Face forward - even if not moving forward

(Although posted today, this was written Christmas Eve..)

Christmas time for me is one of the most stressful of the year:nervous:, particularly the last couple of years when finances have been really tight. The marketing hounds of hell try to make you believe that you can spend your way to happiness amongst your family and friends. The weeks and days leading up to our annual family gathering have been an extreme source of disconsolation of late.

My goal was to leave at 9:00 this morning to catch a 10:00am Greyhound bus to London, Ontario. I left on time and began heading to the terminal. A nagging feeling was scratching the back of my head. Then it hit me: I left my Greyhound ticket at home!! Oh crap! Now I'll be 4 hours later in London and barely in time for dinner.

I got home and called my mom to tell her the situation. “Well, then,” she said, “you can't do anything about that now, so we'll just be expecting you a little later. Love you. 'Bye.”

Now what? Since I didn't have a lot of sleep the night before, I decided on a nap and get started on a couple of things later.

A tradition in my family has always been for me to bring a special concoction of mulled cider. I didn't have time to make it before, but now I do—and I'll bring it in my bag. A couple of weeks earlier I had purchased some extra $5 gifts for a “Secret Santa” fun gift exchange for a Christian singles group I help run. A couple of them actually would be cute gifts for my nephew and my parents. Hmmm...this delay is not quite so bad—and certainly helped brighten my mood.

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~1:45pm
A lady who used to go to my church was at the bus station waiting for her daughter to come in. We talked, and in the course of our conversations she revealed her requested copy of last year's Cantata had not been sent to her. I took her name, address and phone number on a napkin and said, "Leave it with me. You will get a copy." The extra time allowed her to fill me in on details of her life previously unknown.

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~3:00pm
I had taken a city bus – it was on time. The highway coach, however, arrives over 1/2 hour late. We had to make an in-city stop and I used the opportunity to check that my bag with the cider was not leaking. After stepping out, I boarded the bus again - in the front jump seat. The view out the front was terrific and was as close to driving a bus as I've ever been. In the next major city stop I called my parents and told them I would be late. Everyone would have most of the meal done before I even got there.

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~9:30pm
We all had dinner eventually. The few gifts I brought went over fine and I didn't feel like a dork for not bringing much. Another year of emotional survival has passed. We'll be heading off to a late night service at my parents' church soon. The delays helped not only me, but someone else as well.

Thank you, Lord.

P.S.(at 11:45pm today):
This little guy - a doorstopper - was a big hit with my parents. They had previously been using a folded facecloth to hold the bathroom door open. They think I was being thoughtful and observant, but I know it wasn't me who even thought of getting this gift at the local Giant Tiger weeks ago...
Thank you again, Lord.