This time of year can be especially difficult for families that have lost a loved one. As we go through our Holiday season, we, too, are right there with those whose hearts are hurting.
For me, this time of year creates a deep sense of reflection where my mind tends to replay many happy memories of years gone by…memories that make me laugh out loud (I have alarmed some people who have looked at me funny as I’m laughing out loud with no one else in the truck…I don’t care though)! Even if they still bring about the gone-but-not-forgotten unique and painful sting (I know many of you know this sting oh-so-well, too), they still make heart swell with happiness and feel closer to those I’ve lost.
A dear lady by the name of Gladine, who has since gone home to be with the Lord, told me many years ago when I was a kid that in your heart are many rooms: A room for every person you love. She said, “When you lose the people you love in your life, they never leave your heart.” She went on to say that the wonderful thing about them being in your heart, you can visit them anytime you feel strong enough to open the door. “When the pain gets to be too much,” she said, “you just excuse yourself, walk out of the room and close the door until next time.” I’ve lost quite a few loved ones since then and I still hold on to this wise woman’s words; a woman who had lost so many she loved by the time she came into my life to include her only child, as well as, her husband yet she beamed with happiness so much that she lit up a room the moment she walked into it.
As we go through these very special days making plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, designing our Christmas shopping lists, anticipating Black Friday deals, gathering the traditional recipes we want to cook for our family and friends and the many other items that darken our white sheet of paper, on our never-ending to-do lists, may we keep others who have experienced loss, close to our hearts in prayer and held tenderly in our daily thoughts. They need us to lean on even if we have never had the chance to meet in person (one of the splendid beauties of today’s technology). [pullquote_right]A willfully, surrendering ear to a hopeless, hurting heart is a very special gift we can give someone this holiday season; something money cannot buy.[/pullquote_right]
As I close this post, my hope for you is that this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, the Lord will bring about a peace you haven’t yet experienced: His supernatural peace found in and through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. I hope and pray He blankets you with the knowledge that He created you out of love and compassion just for Him. With all of the animals (gifts as I see them) he places in your life to love and care for, may you feel His love for you through them like never before in every lick (kiss), paw in the face, loving gaze and jump for joy.
God bless you and your family! May you have a very Happy Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas!
P.S. If you see me driving with the pack around town, no other humans in the truck and I’m laughing, don’t be alarmed. It’s just my spirit working in overtime as I go through my memory album.
A special note to my most recent fur-baby who went to Rainbow Bridge this past March: Rossy, my beloved little Pickle Juice, Mommy, Daddy, Rog, Jordie, Lanai, Boe, Rhett Butler, Sable, Grandma and Grandpa all miss you so much! We miss your love for this time of year; you had a built-in Christmas beacon that shone brighter than any star on the clearest of night skies! Mommy misses taking you to Boca to hike with friends you loved so much in the place you held so dear. You have the best Christmas present of all: Hanging with Jesus, surrounded by your big brothers, Phoenix and Myta, as well as, Tommy, Taz, Precious and Felicia— some family you had never met prior to Rainbow Bridge. We’re asking Jesus to send you, your brothers and sister, THOUSANDS more hugs and kisses from us until we can see you again and give them to you ourselves <3