When Christmas Hits

It is not easy to predict when Christmas will hit each year.

Those of us intent on decorating a living space may expect something to strike home when we sit with our tree for the first time. Or for the last time.

Those of us who buy gifts may await some decisive shiver of satisfaction at our final taut tug on a bow or at the look on the face of the person who gets to loosen it.

Those of us who like to sing with others may know the favorite carols without guessing which verse will catch in our throat at that telling point in the season.

But we expect Christmas to hit.

That is why many of us spend time, spend money, spend creative energy in the weeks of December. We do not want to miss it – whatever precisely that something might be this year.

Some promise to ourselves will get kept.

Some vision of our lives will move into greater focus.

Some part of our heart will feel alive in a way that we had not known we needed.

What comes down faster – snowflakes in the light of the street lamp in front of my apartment this evening? Or the words with which I can begin to say thank you?

Oh, the snowflakes, the snowflakes.