Happy New Year

Another year has passed by—2009 is gone—and I can’t say I miss it much. If you often frequent Through My Eyes, you probably noticed my conspicuous absence. Hopefully someone noticed anyway. Not totally without joy, the last year was nonetheless complicated, stressful, and busy. And December seemed worse. I found little time for photography for me or for blogging and even less mood for Christmas.

Even as a child, I had a hard time finding “the Christmas spirit”. Three decades ago, the commercial clutter of the holidays left me burned out on Christmas long before December 25th arrived. There was a time when the Sears and Roebuck’s Christmas Toy Catalog brought great joy and hours of excitedly studying its pages, but before long, I realized that for much of the world, Christmas cheer was way too connected to the jingle of cash registers. Pretty pessimistic for a kid, huh? Well, I can’t say I’m any better as a forty-year-old.

Our church, Riverside UMC in Macon, has a three-night drive-thru nativity complete with multiple scenes and lots of live farm animals. On a recent December Saturday night, I stood in a cold rain, acting out one part of the original Christmas trio. Dressed as Joseph, I watched over a rubber and plastic baby Jesus, as a cold, steady rain fell. A Duraflame log struggled to burn in front of us as a steady stream of cars passed by our Bethlehem. In the darkness and relative quiet, it was easy to imagine what that first Christmas might have been like. Aside from the fire, there was no central heat. There were no street lights. There were no doctors or delivery nurses. No microwave to warm the Chinese take-out. And there was no crowd and no fanfare. The son of God, who would bring change to the world unlike any other human, had crept into the world in a whisper.

So I suppose it’s no surprise that I find “Christmas” and "joy" in the quiet stillness. When the world is calm and asleep—when it’s dark enough that the stars are the only light—that’s where I hear and feel Christmas.

So for those of you who missed me in December, I’m sorry. My 2010 resolution is to find more of those quiet moments—I don’t have to wait until December to find them. And to find more time for photography, for writing, and for me. For art—for sanity. And I might even find some time for post-Christmas shopping. Who knows… I bet I can find a great deal on ShamWows, Snuggies, and Tiger Woods Golf for the Wii.

Happy New Year everyone.