Losing My Religion

Hello? Is anyone there?

🙂

It’s been nearly three months since I last posted here about our upcoming move to New York City. Now that the dust has settled a bit, it’s time to bring you up to speed.

The move to New York went as smoothly as could be expected, but considering the magnitude of it all, it certainly wasn’t without its stress. First of all, we had to purge most of our belongings (especially furniture) because we knew we’d be moving into a dinky apartment and we didn’t know how much would fit in it. Between selling furniture and giving away what we couldn’t sell, during those last couple of days in our home, we literally had one place to sit in the whole house, and no television because the TVs were all packed up. 🙂

So…after many months of hinting that something big was in the proverbial incubator–I’m finally ready to share it with whoever might be left reading this here blog. 🙂 Actually, I’m glad I waited, because the end result wasn’t even what I expected it to be.

We’re actually in our seventh year here in Denver. To say it has been a place of restoration and healing would be an understatement. The Wild One frequently tells people that Denver has added 15 years to our life. She has found her voice as an artist, The Director has made two short films here and written his first full-length script, and for the first time in I-don’t-know-how-long, I actually love the process of making music. (That could be a blog post all its own, but maybe later.)

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. Some years have been abundant, some lean, some more stressful than others. But something in my heart has always resonated with the fact that despite the mixed history of Christmas (and mixed feelings about it today); despite it being basically a made-up Christian alternative to pagan solstice celebrations; despite the fact that there’s only a 1-in-365 chance that Jesus was actually born on December 25; despite the over-commercialism of modern times, and despite the now-political-incorrectness of it; despite all that, the Christmas season is still a special time. It’s still a time of year when people attach more weight to the non-tangible qualities of compassion, love and hope (some more than others, but still). Just the very appearance of holiday decorations, and the emergence of the same old Christmas songs–these things remind us that something’s different, special. And it’s still a time when we believers reflect on just how significant it was that God sent His Son into the world.

Is anyone still here? 🙂

And before I know it, it’s been over four months since I’ve written anything on this here blog. And after I teased all three of you that something big was coming. 🙂  Sorry about that.

Something big IS coming from me, and a lot of why I haven’t said anything here lately is that besides being exceptionally busy, this has turned out to be much bigger than I thought, and has required a bit more incubation. But I won’t leave you hanging. I’ll share about it very soon.

It’s Christmas Eve, and you’ll never guess where I am.

But let me back up a minute.

My family has been on a bit of a quest to reclaim Christmas. Not in the sense of “put Christ back in Christmas” like all the angry folks who feel like their nativity scenes are under attack by the secularists and the interfaith people. (Besides, if you go back far enough in history, turns out WE were the ones who superimposed Christ into “Christmas” in the first place. But I digress…)