Today, we put away Christmas.
We packed away the ribbons and tags; we stored away
packages, boxes, and bags.
We basically undid everything we did a month and a half ago.
All that fuss to prepare and just like that it is over. Next December we will
repeat the process again.
As I watched all the vestiges of Christmas disappear, it
dawned on me how much of life is comprised of repeated actions: decorate for
Christmas, undecorate for Christmas; throw a load in the washer, and two days
later another load goes in; rake the leaves, and do it again after a windy day;
say “no” to a toddler, and repeat that one word for the next 18 years; go to
church on Sunday, go to church EVERY Sunday. Then there are birthday
celebrations, wellness checkups, New Year resolutions, good intentions, and
yes, even mistakes. All done on repeat.
The pessimists of the world may see this as drudgery, that
with the repetitions we are like Sisyphus in Greek mythology, doomed for all
eternity to push a huge boulder to the top of the mountain only to have to
repeat the process when it rolls back down again.
But by putting away Christmas, in repeating a process I will
do again, I recognized it for what it was: the Gift of Again.
The life we live, in big ways and small, reflects and works
in harmony with the seasons in nature, the cycles of the moon, the rising and
setting of the sun, the liturgical seasons of the church, the passage of time.
And between the bookends of birth and death, the Gift of Again allows us to
see, breathe, taste, feel, and experience the same things, but in different
ways.
What a precious gift to have the chance to relive and build
upon. A moment to straddle yesterday and tomorrow and to merge the two for a
more meaningful present.
So, I packed away the ribbons and tags, the packages, boxes,
and bags. Again.
Hallelujah!
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