Christmas Greeting 2013

At Christmastime

The tides flow out from the Inner Sea                                                                                                                                                    At Christmastime;                                                                                                                                                                                They find their way to many shores                                                                                                                                                   With gifts of remembrance, thoughts of love--                                                                                                                               Though the world be weary and the days afraid                                                                                                                                 The heart renews its life and the mind takes hope                                                                                                                           From the tides that flow from the Inner Sea                                                                                                                                          At Christmastime
               Howard Thurman

I woke up early one morning this fall, long before sunrise.  Suddenly it hit me that I was in my eighth year of retirement.  It was an “OMG” moment. How could that be? That, and the fact that Medicare keeps sending me mailings, tells me that time is going way too fast. I’d heard about this, but had never experienced it as vividly as that morning.

All of this tells me that life is good, full, and more than satisfying.  

Among other things, 2013 was a year of learning firsthand what it meant to be handicapped.  My left knee gave out a year ago and by March had deteriorated to the point where I used a cane, and took way-too-many and way-too-strong--meds to control the pain.  It was humbling to have to take the handicapped seat on the metro or have a young person give up his seat for me. 

On August 22^nd I had a full knee replacement. But, as my aunt taught me, I was grateful to live in a time when these things can be done.  All fall was a time of active rehabilitation.  I told the doctor in May that I would do anything I had to do to get back in the game.  And I did.

But 2013 also brought a very long list of wonderful happenings.  I still live in Mexico City in the winter and like it more and more.   A year ago I was connected with another refugee center and, very long story short, spent an extraordinarily busy winter developing their library.  The center is run by four nuns and their focus is refuge for migrant woman.  Oh, the stories these women carry! 

The casa had about 3,000 books—mostly religious—and the nuns wanted a library developed not only for the center, but as a spiritual center for the larger community around the house.  It was a great challenge, but by early May there were 1,100 books on the rebuilt shelves, furniture culled from around the house was painted and Shazam! we had a library!

Well, Shazam! is really too easy a word.  It was a winter of living full time in Spanish, commuting farther than usual and dealing with the constant pain of my degenerated knee.  But, in the end, I can say that I held my first meeting and gave my first speech in Spanish.  This is not to say I’m fluent.  My goal has always been to speak Spanish—badly.  I’m proud to say that I’ve accomplished my goal.  

Sometimes I don’t think I’ve been traveling a whole lot, but when I stopped to think back that in the three years since my last Christmas letter, I realized I’ve not been too idle.  Glenda, my dear friend and travelling pal, and I visited Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Russia in 2011 then returned home via a transatlantic cruise.  Steve and I spent an amazing late August two years ago in Iceland and plan to return.  What a phenomenal country, full of geological surprises.  A year ago I spent a week in Anchorage visiting my brother for his 60^th birthday.  I was blessed with great weather, especially the day I took a 27 glacier tour out of Whittier where it rains 300 days a year!  Later in 2012 I returned to Nepal and India.  I flew to Kathmandu via Qatar and spent several days there.  I liked the futuristic Disneyland quality about the capital, Doha.  The two highlights of the trip, though, were a ten day trip into Bhutan which was simply amazing and Thanksgiving with the elephants spent in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park.  I spent the morning helping bathe elephants in the nearby river, then riding one that afternoon.  It was a most memorable Thanksgiving.

Just last month Glenda and I spent two weeks on a Southern Caribbean cruise. I jumped ship in Cozumel, stayed on the coast a bit then flew to Mexico City where I spent a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving 2013 with the Quakers.   The poinsettia trees were at their peak and the azaleas just coming into bloom. The days were sunny and 72.  It was mighty hard to come home a week later.

I find myself more and more connected to Mexico City.  It’s hard to stay away for too long.  Friendships have formed, my work there is satisfying, and I’m blessedly free of the negative and polarizing politics that have enveloped the USA.  This Is not stay they doesn’t exist there, but it’s not my country and my Spanish is still bad enough so I don’t get  entangled in this sort of thing.

So Christmas comes once more.  For me it is always a time of deep remembrance, of wonderful Christmases with so many people now gone.  I am grateful for another year. 

I  wish you a blessed Christmas.  In a time when we are deeply polarized and relationships are fragmented, it’s a joy to know our lives are lovingly connected and have been for a very long time. 
This Christmastime, the tides of my love flow out to your shores.  My heart is renewed and I take hope in our friendship.

Happy Christmas 2013.