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For Wilshire Baptist Church

Okay, here it is, my biggest hang-up about Christmas: Hanging Christmas lights on the house and ornaments from the tree challenges my desire for perfection. I want to get the lights lined up and spaced just right, the ornaments placed just so. And knowing that perfection is impossible puts my spirit in a holiday tussle. I also tend to want the traditions of Christmas — the family gatherings and worship services — to be just right, as if they ever were.

Continue reading “Creatively Imperfect”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I went out at noon Wednesday to hang Christmas lights on the house and had to face one of my biggest fears. Not heights, not electricity. No, it was yellowjackets.

I waited until noon to catch the warmest part of the day, and when I clanked my aluminum extension ladder against the gutter at my usual starting point on the corner, I suddenly saw yellowjackets buzzing around the top of the ladder and wall and then me. I scooted away, my arms flailing to keep them off me, and then for the next half hour, I banged around the house with a broom trying to find out where the yellowjackets were coming from, but I couldn’t find a source.

Continue reading “Fear, Hope and Light”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I just came in out of the rain after giving up on an errand to buy George Gagliardi one of those large plastic bags to cover and dispose of a Christmas tree when the season is over. You put the bag down around the trunk before you put it in the tree stand, and then you pull it up over the tree and it keeps the needles and sap from leaving a sticky messy path to your door as you drag it out. I was wanting to get the bag today because George doesn’t have a car, and tomorrow I’m going to help him get his tree into his apartment. It’s a decade-long tradition I enjoy very much.

Continue reading “Slow Down”