It is the time of year to be thankful. I am thankful each day for being alive. After surviving breast cancer for 11 years, I’m “cured”, and grateful that my life was changed forever. Ten years ago I took my first trip to South Africa and the memory is refreshed every morning when I get a decade’s worth of blessings. Everything hasn’t been perfect, but rather than a black-and-white existence, I now see the world in technicolor, excited to wake up each day anxious to experience the next adventure.

I like this time of year as it also signals the start of the liturgical year with Advent. It is the four weeks leading up to the birth of the Christ child which reminds us of the new start that Christ gives us over and over. All we have to do is believe to have our past forgiven and to become new again.

It is a story that never gets old. We can remember the past and look forward to the future, but it is the magic of the present that keeps us fully alive.

As we look forward to the coming of the Christ Child, we balance remembrance and anticipation neatly wrapped in swaddling clothes once again.

I hope that you will embrace another “Do Over” in your life. It is only when we can accept forgiveness and feel God’s love that we are able to see the world in all its majesty as God’s kingdom.

Blessings, my friend,
Agatha