Christmas Time Again!

Hello, and God bless us everyone!

Here it is, Christmas time again. It`s Christmas eve, and the cats are at their shenanigans again. Looks like Greta's getting a lump of coal for Christmas. Again.

The snow has fallen a few inches over the last couple of days now. The houses are warmly covered in rolling white blankets and lit with lights of all bright colours and decorations, like the stars in their constellations, all proclaiming the advent of the One, whom by grace was given to us, and was, and is, and will be the best and greatest gift ever given.

I celebrate the 5th Christmas with my darling (the 3rd as my wife) and we are in awe of life's blessings. It's the 4th without my Dad and the 2nd without my Mom. They are missed everyday, but at Christmas their absence is especially poignant.

But, pain truly also is a sweetener. It's not something that I myself ever want to prescribe, but when given by the hands of the benevolent Lord, its aftertaste certainly does leave a blessed edge.

Recently, for a month's ragged edge, I was given the task of dealing with major pain, again. A slightly compressed disc or lesion on a disc in my neck (still waiting on my MRI appointment to find out exactly) was pressing on my brachial nerve which runs down from the neck and branches out through the shoulder and further throughout the arm, back, and chest. It was some of the strongest pain I've ever had to deal with in my life. Top 3.

(Oh my! The Toy Symphony! One of the most exquisite pieces of music ever written! And at Christmas time just rapturous! We listened to it as a family every Christmas for all of my life.)

Ah yes, where was I? Waiting for my vodka & butter ripple schnapps to "louche". While I went I was finding the glass which I'll use for my absinthe. It's the French brand, Absenthe, but still I dearly look forward to it. Its louche from milky colour to green is apparently 5 of 5 stars. My wife bought me a 55 dollar bottle from the local and well-run Manitoba Liquor Mart. It is imported from France but made with "petite wormwood" and though not quite as distinctive an absinthe in the style of its pre-ban French ancestor, does still contain thujone, and is apparently a nice introduction to the realm of the Green Faery. The countdown is on for me - New Year's Eve is my night to open the bottle and imbibe the blessings. My eagerness grows each day.

Ah yes, but where was I before that? I've put Coldplay on now, they're so clean, every note is clear and beautiful.

Oh yes, Top 3. Well... let me just say I've got a dual passport and one of them is in the realm of pain. Since I've been 12 and the accident in which a car crushed my leg between itself and a fire hydrant on a city corner. The pains I've had to endure, throughout, without, full-out, still out, and long endure, and intensely, and unrelentingly, they have honed for me things and ways and glories that bade me always into either the light of grace or joy, which I try to strive toward each moment of my life. Such a wondrous tutor I've been assigned. I learn always every day. I'm not going to dissertate on the whole subject, I mention it to get to my larger point. Bear with me if you will. Cuz here we're gonna try to go...

Pain gives you focus. You learn humility. You learn grace. You learn patience. You learn love. You seek God and the truth. Things cut deeply, but they become polished on the inside, like smoothing out the etchings on fine crystal and it's clarities and intricacies and they reflect inside all the light you see into a beautiful, colourful, true prism of seeing more.

But the only one I trust with my pain is the Saviour Lord. And my wife. (And I trusted my parents with it too before they passed away). She has been a saint through my recent bout. It was crazy. All she had to deal with. Every moment for her was in a minor chord. Let me just say it was my heart that went out to her. Seeing me in unrelenting pain, day after night after day, was difficult for her, even when I tried to not complain about the difficulty I`d been given.

Severe pain is a strange and awesome realm to visit. It is frightening also. As a child and teenager, the hope of escaping its grasp was strong, and gave comfort. My Dad used to tell me that he knew it wouldn`t help much in the moment, but to remember the words of General Douglas MacArthur and say, "This too shall pass." It did help in the future though, as I looked back, and forward again.

But as an adult, and when no longer the majority of life is there to look upon, that hope is harder to find. Faith is tested as prayers seem unanswered. But they are not unanswered. Pain asks you to pray longer and harder, and begs you to remember so that your suffering is not in vain. It is so simple in its prime message, to count and remember and think of and be thankful for all the true blessings that Good Providence has bestowed upon you. Once realized, the intricacies of this message are then scribed very personally upon the inner workings of your being, and they will guide you forward into bigger, deeper and even more blessed realms, like grace, and forgiveness, and joy, and appreciation.

All the pains, remarkable, as well as prosaic, now have become dance partners in my life who, when they take hold, embrace, and twirl me into a kaleidoscope of inner workings, that faith and foundation utilize to etch further polished and crystalline designs upon my inner workings and my outer vision.

Blessings they truly are (though the absence of their presence is never missed, but when they do come, a reluctant sigh bids them cheers, though also a Godspeed in their leaving). Moments are truer, futures clearer, and joys more guaranteed.

Best, simplest, deepest put, as I can: it is grace earned, and grace learned.

And with that, I give you my humble blessings, and cheers, sincerely, and enthusiastically.

I'm in a good place. Hallelujah to blessings.

************

And let`s try to remember that Christmas has 12 days, the 1st one is on the 25th, when our Alpha Omega was born, and culminates with Epiphany, when the wise men came to discover and proclaim the arrival of The Lord, Christ, and Messiah.

See, on Christmas Day, we`ve still got 11 more days of yuletide Christmas blessings to enjoy and send!

Cheers, and God bless us everyone!

Fun Times @ Ace of Spades HQ

Hello from the frozen Canadian climes this cold December's evening!

Just wanted to let all o' y'all know that there's some fun time of at Ace of Spades (I mean there usually is, it's a great blog and one of my favourite sites).

But Ace posted a blog that was admonishing his posters to not indulge in off-colour jokes that his gay, lesbian, and non-white friends would find offensive.

This seemed to irk some posters, and a veritable flurry of posting began.

Well, let me say no more, it's almost at 4000 as we speak. Go on and have a visit, see what all the fuss is aboot!

http://minx.cc/?post=295629

Cheers