Holidaze

Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year – and yet, for all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.  -W.J. Cameron

Christmas is a time when you get homesick – even when you’re home.  -Carol Nelson

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”^[d]—which means, “God with us.” – Matthew 1: 22-23

So much has happened since my last post, including 2 trips into the Sierra (the highlands in the mountains) of Peru, but as the strange title suggests, this time round I am going to focus on the holidays of the season.  Thanksgiving and Christmas for us Americans are huge days for the family…so much that before this year I had never spent either without my brothers and my parents.  Yet this year I will be in a completely different continent for both, in the corner of Peru where I have been residing for the past 5 and a half months.  And it’s different.  Challenging.   Paradigm shifting.

Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite holidays for a while now, and I spent it here celebrating with other volunteers and the family of one of the workers, who generously opened up her home to us.  Though I did feel the absence of what I would normally enjoy back in the states with the turkey, family, and football, it wasn’t as big of a loss as one might think.  Two factors to discuss is that Christmas is the big kahoony, and Thanksgiving is the warmup act.   Subconsciously one knows that Turkey Day segues into Christmas time.  However, a bigger reason I am feeling the daze in the holidaze of Christmas here now has to do with all the culture hullaboo Americana ties to December.  When I think of Christmas, I think of the snow in New England, the lights and decorated stores of NYC, the tree and the gifts that populate its base, etc.; that is, I think of my version of the 25th of December.  Yet I find myself in a bit of a culture shock here because Christmas, unlike Thanksgiving, transcends cultures: Christmas exists in the U.S., Italy, Peru and beyond, and there are also other ways to celebrate it.  However, the denominator is the same: the arrival of Christ Jesus to our world.  And this is the beauty of my minor conundrum.  My mind struggles to fit the Christmas experience here, in the balmy heat and surrounded by sand, apparent light years away from evening snowfall, into my rigidly constructed box of the season, but my heart is shifting its focus back to the true meaning of Christmas.  The Creator of the Universe came to our lives in the humble form of a baby; that is why we sing Silent Night, that is why we exchange gifts, and that is why we celebrate with our families.   And that, my friends, does not depend on a thermometer.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still weird and difficult.  The Christmas that I know (knew?) seems like a distant memory, absorbing dreamlike aspects, and I miss family and friends.  Yet it is an incredible gift that I am receiving to spend Christmas here.  For instance, I’ve spent about the last 5 weeks rehearsing with some of the kids, and we performed at two different events this past Friday.  For them to have a chance to work hard, sing together as a group, produce a finished product, and perform for people outside of the orphanage is a blessing that I am honored to have been a part of.

Christmas time is a season to spend with family, but most of these kids will be spending it here.  I’ve been blessed a trillion fold to spend 21 Christmases with my family…one with those that aren’t going to spend it with theirs is a gift I can both give and receive. We got a couple of surprises, one for Christmas Eve and another for Christmas day, in the works for them too!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and may God bless you!  Keep us in your prayers!

Enjoy a variety of photos from my recent adventures!