Please Remember...

There have been so many wonderful blog posts leading up to this first day of Advent. My head fairly spins with good ideas. But there is a poignancy to this season that trumps the busy-ness for me.

Last year, at this time, my friend Nicole was hungrily buying a lifetime supply of Christmas ornaments--literally.  She wrapped and labelled one for each of her three children to be opened every Christmas of their childhoods.

In March of last year, our friend Missey died in childbirth. 

Nicole died in July.

Lorrie died Thanksgiving Day.

Last Christmas was the last Christmas for all three of those ladies.  What if this is the last year we have to prepare for the babe in the manger?  What if this is the last year to make memories? What lessons do we really, really want to teach as if they were the last chance to shape a mind and a soul?

Missey had no idea she was going to die.  But this is how she spent last December:  A December Retreat at Home. Seems like time well spent now, doesn't it?

There will always be good things to do, in every season.  Missey and Lorrie and, especially, Nicole have taught me this year to choose the best, even if I have to sacrifice the good.