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| I wish that you all find the time to put the rest of the world on hold.
I pray that you draw near to loved ones and further away from those that bring you down.
I pray that the greatest part of this holiday season was not something that came from under the tree.
I hope that the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping fails to bring down your spirit.
I ask that you take time to bless someone and that you accept an act of kindness from someone else.
I urge you to take a few extra minutes and make that call to the person you've been dying to say "I care" to.
May the joy that you find this season stay with you always.
I hope that when you hear Christmas 2008 even years from now, it still brings a smile to your face.
Merry Christmas to all.
♥, Christina
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| I love used bookstores. I can sit there for hours and just peruse through all the titles.
I love them for several reasons. First of all, I don't see the point of paying a ton of money for something I'll read once (if that). And second of all, there's a unique, untold story behind every secondhand book. I purchased this gorgeous hardbound compilation of John Steinbeck novels and on the inside cover someone wrote "To Hana & David, Happy 1st Anniversary. Love Patti, Adam and Duchess" (I'm guessing Duchess is their beloved pet.) Maybe it's just me... but you start to wonder about Hana and David's story. Are they happily married still? Why did they give the book up? It's still in perfect condition and it looks as though it was never read. Maybe Hana and David just aren't a literary couple.
I also purchased a copy of The Little Prince. Someone named Matt gave it to a woman named Linda for Christmas. He wrote, "I hope you find all the wisdom and truth in this simple tale. Everytime I read it I always get some new realization from it. And I pray that God will grant you meeting your "Little Prince" and that the two of you live in God's love forever." That was one of the sweetest book-notes I've ever read. You wonder about their relationship. What did Linda mean to Matt? Did Linda ever find her prince? Were the two of them good friends, family... or something more? Matt also added a post-script: "Please pray for me." I wondered what happened to Matt, what exactly was troubling him.
And of course, I had to buy The Giving Tree. Shel Silverstein is genius, I could write an entire blog on him alone. But I opened the front cover and found this: "To Christina, Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Tiffany." Ha! First of all, same name. Second, same spelling. (Since heavens knows there are about a million ways that people spell 'Christina'.) There were some little scribblings in the book so I'm guessing the recipient of this little storybook was young at the time. I wonder if she got much out of the book. I know everytime I read it I get something out of it. How old was she? How old is she now? She gave the book up but maybe it's one of those stories that stay with you forever. Maybe she still thinks about the theme of the Giving Tree. Maybe she thinks twice about taking a friend for granted just because she read it once on Valentine's Day in 1991.
Of course, the novel itself is supposed to be the core. But there's so much more to a book. Another example: I went downtown with a couple girlfriends and we take the bus everywhere. We were waiting at the bus stop and we found a novel on the bench. Someone must have boarded their bus and left it behind. Anyways, we went shopping and had a jolly good time and when we boarded another bus we saw that same novel. We thought it was a different copy but the markings on the inside of the book were proof that it was the same little thing we encountered when we left. Now that was an odd coincidence... it was a completely different bus...completely different time... and THEN. We boarded another bus finally to get home and lo and behold -- it's chilling on on of the back seats.
The world seems like such a big place. It seems like we all have our own story, our own struggles, plot, and characters. But by reading these notes and witnessing this epic book passing... I think it's proof that we're all somehow interconnected. That maybe Linda, Matt, Christina, Patti, Adam, Duchess Hana and David are indeed strangers... but not so strange at all.
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| It just takes some time.
Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything, everything will be just fine.
"but you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."
-john 8:32
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