Fullness by Liz Flaherty

I've so loved having guests every day through this season, and I'm grateful you've made them welcome. Isn't it fun reading their stories and connecting them to your own? I've been been both surprised and gratified by the reception the Window Holidays Project received. 

I've had this particular post started for days now. There is, if I'm honest about it, a bittersweetness to our Christmases anymore. Although I celebrate the birth of Jesus, and that hasn't changed--although my gratitude has grown, which is a good thing--I miss the way Christmas Days were when our kids were little. I miss the family members who aren't with us anymore. 

I miss fullness.

It's been a rough several years for most of us, hasn't it? We've dealt with Covid, with political unrest, with finding and learning to live with new normals. This is my first Christmas without the sister who was part of every day of my life until the one in April when she left us. Her daughters and grandchildren are finding their way without her. So are my brother and I and the astonishing number of people whose lives she touched. 

And there it is. Not the fact that she's gone, but the lives she touched while she was here. Loss is excruciating--a family at church and another family whose lives have touched ours are suffering that during these already emotion-packed days of the Christmas season. But before we lose, we have. Time may not heal wounds, because the scars are way too deep for that, but it gentles them. It gives us joy in memories. Laughter. Oh, yes, laughter. 

And there the fullness is. This post has been sort of...out there, hasn't it? But there's no more emotional time than this one. All of those who are dealing with loss, loneliness, or dark times, I wish you comfort and that joy and laughter will find you amid the grief. I wish you fullness. 

I'll be back a week from Saturday. Until then, enjoy the guests who will be at the Window every day through New Year's Eve. Thank you on their behalf for your support of them and of the Window Over the Sink. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Be blessed. And be nice to somebody.