Don't Miss the Opportunity Before You

CHANGING TRADITIONSWe are right smack in the middle of the holiday season, with Thanksgiving and Christmas just past…as well as Hanukkah...and New Year’s Day fast approaching.  As I write, the ground which is already white with snow and ice, is getting a fresh coating of the cold flakes falling and blowing outside.  I hope you, my readers, have had a meaningful Christmas celebration, even if it has been radically different from those you experienced before.  Our Christmas was very different, with very few of the usual traditions available to us this year, but some new opportunities arose to fill the void.The transitions and changes in holiday celebrations forced by divorce (or death, or moving, or job loss, or…) can be difficult to face, but bring with them opportunities for something new and fresh.  There is an old saying I like that says that, “The only thing that never changes is that everything is always changing!”  (God excepted, of course.)  One can become so fixated on the fact that if there had not been this life changing event, everything would be the way it was, that it is easy to forget that this isn’t true…life always changes.  We get older.  Finances grow and decline.  People move from one place to another.  Children grow up, go to college, marry and start careers.  Life is a continuous flow of changes.  It may be necessary to mourn the losses of the familiar past, but it is unwise to live there.  Change brings loss with it, but it also brings something fresh, and opportunities for new memories, meanings and relationships.  The trick, it seems to me, is to be able to mourn the losses appropriately while embracing the possibilities that come with a changing future and turning them into something good.  
As you are experiencing this year’s celebrations and whatever changes have come in your life, I encourage you to be intentional about creating something special today that will become a special memory tomorrow.  Each day is a gift to use for God and for good.  Don’t miss the opportunity you have today.  Take hold of the changes that are thrust into your life, and shape them into a treasure for tomorrow.  With best wishes for a blessed holiday to each of you…Richard