Life Cycle

Sweet, light tones of a lullaby played over the loudspeaker.

We didn't notice it at first. Distracted by the straightening and arranging of my mother-in-law as we waited in the ER; the constant motion one finds oneself in when trying to comfort.

The mild notes played on.

"A baby was just born" someone said.

"A baby?"

Sitting in our corner of declining life, the words were hard to grasp. Yet there they were - new life... new promise...new hope...piped over the intercom of the Good Samaritan Hospital.

We let our ears adjust. The familiar sing-song so sweet.

It is hard to find oneself now closer to the heart monitor then the baby monitor - yet that is exactly where I sit as I pen these thoughts.

Thanksgiving has been a hard time for our families. Many of our loved ones have passed this time of year. Almost as if the coming winter itself ushered in the decision.

Nature teaches us so many valuable life lessons; some hard and cold; some sweet and new. And while we measure time mostly in lines and in stops and starts, the seasons move more fluidly.

Could it be that time is more like a spiral?

I remember listening to the '90s song, Closing Time: I thought the words - ostensibly about being told to the leave the bar - would say, "Every new beginning must come to an end," but Semisonic expanded it: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

There is no new day without an end to the day before. On a really great day, we might not want to see it end, but on a bad day, we are grateful that we get to wake to a clean slate. The same could be said of a year, a season, a life.

We all stopped and tuned our ears to the sound of celebration.

Grateful.

Thanksgiving may look different in different seasons - and that's okay. Today is a new day. And we can celebrate that our God is the same God everyday!