Eunice’s letter for January 2010

Happy New Year to All!

I wanted to share a few thoughts with you about the Christmas ‘round robin’ letters we receive each year.  This year I have had some really entertaining letters, one of which had me laughing so much that it made the chores with which I was engrossed seem far less onerous.  I am sure he won’t mind if I tell you it was from Stephen Crabtree, our Curate.  It’s not ‘Kosher’ to laugh at other people’s misfortunes, but Stephen’s account of the things that have happened in his family, Church, and work, were hilarious.  Maybe they didn’t seem to be so at the time, but looking back, if it is possible to make light of the difficult things that happen to us, it really does help to see things in perspective.  So ‘Thank you Stephen’!

In other letters we can be burdened with endless accounts of the academic achievements of children and grandchildren (as fantastic as they are), but if you have never met these brainy children, then it is hard to enthuse in quite the same way.  Really, it probably means, “Aren’t I clever to have produced these clever offspring!”

One letter I received was punctuated with comments such as:

 “Life isn’t fair but it’s still good”

“When it comes to chocolate at Christmas, resistance is futile”

“Why do toasters have a setting which burns to a crisp anything you put in them?”

“Why do we press harder on the remote control when the batteries are flat?” 

 “Make peace with your past so it won’t mess up the future”

“Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful”

“Resist being all things to all people”

Whatever your Christmas letters contained let’s thank God for our good friends who remember us each year, for the variety and diversity of their lives, and for our own lives which are enriched by theirs.  And we pray that the New Year will usher in a deeper appreciation of what it means to be God’s children and recipients of his enormous grace, peace, and love.  God Bless you all in 2010.