Dear Reader:

Yesterday I walked into the den in time to overhear a conversation in a Christmas movie, apparently. I still don’t know the name of the show but a young child was starting to question Santa…asking her mother…

“But how can Santa get all the way around the world to every child’s home and leave presents in one night…there’s just not enough time to do that…is there?”…(It was obvious that there was still a yearning lilt of hope burning inside the child…praying her mother knew how it all worked.)

I stopped folding clothes long enough to see how the mother in this movie was going to respond…Would she try to mumble jumble through time zones and other data to throw off the question…or simply say Santa can do it because he is magic and leave it at that…I did not expect the response the script writers can up with…and I was more than impressed.

The mother took time to sit down and pull her daughter beside her…hugging her while responding…something similar to this…

“ My darling, one day you will discover the answer to this question all by yourself…but in the meantime let me share with you what Santa already knows. 

God makes each and everyone of us on earth unique…no one else is exactly like us. He then designs a special path for us to follow and if we do…we can accomplish anything we set out to do.

For Santa Claus….his path in life is bringing joy to boys and girls every Christmas Eve…and in order to do this…he had to find and then bravely follow the path His Creator designed just for him. Only he can follow it…no one else…and his path encircles the world so hope and joy fills every nook and cranny found on this planet.

One day you will discover your path in life too, darling. And like Santa it will take courage to follow it but if you do…you will realize that seemingly impossible things in your life become possible. So follow your path wherever it leads you…so that your life, like Santa’s, will always be filled with endless possibilities.”

I thought to myself…”WOW”…some writer really nailed it.

As I continued folding clothes the conversation stuck with me…I started thinking about my own path in life. I certainly made my share of false starts down wrong paths…Yet I was lucky enough to recognize that some early paths I chose didn’t grow and change with me…until I realized that teaching was a gift that could change lives and that is what I wanted to do…change other’s lives…which, in turn, changed my life forever.

As I visualized what my whimsical path should look like…for whatever reason I began imagining a path with snow surrounded by woods…so I plugged in snowy paths in woods…and guess what popped up? The title picture…with Sammy the Cardinal…waiting to lead me along my chosen path. Definitely a God Wink! 🙂

So until tomorrow….It is up to each of us to find and follow our paths…we will know when we have found it…when suddenly we are filled daily with gratitude and a sense of accomplishment for opportunities to give back our strengths and talents to this world while… we are still in it.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Remember earlier this year when I was afraid I was losing my pear tree….now look at my beautiful tree giving me a gift of red, red, red in my front yard for Christmas!

My old garden Christmas wreath now has a fresh, new bow!