CHRISTMAS ECHOES

 This year we’re celebrating Christmas at our cabin in NC.

where we’ll be gathering together our entire family.

This morning I was sitting alone in the silence of the cabin…

(I find the silence quite endearing)

when that silence was interrupted by the echoes I was hearing.

The room was illuminated only by the lights of our Christmas tree…

and my computer screen….

which didn’t matter because the echoes in our cabin 

are meant to be heard…and never seen.

Meant to stir a memory or two…for they are specifically designed…

once I hear an echo….to paint a picture in my mind.

The echoes came out of nowhere…and would suddenly appear…

Friends who have visited the cabin…other friends who honeymooned here. 

The loudest echoes were of Deborah’s mom and dad…

It’s as if they were standing right over there….

Their voices echoed off the walls…their laughter filled the air.

I heard different conversations…even the songs some people sung…

I heard Deborah’s sister Pris…and her children…when they were young.

I heard echoes of our extended family and all the games we’d play…

generations who sat where I am sitting…and laughed the night away.

I heard echoes of Whitman our golden retriever…

his paws slipping on these wooden floors as he chased his tennis balls.

I stopped to smile when I realized all the echoes absorbed within these walls.

Since I knew where these echoes came from there was no need for me to fear them….

Instead…I was filled with gratitude they chose this morning to let me hear them.

As I listened to the symphony of echoes stored here all these years.

I lingered in the moment…smiled…laughed…I even shed a tear.

Knowing we’ve added a great-granddaughter to our family

I felt blessed this morning to be awash in all the memories this cabin has amassed.

I can’t think of a better Christmas present…than to look into the future…

while being serenaded by the echoes of past