and see their numbers finally dwindle. This is a thrilling one for our family as it’s our first with precious Posey, our first grandchild, a happy, giggly almost-8-month-old around whom my whole heart is wrapped. How joyful I feel knowing she will be with us as we celebrate the baby Jesus—what new depths there have been for me already in this season of Advent. Our plans are robust and filled with family and friends and presents and food—so much food—and lots of celebrating, for this year we have so much to celebrate. (I get a little giddy just writing that sentence.)
All of which is actually to say in this moment I feel hopeful. I feel love. I feel the joy of that holy night when shepherds bowed and angels sang and Mary and Joseph, for the very first time, held their baby boy and marveled at the miracle. At the promise that the good news was for all people—for all people, until the end of time.
I hope you feel it, too, all during Christmas. And I pray the promise foretold is one we can cling to and hold on to and can carry forward with us as we enter a new year, even as it is one filled with uncertainty and change.
Joy to the world! let us sing. Let us sing with all our hearts.
Joy, most especially, to you.
XXOO
Cathy,
Oh the joy of a child at the holidays! I feel so many of the tugs of the holidays and the love you described!
Tis the season to remember the promise of a never ending love and the grace that gives that love wings!
May you and yours have the best Christmas and a blessed New Year!!
Cathy, your writing is so uplifting and joyful. Thanks for the beautiful reminder of our saviors birth and the importance of family and friends in life. I would love to meet little Posey one day….such a sweet name in memory of your mom. His blessing on you and family during this wonderful season. ?
A joyful and blessed Christmas to you and your family! So looking forward to your book arriving in June!! Much love and peace – Danna