Musings 
No Comments A Lesson from a Christmas Tree
I received the following letter from my sister Kristi Overgaard-Snow.
She is a Berserker!
******
Dear Jim,
My life…
I became inspired after touring homes last week on the Fresno Home Tour; a Valley Children’s Hospital Fundraiser where the Who’s Who’s of Fresno decorate their homes and permit a public tour for charity. These amazing homes are alive with awesome Christmas decorations.
Following the tour I had great ambitions of making our family tree look like the beautifully decorated trees on the tour. (Our tree had been up for a week and not yet decorated as my mind was ruminating on what I wanted it to look like). So Sunday morning after everyone was up, fed, and settled I went about bringing my vision to fruition – carefully scrutinizing the placement of each ornament. The tree came out just as I had hoped, beautiful and quite unique! Everyone was very impressed. (All except Grandma, but that was expected – she just cannot help herself). LOL
After cleaning-up all the left-over Christmas paraphernalia I went to the kitchen to tidy up. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash. I look and with time seemingly stopping as if in slow motion I yell… “Noooo……” and run towards my beautiful tree that is now falling to the ground.
I didn’t make it in time. The tree hit the floor. My Lenox China ornaments that Mom gave me for Christmas over 10 years ago were all smashed, broken, and strewn about. Water was seeping out, pine needles, and broken ornaments were all over the place. All I could do is stand there and say; “WOW”. No real dramatic outburst – just acceptance of what happened. I simply grabbed the boom and towels and started cleaning-up the mess. I stood the tree upright again and backed-away to examine the extent of the damage. No amount of new attention was going to restore its glory.
Later, upon reflection, it struck me that like my tree, life is often a series of falls – we fall, we get up, we dust ourselves off and we move on – hopefully learning and being better prepared for the next fall. The goal, is to become stronger, more aware, and more loving/giving people along the way – with the intention and focus to not waste time by getting stuck or paralyzed by the drama of life’s ‘falls’ (a friend with horses describes these as ‘life’s unscheduled dismounts’).
I have chosen to leave our tree as it is – disheveled, uneven, and missing ornaments. Leaving it just as I picked it up off the floor. For me it is a reminder that not everything is perfect – things happen in our lives no matter how hard we work for perfection. Our job is to learn something each day, adjust to the unscheduled dismounts, and become a better person than we were the day before.
Often our lives are far from perfect, sometimes not pretty, or convenient. In accepting my current life situation, although it is not how I envisioned it would be, I am pleased with my practiced resilience, my good intentions, and my ability to laugh through its disappointments. A wise someone said, “Laughter is the music that lets our troubles dance.” Amen.
Love – Kristi
