Christmas

As I wake up this Christmas, my body is straddled across an ocean. It is a sacred ocean for at one end is the land of my ancestors. And at the other end of it is the land of my birth. And back at the other end, my current home. And there are yet more ends to the ocean because an ocean ends at each of its shores. At one shore, where my eyes currently linger, it is dawn. The growing hopeful light signals a beginning. At another, where my brain lingers, it is midday. And that brain, be sure of itself, has triggered the release of chemicals signalling the height of the day. So there it is, this Christmas, my brain is on one shore, and my eyes on another. I dare not contemplate where and when my feet may be.

Advent (the preparation of Christmas) has always been my favourite time of year. It is about getting ready for something magical. It is like when the pace car pulls into the pits just before the green flag at the Daytona 500. The team has been preparing, pouring all of its energy and enthusiasm and hope into that new beginning. And when that flag drops, I eagerly anticipate that this moment is the first one of the emotional highs and lows as I accompany my driver to victory lane. Or. It is like when the house lights go down just before the conductor plays the overture to Giselle. The company has been preparing, pouring all of its energy and enthusiasm and hope into that new beginning. And when the first note wafts into the audience, I eagerly anticipate that this moment is the first one of the emotional highs and lows as I accompany my favourite dance to scores of curtain calls.

Most races do not end with my driver taking the checkered flag. Most ballets end with only the choreographed curtain calls. And as 2009 comes to a close, every indication so far is that it will fade into lost memories. But this Christmas neither morning nor afternoon, I am bathed in the warmth of family and the wonderful expectation that this year will be THE year that I realise all of the joy that is in the promise of the birth of compassion incarnate: Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas to you, my online family.