Month December 2021

The Ebb And Flow

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Christmas didn’t feel like Christmas …

I have read and heard this phrase over and over today …

I almost jumped on that bandwagon too!

You see – it was 80 degrees in Houston. We wore shorts and flip flops and went out to eat Mediterranean food before my daughter flew out to Florida to vacation with friends.

But that was just part of yesterday …

We started with coffee and laughs and a crazy unwrapping of a special gift and stockings. Simple things but so treasured. Praising God for His blessings.

The day before we ate together at a wonderful little impromptu place before driving around to look at Christmas lights. My 22 year old twins happy to entertain Mom & Dad. We laughed and laughed and felt so joyful. But right at the end of our night we came across a fatal hit and run motorcycle accident half a mile from our home. We felt the joy fade a bit but prayed for the family that would soon get horrible news and all the people witnessing the trauma and death … even praying for my daughter that saw the crumpled body still in the road and the motorcycle pieces in rubble piles …

The day before that both kiddos were working and Hubs and I had an impromptu dinner with his sister and our nephews and niece in law. It was so much fun and food and laughter. We drove around looking at lights – just him and I – holding hands.

I can’t help but think of ebbs and flows …
Changing seasons ….
Kiddos grown…
Old friends and new friends….
Calls that came and those that don’t anymore…

The rush to pack it all up – and the craving of letting the moments linger longer.

Our friends and neighbors lost their mom this week after just a short hospital visit with no time to prepare and the stress of now having to grieve plan a funeral and settle her estate …
Our hearts ache for them – we have been praying and today as we stood outside visiting together a beautiful red cardinal was in the tree speaking to the son who lost his mom as me and his wife looked on with tears … but huge smiles too at the beauty that landed just feet from us…

Oh’ is there a point to this?
Heck – I don’t know,
but what I do know if that there’s days of joy and beauty and connection and family and then there are days of loss and junk and heartache and loneliness …the calls that don’t come and the plans disrupted
but even still … there is Joy.
There is Beauty.
There is a Peace that covers and fills and far surpasses all that we don’t understand.

Christmas – whether 80 degrees without extended family or friends or alone can feel so much Joy and be just as magical because it’s Christ that is the center of it all and is experienced in the highs and the lows of life long after the lights fade and everything is packed away.

Christmas can be a feeling everyday – regardless of what you think it should look like or what the movies and Facebook feeds portray it all to be.

Christmas is a linger in silence … a prayer … or a laugh and sometimes chaos abounding … it’s what you choose to make it and how you choose to view things….
My natural sight may be gone but my vision is deepening ….
May yours deepen too!

I hope you all know the true sentiment of Christmas is Christ Jesus, He is with us each and every moment of every day.


😘XXOO Michelle Cosby Bollom