There is a movie I love called Freedom Writers. It’s based on a true story about a young teacher going to work in a very rough school. In it there is a line that has always stuck with me. Hilary Swank, the teacher who is, herself, going through a heartbreaking divorce, says to a student who is facing his own tragedy, “We all of us have something.” And it’s true. We all have something.
Some of us lost loved ones this past year. Others have had to face bad news. All of us live with sorrows, both large and small.
We all have something. We feel deeply. We dream. We yearn. We love. We lose. Our hearts break and our hearts expand. Not a one of us gets through this life without it. And that is what makes us human. That is what makes us divine, these things that inform and define a life.
We don’t get to go back and right our wrongs. But I think it is precisely BECAUSE we can’t go back and change what is done, what we have done, that we grow. We gain maturity with this perspective granted by age. And we become more careful, knowing that what we do lasts forever. Perhaps one day we can even find compassion for ourselves having not known then what we do now.
So on this Christmas Eve, during a holiday season that can bring all sentiments to the fore, may we be gentle with each other and with ourselves. My particular Christmas wish is for an acceptance of our humanness, for our own flaws and mistakes, our missteps and misjudgments. May we find forgiveness and love not only for the other, but for ourselves as well, by far the harder act, if only right now in this moment, because it’s Christmas.
Wishing each and every one of us peace, love, beauty and joy.
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!
Love to you all,
Jeane
In an interview with Gloria Steinem, some years ago, she was asked what her message is for women today. She replied, (I paraphrase), “That women learn to be as kind and supportive to themselves and they are to others”. That stuck with me, and it goes for men as well. Your Christmas message is beautiful, and resonates. Thank you. And the Pictures! Merry Christmas!
It’s universally good advice, I think, but oh how difficult it can be over the long haul. I live so much of my life one day at a time (thank you AA for giving us all that wisdom). So happy this resonates. And, yes, aren’t Kim’s blue lights gorgeous?
I don’t know where you are geographically right now, but I hope you are having a very Merry Christmas.
Am still here in beautiful New Mexico. My Christmas was indeed merry. I hope yours was as well.
Hmmmm, interesting, Sherry, I responded to this earlier but I’m not seeing it here. I stayed in NM for the holidays. And thank you, I had a lovely Christmas. Hope you did too.
Thank you. Jean, for your wise words. Merry Christmas from Lost in Maine.
Merry Christmas to you Julia. Maine is a place I find myself longing for although I’ve never been.
P.S. Where in Maine, Julia? Kim wants to know since he’s from New England.
Well said Jeane, and Amen. I love the photos of Keelee, as well as Kim’s kastle! And I have always wanted to visit Maine too. Thanks for your words dear, and here’s wishing all a healthy, happy and properous 2014.
Yes indeed, to all of us!
I am so so amazed when I come across articles,like this one, that only offer the reader perspectives from an emotional stance!? One of my many favorite ?’s to ask people is why were we created? The responses that I get are interesting & yet very sad. This world is passing away and the signs are quite evident that evil & darkness are growing by leaps & bounds. Jesus is our only hope and He is the only One who can save us from our sinful & wretched selves. My 2014 hope and prayer is that Gods Holy Spirit will continue to reach out and touch all lost souls that are hurting, still empty and hungry for truth.
Look up 2 live & live ready. Gods not dead He’s surely alive and He desires that no one perish from this life without having Jesus as their personal Lord & Savior.
John 3:3= Happy eternity Revelation 20:15=The eternal burn
Jesus is the only truth,the way & the life.
May all who read my post come to truly know & experience God in 2014.
That is why we were created.
Jeane,
Over the past several months, work, life…and etc.(! ) have detoured me from reading the HRA blog. A stretch of time off between Christmas and New Year’s has given me the opportunity to catch up on your past entries. What a reprieve…what a gift! You have a way of pulling us back into the moment with your reflections and observations on life and living….thank you!
Warm wishes for a New Year filled with happiness, health and discovery!
Peace, light & love,
xox,Julie
What a lovely thing to say, Julee. Thank you. I’m so very happy to be one of the things you choose to do with your bit of time off. What a compliment. What an honor. So happy there’s something here you respond to.
Warm wishes to you as well for a new year filled with blessings in all their forms.
rereading this. I love your words and I have thought many of these thoughts off and on for years. as I thought about nursing school, when I lost my father at age 69 and I was 28- I volunteered to visit patients at the hospital he had stayed in for a few weeks. I just visited and sat and talked to them and listened to their stories. I found each room to be the worst most horrible story of what happened to them, until I went to the next room and listened to a story again worse- each time- I realized – the problems I was concerned with were smaller and I realized no one gets out of this world without problems, losses, sadness, illness, and even death. and our supporting and helping each other is what is needed and is a beautiful thing!! At 29 I went back to school to be a nurse , mainly because my father was afraid of hospitals, Drs, and what might happen as he was given diagnoses. My main goal with nursing was to help patients feel more comfortable. I did manage to do that for about 18 years., Now I am in an office for 9 years, dealing with computers… and setting up homecare. You never know what happens next. at a point I will need to make some new decisions !
Your path has been an important one. I have benefited mightily from nurses’ care
at critical times in my life. Bless all nurses I say. And setting up home care is crucial work. I’ve said it before, but I believe you’re an angel.