At his first sight of our Christmas tree, my 3-year-old grandson, Alex, said, “Oh, wow!” His gorgeous brown eyes were wide. Mickey Mouse winked on the chest of his grey and white T-shirt. His hand was clapped to his mouth. “It’s beautiful, Grammy!”
“Look at this one, Alex,” his 5-year-old brother, Luke, said, as he pointed to a photo ornament. His voice was excited; he grinned. “It’s a picture of you!”
For the next few minutes, the boys searched for their picture ornaments and those precious handprint ornaments made by both in earlier years of pre-school. The Christmas tree my husband, Bill, and I, had decorated yesterday is a mixture of photo ornaments and the hand-made creations of our children and grandchildren, as well as mementos of our travels and lives together, and the lives we shared with our late spouses.
Each year, I am like a kid in a candy shop as I unwrap the ornaments that I folded with care into tissue at the end of the season the previous year. Christmas tree decoration is a walk down the Main Street of Memory.
“What’s this, Grammy?” said Alex. He pointed to a miniature, blue-speckled camp coffee pot. “That remembers when your Mama, her Papa and I liked to camp,” I said.
“I like this one,” Luke said. He pointed to an interlocked set of red, white, and green wooden hearts. “That’s from when your Mama was first born,” I said. “Grammy, I think that one needs to be in a better place,” Luke said. He moved it to where it stood out a little more on our beautiful Balsam Hill tree.
For the next ten minutes, the boys busied themselves relocating the ornaments to places they told me “Look nicer, Grammy!”
There was a time in my life when I would have freaked out that two or three ornaments now dripped from the same branch. No more. Sixty-nine rotations through Advent have taught me that the season’s gifts of presence, patience and joy are best glimpsed through the eyes of a child.
© Linda Sandel Pettit, Ed.D., 2022
Photo by Linda Pettit
#lindasandelpettit #advent #adventreflections #hope #love #beauty #grief #Christmaswisdom #spirituality
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Linda Sandel Pettit, Ed.D. inspires intuitive-creative women healers to use their healing modalities, speaking voices, and written words to unfold and share the wisdom of the Sacred Feminine.
Linda offers sanctuaries, intimate small-group programs, to women healers who want to bring spirituality into their work, and to women writers who are ready to share, get feedback, revise, and publish.
Through her Apprentice’s Way individual all-in-one mentorship program, Linda encourages her clients’ spiritual evolution, psychological health, effective writing, messaging, marketing, and content creation.
Visit www.lindasandelpettit.com to learn more about her programs and array of masterclasses and courses.
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