Hark! My Christmas Letter

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Whelchel

By now our family Christmas cards are reaching their addressed destinations, and, for another year I found myself unable to write a Christmas letter that sat well enough in my heart to be included.

What did I write about before?
Why can't I bring myself to write something which sums up our year and shares our lives?
How can someone who has so much to say (LOL) find no way to say it?

In recent years, when I try to compose such a letter, the words feel trite, or boastful, or redundant. So, I just stopped sending letters, and resolved to send a photo card with a Christmas greeting in hopes that it would be enough.

But today, I found myself filled with a message that I needed to share. The message started with a few lines in a very well known Christmas Carol, "Hark!" the Herald Angels Sing:

Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die:
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the new-born King !"

In the form of an infant...helpless...exposed; the God of our Creation laid aside His due glory and came to earth. 

He came so that He could die...so that WE no longer would have to suffer that same type of death...

He came for US, the sons of earth...He, the one true GOD, came so that we may be born again in his SPIRIT. 

He came so that we could be free from our bondage to sin over and over an over again...He came so we could be made holy and have a close, personal relationship with Him. 

Hark! Listen! PAY ATTENTION!     

YOU  DO   NOT WANT TO MISS THIS.

In the Old Testament, God resided in one place...the Holy of Holies ... and ONLY the most High Priest could even approach Him! But NOW...because of Christmas, because of Easter...because of BIRTH, DEATH, RESURRECTION and ASCENSION... we have GOD with us every minute of every day...COMPLETELY accessible as a HOLY GHOST. 

AMAZING...He is always with us.

SCARY...He is always with us. 

OVERWHELMING...He is always with us. 

So, THIS is my Christmas letter...because what WE did this year is nothing compared to what HE did this year.

Oh, how He loves us.

Merry Christmas!!! 

Set the Table

I rise to another day,
I set my sights on you,
Their voices try to shout me down,
Try to break me through and through.

My mission here before me,
I set my sights on you,
Their words fly as hurled spears,
And they pierce me through and through.

My day leads me into war,
I set my sights on you,
Their taunts are vicious stones,
And meant to leave me black and blue.

A new day and another room,
I set my sights on you,
A table set by you for me,
In the presence of foes so true.

So Much More To Her

She is music,
She is belly-laughs,
She is group-hugs at bedtime...

"Let us pray..."
"Can we chat?"
and "Talking about that..."

She dances through sadness,
Through anger and fear,
She cries when she thinks
that no one is near...

She is too much food in her mouth at one time.
She is skipping the heavy parts on Full House at night.

She is Peppa Pig,
She is Olivia,
She is iCarly and Victorious.

She is so much more than we could ever know,
What her Creator stored up within secret troves.

Goggles

I am ever so grateful for the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (WCBVI), and for the Pre-school-6 Year conference that they put together annually here in Wisconsin.  Over the years, I think we attended four conferences and enjoyed each of them and gained something new every time.

I specifically remember one presentation that my husband and I attended in which we were given a pair of goggles to wear that simulated a vision impairment close to that of our daughter's.  It wasn't the perfect simulation of her vision, but it had a couple of key things:

• A hemorrhage in one eye, which our daughter did not have, but the hemorrhage occluded the vision from that eye, and our daughter can't see with her left eye

• 20/200 vision in the other eye 

Seeing things "the way" she sees them was startling enough, but the session director then had us attempt to complete various tasks.  If I recall correctly, I was supposed to put together a cabin out of Linkin' Logs.  I recall having to turn my head so I could use just my right eye to read the directions and find the pieces, because only the right eye was "working".  I found it incredibly difficult to adapt, and I started to get a headache because my right eye was working so much harder than my left eye.  I grew frustrated and tired.

My husband also participated in this same session only it was the hour after me, so we didn't have a chance to debrief before he went into the room.  He wore a pair of simulation goggles and completed a task as well.  He recounts a thought-provoking experience that he had while performing his task.  My husband was concentrating on what he was supposed to be doing, when suddenly someone came up behind him, without warning, and wiped his nose with a tissue.  Wow!  Brilliant!  How many of us would do that to our children without thinking about how alarming that would be? 

I realized, after that particular WCBVI conference, that it's important for me to try to see the world through my daughter's eyes.  When she's tired or frustrated, or when a task is more difficult for her than I think it should be, I remember my experience with the goggles I wore that day; the goggles that gave me a whole new perspective, and a healthy respect for everything my daughter DOES accomplish without grumbling or complaining.

You can check out the various low-vision simulation goggles at places like http://www.lowvisionsimulators.com/, or look at some of the vision simulation activities at http://www.perkins.org/resources/scout/vision-and-blindness/simulation-of-vision.html.  

Don't we all wear our own pair of goggles everyday?  We never really see every situation the same way that others see it, because we have our own individual interpretations based on our life experiences. Maybe Tennessee Williams said it best:

Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see ...each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, competition-- all such distortions within our own egos-- condition our vision of those in relation to us... That's how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each others' naked hearts. (accessed 2/13/14 at http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/290058-nobody-sees-anybody-truly-but-all-through-the-flaws-of)