A time for every purpose

Every Christmas I look forward to that Moment that helps redefine and remind me what the season is all about.

It didn’t happen this year, and that’s okay because instead of a Moment helping remind me of the meaning of the season, various events of the season reminded me of the importance of family.

And when I talk of family, I’m talking about family in the broadest, most extended of terms.

Our extended family in the course of eight days experienced a death and a funeral, a Christmas open house for 30 people, and a birth.

And through each emotional phase, family leaned on family for support and it didn’t matter if it was child or stepchild, husband or ex-husband, wife or ex-wife, husband of ex-wife, or wife of ex-husband, mother or mother-in-law, father or father-in-law.

The extended family has been redefined by marriages, divorces and remarriages. Families become a blended blend of far-reaching ingredients.

As it was, this was going to be a Perfect Storm Christmas.

My very large family gets together every other year to celebrate the holiday, usually at my mother’s in Maine with the opening of presents and feasting on roast beast.

This year, however, my wife Jane’s family was also gathering here in anticipation of a Jan. 1 due date of a first granddaughter.

So Jane and I volunteered to make our home Christmas Day Central for an open house and buffet for about 30 people.

But, during the run-up in our preparations, Jane’s ex-husband’s wife Cheryl passed away, fighting the good fight against cancer for as long as she could.

Focus shifted. Emotional strength marshaled. We cried at the loss. Celebrated the life.

All this against the backdrop that Cheryl’s daughter Jenn is getting married on New Year’s Day.

And then we immediately upshifted to celebrate Christmas Day with food, drink, the din of conversation and the merriment of Christmas songs.

And wouldn’t you know? The baby that wasn’t due until New Year’s Day decided she wanted to be born on the day after Christmas.

Stepdaughter Kelsey and her husband Jeremy headed to the hospital within a few hours after our party ended.

So focus shifted again. More emotional strength was marshaled. And family gathered at the hospital to await the birth of Rylin Anne, the newest member of our extended family.

Now Rylin shares the same birthday as her aunt, Reilly, Jane’s daughter and Kelsey’s sister.

Through the week, as events shifted and emotions ran from high to low and low to high, the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds kept spinning around in my head:

To everything Turn, Turn, Turn

There is a season Turn, Turn, Turn

And a time to every purpose, under Heaven.

Taken from Ecclesiastes it was one of the readings at Cheryl’s funeral mass.

And I guess if there was a Christmas Moment, that was at close as it came:

… A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

… A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

We did it all in the course of eight days.