The time of year has come again when spending time and celebrating with our family and friends takes center stage in many of our lives. During these lively, fun and sometimes stressful interactions we walk away with some of the best memories for the year and years to come.
This year we decided to spend Christmas in Reno, NV with my brother and his family. The journey here was filled with multiple obstacles - snow, hazards, accidents and the chief of which was - weather. What is normally a ~4 hour drive took us 8 hours. While I'm sure the thought of giving up and turning around entered some of our minds, the two car caravan remained focused on the goal of getting away and spending time together. This helped to ensure that tempers and attitudes remained in check.
Several of us have felt like 2012 has been a pretty brutal year and it is seeming to end on a challenging note as my sister prepares to funeralize her grandmother who served as her mother and raised her, my wife and I brace for what the future of her health holds, the family continues to await the news of my mothers condition, etc...
While all of these are true challenges we must do our best to not allow them to take away from the great experiences we are having as we spend these few days together. We have all made conscious sacrifices to be here and it would be a shame if we were to let those sacrifices be for not. The principal of Christmas is based on one of the greatest scarifies - Jesus Christ's birth for the sole purpose of dying!
His life was one that was filled with joy, trials, tears and a painful death. His recorded journey is to serve as an example of how we are to maneuver through the obstacle course of life. Life will be difficult at times and make you want to give up and turn around. If we are able to fight the good fight, stay focused, look to encourage others, love when loving is hard, accept the gift of love that God gave us and dance when the music is good, we too will have taken full advantage of the sacrifice that was performed on our behalf.
Merry Christmas all,
-d
P.S. I found the remake to this powerful song encouraging - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1DZA_TdBBI
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