Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SENTIMENT

2006 was a bit of a tough year. Which is a rather egocentric thing to say. We're all in good health, we're all together and we've not had to undergo the tribulations and tragedies that have befallen other people. We had no hurricanes or other natural disasters.

I have a beautiful wife who, for inadequately explained reasons, loves me. I have two (usually) glorious sons. I have a pleasant house in a (practically) tropical spot. In many ways I have been blessed well beyond my deserving. I know I have been. Perhaps you've felt this way your own bad self. It's good for me to be reminded of this with a bit of frequency.

Still, I won't exactly be distraught to see 2006 scoot out the door. I lost some dear people, some through death and some turned out not to be the people I had thought and they shimmered out of my life as quietly as they entered it. Some friendships hit some unseen sell-by date and just sublimated away.

But!

I have been blessed with some brilliant new pals (particularly, but not limited to, the New Kids from Australia) in addition to the Usual Suspects. I take very little seriously, but friendships are one of those things I actually approach with seriousness. Thank you all.

To all of you who have stuck around here, especially during the touch-and-go moments of the Big Autumnal Project: Thanks. I am dumbstruck--no mean feat, that--with gratitude. You are all in my prayers and, retrograde Papist that I am, y'know there will be candle-lighting for all of you.

Of course, being the retrograde Papist I am, you know I couldn't let this post go by without a mention of Whose Birthday it is. As per Douay-Rheims (Protestant kids, feel free to substitute the KJV):

And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.

Let's keep in mind and in our prayers all those whose Christmas won't be merry and bright. People who are alienated from family and friends, people who are struggling with anxiety or depression, suffering from emotional or material deprivation, bearing the pains and scars of abuse and neglect. Let's not forget our individual moral obligation to those who need our help and concern. Let's not also forget all the blessings we have received, and let's not forget that chief among these are the love of family and the comfort of friends.

To know you are liked and loved? That's gold, baby.

I wish you all the very Merriest of Christmases, spent basking in the warmth of loved ones and reflecting on the good in your life. Enjoy this honest but saccharine post, you shan't see its like for another year.

-J.

P.S. May Santa Claus/Father Christmas deal kindly with you, too.