“Some Christmas tree ornaments do a lot more than glitter and glow; they represent a gift of love given a long time ago.”
“Nothing, in truth, can ever replace a lost companion. Old comrades cannot be manufactured. There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories, so many bad times endured together, so many quarrels, reconciliations, heartfelt impulses. Friendships like that cannot be reconstructed. If you plant an oak, you will hope in vain to sit soon under its shade. For such is life. We grow rich as we plant through the early years, but then come the years when time undoes our work and cuts down our trees. One by one our comrades deprive us of their shade, and within our mourning we always feel now the secret grief of growing old. If I search among my memories for those whose taste is lasting, if I write the balance sheet of the moments that truly counted, I surely find those that no fortune could have bought me. You cannot buy the friendship of a companion bound to you forever by ordeals endured together.”
Maybe this season you are at a stage in your life where some of those relationships have been broken. A friend you don’t see anymore by choice, a parent you don’t talk to anymore, a sibling that is out of your life by choice and maybe you are living life just with these broken relationships and let this season be the season of that reconciliations.
“Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person’s throat. Forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone, you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established. Forgiveness does not excuse anything. You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for his wholeness.”
This season pick up that phone and call that person, maybe start with a Hi and then maybe a sorry. Maybe they broke of that relationship and you deserve to be at the receiving end of an apology, but be bigger than that this season, that baby under the tree would love that. This season meet up with that person for a coffee, take that first step, start rebuilding what is broken, be the one to make amends. This season shoot a text to that person who really needs it and you’ve been avoiding. After all this season of Joy cannot be that if there’s joy missing in your relationships.
Where Are You Christmas? I want to make amends