Happy Birthday! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

From birthdays (my daughter’s and mine) to holidays- everything has been all rolled up into one full, nonstop month!

Like everyone I’ve been so busy trying to do it all, get it all done, clean it all up and find time to unwind too that it feels like I’ve been in a constant whirlwind.

As I sat down to do a little work on the first day of the New Year and my last vacation day I am again reminded of the miracle of every day that we live and breathe.

I am working on stories, my column, community happenings and death notices when I read about a Checotah lady who was my age, 55, but passed away right before Christmas so I pause to say a prayer for her family and realize just how fragile life is.

As I walk to the kitchen to make myself cup of hot tea and honey, I notice that the beautiful roses that my son, Christopher, got me for Christmas and my birthday have opened up. The one unique gift was a single rose preserved in a water solution to keep it beautiful for a long time, while the bouquet of roses I had to put into a vase with water and add its sugar packet to keep them going for hopefully a week or more. They are absolutely gorgeous this morning though and they stop me in my tracks so I take a picture to remind me of their splendor.

As I admire the roses and the sentiment behind them, I realize how they are a lot like our lives – beautiful, delicate, loved, admired, fragrant, and yet so fragile with many thorns. Yet they are planted, cultivated, watered with love, bloom with the right amount of sunshine, survive every season even through the harsh, cold times and grow year after year until their time is done.

As I reflect over my last year and my 55 years of blooming, I look forward to my new year and all it has in store for me. So, I will stop to recognize all the little miracles that have happened in my life to bring me to this time and place. I am grateful for all the seasons of my life where I was planted, watered and grew in love to reveal the beauty that I possess inside and out like the beautiful rose. I stop and remember that “to everything there is a season” so we must learn to endure and enjoy them all because one day they will only be a picture or a memory. So enjoy them while they last. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 states “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

It also goes on to say God has made every thing beautiful in his time and that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, because it is the gift of God.

So I pray that this year we all stop to see the beauty of life itself and enjoy all the seasons of our lives. Water what you can, grow in love and grace, and capture every moment while you can. May your year be fruitful and sweet and may the blessings of the Lord overtake you in this New Year.

Rest, Replenish, Repair, Reflect, Respect, Resolve, Regard and Remember the Rose.