The Super, Sad, Strange Year

This year I gained treasures and lost them.  I've a new grandchild with another one scheduled into this world the day after Christmas.  And those little holiday bundles are the overwhelmingly good, and only eternally important, news.

The strangeness is that a car belonging to my daughter and I has been stolen twice; once we got it back, stripped and dirty, but still, THERE.  This time, who knows?  It will be a challenge to fully appreciate Christmas Eve tonight after seeing my wheels AWOL at 4 AM, and since the car was basic transport and not insured against theft, if it's not recovered I'll be without a way to get to work.  I can afford the impound and towing fees, if I'm lucky enough to recover it, but not another car. 

Vexing. 

The sad was the loss of a friend I truly thought I would have forever.  To me, it seemed a wonderful thing; great conversation, easy companionship, and good fun.  The kind of friendship that, in one form or another, deserved to last.

My friend saw it differently and ended it abruptly.  There was an explanation which made perfect sense, and no sense at all.  There was no chance to say goodbye; that certainly hurt.  The only cushion to the blow was that I was terminated via email; lucky, that was, since to be blown out of someone's life by text message or sloughed off in total silence seems to be the norm in these socially callous times . 

It could be argued on that basis that my friend was unusually kind to me.  Still, I wish I could halve my current troubles by speaking them to that understanding ear.  Not to be privy to the observations of that fascinating mind is an ache that won't go away soon.

I miss you, my once-a-friend.

To the cads who stole a grandmother's car while she tended her sick family, and all perpetrators of injustice and pain, I can only pray that you will not receive as you are meting out.  There is plenty of suffering in this world already without the Children of God creating more for each other. Justice, however, I do want for you.

And to the rest of you, for the blessed majority of decent, caring people: may the peace and love of our miraculous Savior be on you in this season of His Birth.