At the Year’s End

Today, I will pack up the Christmas decorations and return the house to its normal, less-festive but more practical state. I suspect as well that God will do some “undecorating” of His own, melting off the final two inches of snow that still cling to the ground outside.

While I enjoy the little splashes of color and holiday sprinkled throughout the house each year, I love the feeling of I get when it’s all set back to rights and the slate is wiped clean. That feels like a new year to me. It signals something in my heart that says it’s time to begin measuring days in wintertide, not Christmas, and that our newest rotation around the sun has begun.

I do not make resolutions at the beginning of a calendar year, and the times I have tried to “choose a word” have been almost prophetically laughable. (If it says anything, I briefly considered two words in January of 2020: “home,” and, “still.”) Still, I do feel that something slightly shifts as December gives way to January. These past few years, I’ve recognized it as a small seed of hope that the chill and darkness of winter seem to plant in my heart. Given more quiet reflective time and less distraction, I feel that I find more and more flashes of joy as I pause and recognize the fingerprints of God’s intervention in the course of my mundane days. When speaking of hope, what more can you ask for than to know that the Creator of the universe has orchestrated things for His glory through the circumstances in which He has placed a single, humble servant?

Our governor has issued an order that will impact our return to our CC community in the first week of January. This hasn’t really muddled my own personal schedule much beyond wondering how we will gather on Thursdays. I still plan to resume a light bit of necessary work at home on January 4, allowing for the last week of the college kids at home to stay flexible and family-focused. We’ll get back to our normal rhythm January 11. The governor’s order expires, coincidentally, January 19— leaving most of us assuming that he is waiting on some form of federal mandate to which he can bow rather than looking like the bad guy in the midst of our state’s trumpeted status as “highest rate of Covid infection per capita in the world.” At any rate, I am praying the libraries do not close again. While I bought as many used books as possible last summer as a safeguard against just such a thing, I simply can’t seem to keep up with the appetites of several of my readers, and may have to resort to ebooks if we fall down the rabbit hole of restricted access again.

I think the next few weeks will be somewhat quiet and cozy here at home. I think. One can never tell. There was a teased repeat snow storm predicted for this week that is now being labelled a wind and rain event. Historically, such a thing so soon after a big snow wreaks havoc on our septic system, so we’d prefer to avoid that if at all possible. I’d prefer a little batch of dry weather as our laundry is piling up. (Keeping the strain off the septic means cutting back on all but necessary usage.) We still haven’t gotten a fridge delivered. It would be nice to have that taken care of, though frankly, I’ve settled into a routine of weekly shopping at this point that isn’t terribly inconvenient. As they say in Nepal, “small problem, no problem.” I’ve started composing a list of freezer meals to prepare for Decimus’ arrival. The added storage for things such as that won’t come amiss, to be sure.

All in all, we are ready to close out the year. Ready for the hibernation of January, the stillness of the shorter days as they settle into the plodding march towards spring. Ready to move forward into whatever is next. More of the same, if God decrees it. Something entirely new, should He ordain it so. Regardless, 2020 has nearly played itself out. The new year is upon us and with it, a continuation of all that He is working out in His plan for His glory.