‘‘Twas the night… or two before Christmas 🎄

 

I didn’t put up a tree this year. It didn’t seem like there was a reason and it’s a lot of work so I just didn’t think about it, but then, while talking with a friend of mine, she gently persuaded me to consider bringing out at least some of my ornaments and putting them on display as Tess and I have done every year… I thought about it and suddenly it seemed like a pretty good idea so I went up and brought down a couple of containers where we had carefully wrapped each of these items that are now going on 40 years old or more so what seemed like a little bit of history or memorabilia does take on more meaning as time goes on and one more reminder that the things you might take for granted that will always be here, always won’t.

There was once a book by Shel Silverstein called the Giving Tree. It was a simple book with illustrations but it was elegant and profound in its simplicity. Today I asked my daughter if she thought it would be ok if I donated some of Tess’s clothing to which she said Yes. I gathered up a few items and decided to donated some shoes. I will also donate jackets… These were the things I would sometimes get for Tess for Christmas… these were not things she needed or even really wanted…. They were more of a token of how much we had accomplished and gathered together over the years. Now we can give them freely and hope that as in the Giving Tree, they find new meaning, new purpose and new life.