A Merry Christmas?!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Yes, it is a merry Christmas this year. Even a white one!! Christmas eve it finally started to snow on the west coast of Norway, the kids were out trying to build a snowman... but oh well... we´re hoping for more! 

You´re even more thankful for merry Christmas´s when you´ve known some that weren´t that merry. I still remember some Christmas´s; stuck alone in an airport in Texas, the first one without Dad and others marked by sad events or feelings. It´s not a human right to have a merry Christmas, and it is not something I take for granted. For some Christmas is the loneliest time of the year, the time not having a family, or not having a close one, or other parts of our broken hearts are extra visible and noticeable to ourselves and others. So many expectations, and maybe mostly our own.

This year I try to sit back and enjoy the merry moments, sometimes they just last a few minutes before something annoying or stressful comes up, but they were still good, I still experienced and enjoyed them. I try to focus on what I have, instead of all the things I´m missing. When I count, I find I have quite a few things to be grateful for, and lots of people in my life! I am thankful for one parent, for one sister and one brother-in-law, for children in my life, for the parts of me that are healthy, for being allowed to come home and celebrate, and for the gift of being able to travel as I do. And I get to eat incredible Norwegian food, enjoy our Christmas traditions and finally be with close ones I haven´t seen for a long time. I am blessed!

Tomorrow I am going to sing, and speak in a church about all the things I´ve heard and seen the last half year. I have a band practice before that and a plane to catch right after, but instead of letting it stress me out; all I have to prepare and pack and memorize, I´m trying to take in that I get to use the gift of singing, and I am allowed a platform to speak, and that I have someone to fly up to. It´s funny how it changes my perspective and takes my shoulders down a notch.

So yes, it is a merry Christmas this year, and maybe my focus can make it merrier than it originally was, or merry - just in a different way.