My Method for a Merry Christmas

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My Method for Having a Merry Christmas




Over all the years of my life, I have enjoyed this Holiday season. I have family near me, we aren't scattered around the country, or the world as many others are. We keep in touch in every way available, phone calls mostly, but in person and texting and emails too. We are a close-knit bunch. So perhaps it's easier for those of us who share this situation to maintain a warmth inside for our family and ourselves. And on years that may have taken me to my knees, I always found a way to enjoy it regardless, because of something my Grandfather told me while we were out fishing. 

We had walked in to one of his favorite fishing holes. I was perhaps 9 or 10, and hadn't yet been able to bring a fish in, while he had moved downstream just a bit. I could see him hooking up and reeling in a fish, or releasing one. Then he brought in another, while I was struggling to keep one on my line. The fish were there, I just wasn't skilled enough to do the job. And I started feeling a little low. I kept at it though, and when he walked back upstream to me with two nice size fish, I was just about as cheerful as a moss covered rock in deep shade. 




He picked up on it pretty quickly. Laid a hand on my shoulder and said, "You know, sometimes when we don't get what we want, we lose our happy face". You should know he raised 8 kids. He paused I remember, and then he said, "Don't expect to catch a fish every time you go out. It'll happen when you least expect it."

As the years went by and life brought to me a few more of these sad experiences, I was always able to bring his words back to me, though at times it came back a little slower than other times, but it did reappear eventually. And that taught me a lifelong lesson.

I've heard his supportive comment in many different ways as I traversed through life. But it comes down to this for me.

Don't have expectations when life is out of your own control 


I can't imagine what some of us, who don't have family close by or aren't always available via devices of communication, when we seem to need it most, but if you can remember my Grandpa's words, it might help you to realize that in time, when you least expect it, a cheerful and a merry Christmas may be there when its time is right, maybe not for you or me, or on Christmas Day, but when it chooses to happen. 

"Don't expect to catch a fish every time you go out. It'll happen when you least expect it."

Merry Christmas




















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