A Quiet Holiday this year

They are calling it the “blizzard of the century”.  The evening before Christmas Eve 2022, the strong winds came, the flurries began and the temperatures dropped to degrees we haven’t witnessed in years. Stores began to close, road closures announced and driving bans were placed in effect. If you were someone that waited until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping, you were not going to finish it in time this year. This lead us all to the same option; a quiet holiday spent at home, either alone or with family to wait out this storm, which in retrospect was not a bad thing.
     As always, times of disasters and distress seems to bring out the best in humanity. Families there for one another, neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers.  Today the sun is out and the snow is beginning to melt.  It should never take an epic storm to remind us of what is important. We do not need all the hustle and bustle in our lives, all the gifts and material things to make our lives or the holidays meaningful. The only thing we ever really need is each other.                                      
     I would like to close out this year with my closing statement I read on Christmas Day during our church service.
          I lead, yet I learn.  We learn together, we grow together, we question together, we believe together.  We are who we touch while on this earth.  I will be no one when I leave if I am not remembered for those I helped, for those lives I changed for those lives I impacted.  I am no one without you, yet together, we are eternity.
    My Love to each and every one of you as we move forward into 2023.
Namaste’  Nancy Lombardo