Counting Blessings at Christmastime

Six-year-old Matt was following me around the house asking questions about bad luck. I was replying to his queries – “How do you get bad luck?” and “What is bad luck?” –with half-attentive responses. I was preoccupied with hanging some Christmas garland.
Finally he said, “Do you wonder why I’m asking about bad luck?”
I hadn’t really wondered, but now that he asked me I was quite interested. I stopped what I was doing and said, “Why are you asking about bad luck?”
“I think I’m going to have some bad luck,” Matt told me. “I walked under a ladder (which was set up in the house to decorate the Christmas tree). That’s why I’m carrying around these.” He showed me two four-leaf clover paperweights he had in the pocket of his sweat pants.
I told him he probably wouldn’t have bad luck just from walking under a ladder. That was just a superstition and he shouldn’t worry about it, I said. But then I told him it wouldn’t hurt to carry the four-leaf clovers just in case.
Of course, Matt doesn’t understand about superstitions and neither do I. Even though I don’t really believe in superstitions I’m also afraid not to. I’ve never wanted to tempt fate.
For example, I’ve always wondered why I am so lucky. I don’t mean at cards or at the races but lucky in life. But I’m too superstitious to try to figure it out.
Happiness and good fortunes are a powerful burden to carry. As opposed to someone who doesn’t have any good things in life and therefore nothing to lose, I have so much and also so much to lose. I, of course, prefer the latter set of circumstances, but it is frightening.
At the Christmas season it is appropriate to extend wishes to others that only good things come of them. It also is a time to do something to make good things come to others who need our help. There are so many people who need more than a four-leaf clover paperweight to ward off bad luck.
The greatest joy in life is my family and friends. The happiness they give me each day fills my heart in a way I’m sure nothing else could ever begin to do.
I love my children so intensely and so unconditionally that I sometimes surprise myself at my ability to do so. It is fulfilling and joyous sensation that can be described only as a Blessing. So when I think of God giving us Jesus, His Son I am in awe of the magnitude of that gift. It was a gift of the greatest love to others.
The Christmas season is a time for giving of many types. We have a lot of loot stashed around our house to be put under the tree on Christmas Eve. Every year I think we overdo it. But I guess that is part of the season. It is fun to delight others with presents. I think it is also fun to be the recipient of a few gifts. The other part of Christmas is remembering the spiritual gifts we have been given and to spread them all around the place.
One of my favorite songs is sung during the Liturgy of the Eucharist during the Mass. The congregation joins in singing what we Catholics call the “Holy, Holy, Holy.” The last line is “Blessed is me that means that if we do all in the name of the Lord the spirit of Christmas will be forever with us.
My second favorite song is one Matt learned two years ago at preschool: “It must be Santa Claus.”
December 22,1992