Merry Christmas

Last night our family met for a Christmas dinner to honor my eighty-six-year-old mother. We ate, laughed, hugged, enjoyed and wished each other a Merry Christmas. Then we all drove our separate way home with family members to prepare for the holidays.

As I started my hour and half drive home, Christmas carols played softly on the radio and I sang along, recalling the room full of love I'd left a few minutes before. The gathering was one of the best we've had in a while, even though we missed the ones who weren't there. It's good to be with family, any time or any reason.

I listened while the station took requests for songs to play for loved ones or any other reason the caller wanted. The requests varied from a song for a wife, a girlfriend, a mother, a father. One call from a father for his three month old daughter, particularly touched my heart. The man's love obvious for his child came through loud and clear.

When I stopped for a traffic light, lost in my own thoughts, the saddest woman's voice quivered across the miles, while she made her song request. The song was for her. To lift her spirits at the upcoming holidays, she said.

By the time the radio host had asked her about not having anyone, I heard her voice crack and she almost lost it right there. All her family had passed away and she had no one. But she did have a church family. By the time the host was ready to play the song, the woman's mood had definitely brightened. She'd reached out to a stranger, opened her heart, and the radio host hadn't let her down.

I hope the caller, who had no family, wraps her arms around her church family who loves her, finds peace and comfort through the holidays and beyond. Holidays combined with loneliness, trigger depression and that's something I don't wish on anyone.

I'm thankful every moment for my family and the love we share. I am blessed.

May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I wish you, Blessings, Butterflies and Music.