Step toward 2018

(My winter hat came just at the right time.  A friend traps coyotes and makes these headbands.  I have been out in cold weather and it is warm.  Love it!)   

 Christmas has been cold in our part of the country.  We don’t have the snow the northeast got, thank goodness, but through Sunday it will be frigid.  Today it got up to seven degrees above and that seemed warm!  The summer drought has really hampered the ranchers.  Many of them did not go into this weather with a reserve of hay.  Summer prairie fires did much damage to hay crops.  Some have been buying hay while others tried to fatten their calves and sell early.  Tough!
    I had fun decorating my new porch this Christmas — fir branches and lights, a wreath and it really did look nice.  I didn’t do much inside but lights at Christmas are so important.  We know Jesus is the ‘light of the world’.  That is why December is so wonderful and then January seems dark and cold and cheerless.    ++++++++++++++++++++++++
    I think most of us are really looking forward to 2018.  Last year was a pretty cheerless year in natural disasters, politics, civil unrest,  and a general unease throughout our country.  The situation of refugees has really touched my heart.  We are so blessed — we are comfortable, we are safe — while there are millions of people displaced and living in poverty.  There is a fear among western nations that we will be overwhelmed.  Instead we need to try and find ways to help these families make a living for themselves.  We have to find a way to give hope.  There are so many organizations we can support that do good work.  We also need to speak positively when the conversation turns negative.  I am going to promise myself this year to speak out more — not in anger, but with reason.  If we call ourselves Christians, then we must live in love and work for peace in our hearts so we can find peace in the world.   It needs to be a universal resolution. Peace and joy and love fill your lives and the lives of those you love in 2018.

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