Out of the Basement

I am taking my mother in law back to South Carolina this morning. She has been with us since just before Thanksgiving. Its been a great visit, but she is ready to get back home. I understand that; nothing like the land of familiar. I've seen the homesickness falling on her. It comes to us all  in small subtle nuance as we stare out a window at a different landscape causing us to acknowledge the difference from something long remembered... our normal. So she longs for home. But these have been good  days with her. Here at the holidays many are oft to think about home.  Not where they actually dwell,  but that sweetly remembered innocence of some past perfection that we can't quite seem to recapture.  I have my own Sweet Georgia Christmases I recall, but that's for another telling. The problem with the idyllic past perfected is it is unattainable... or at least misremembered. I think it was Voltaire that is credited with saying "perfect is the enemy of good." In

It never fails. Every year about this time we are bombarded at every sensory level with Christmas cheer! We all decorate, cook, sing, and celebrate as the holidays unfold all around us! It's  like the old black & white movies that end in some town square with crowds of people singing joy, resolution and Silent Night. And that does happen... even now... but not always! Some don't have that picture perfect finale to every Christmas. Some don't even come close. Today, as many of us start unpacking decorations and chasing our favorite recipes, others within arms reach of us are packing up any hope they have as they fight the anguish of a less than celebratory circumstance. Today we see cities in ashes, lives are being taken by others, and hope... yes hope hangs by a thread for many! It would do us all well to look around and see... many who live these challenged lives are much closer than we can imagine! Also, I am certain that the first Christmas happened because so ma