A Lixy Life

Ever since the world turn white with snow and frost and all that cold wet-ish winter stuff, Dad has truly been like a big kid in his very own winter wonderland. Dad is an authentic Canadian boy and having a real Canadian winter has that part of him alive and kicking—literally!

In our Gi-normous back yard we have a large swampish area in the trees which makes up the outside of our property, and that has all frozen over nice and solid. Dad got out there with his snow blower as soon as it turned to ice to claim it as his very own skating rink. The next day he was gone working and didn’t get back till late at night. I hear him come in the front door shuffle around a bit and then I hear him walk straight back out the back door. I don’t think anything of it. Even when I start hearing some random war hoops coming from the distant darkness I foolishly don’t connect it with Dad until he walks in through the back door red faced and covered with white….”Uh huh!?” You gotta love that about dad, he’s got energy, enthusiasm and craziness that can put most people to shame and what he does he does with all his heart.

Course something he can’t understand is when others don’t always share that same enthusiasm and it breaks his heart. He’s been trying to get me out on the ice from day one but I’m just not an icy person.

Now something you have to understand about dad is, that no matter what, he is usually, occasionally, mostly, always right. And when he thinks you should do something you probably should but you don’t always want to; when he tells you something is good it probably is but you still might not like it. I’ll give an example that has kind of become a family joke. Dad has excellent taste in wine. He can look at a bottle and make those intellectual, deep sounding grunts and appropriate facial expressions and “wine lingo", and he can daintily swirl the wine in the glass and inhale with the perfect snort, telling you just how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ a wine is—My confession…I like “bad” wine (aka cheap wine). So when dad brings wine home he warns me now “You won’t like this wine, I paid a little extra for it” or “You’ll love this wine tonight, I got the cheap stuff”…har har. So you get the picture, it is the same with skating.

Okay so tonight Dad and Mom took us all you can eat Chinese food (our new years family treat)! So so so so good and bad and bad and good in all those wonderful ways. Completely stuffed, we get home groaning about how “we’re so going to have to work this off” with absolutely no intention of doing anything tonight…except for dad who heads straight to the back door again. Oooooh the words we are all dreading “Come on guys, we need to go for a skate!” I'm getting ready to do battle with dad to yet again to defend my right to NOT do the "good" thing but instead I found myself having to argue with my full tummy which told me "Get out there" and I obeyed. I bundled up in a big fat snowsuit jacket which just happens to be dad's (another thing he had to force me to wear a couple weeks back, which from since I have happily adopted into my don't-wanna-freeze-my-butt-off wardrobe) and stuffed my feet into some skates, nearly slid to my death walking through the snow, and stepped out onto the ice---and I Loved IT!

It was beautiful, the night was perfectly black and the stars perfectly white and the moon just made the ice light up like silver. Gliding along the ice, breathing in the crisp night air, the beauty of God's creation and the love of family...it was heaven. Dad was right, it was GOOD and I could see for a moment why he loves it so much out there.

And then my toes froze and I started feeling like a lollipop so I ran back to safety before it was too late and when dad asked me "So NOW are you going to start coming out here more?!" I had to honestly say "No. But it was perfect for tonight and you WERE right. Thanks Dad." He huffed at me and probably is huffing at me now as he reads this, but I don't mind. He's right and I love my right to be different and we are both stubborn and crazy about each other:)

I love you Daddy. I love the life and brilliance you bring to each day and the way you enjoy life to the full and make sure we always have the opportunity to do the same--even if we don't always take it--and we love you for it. I don't know where we'd be without you. We wouldn't want to be anywhere without you!!

A Lixy life wouldn’t be a life at all without all the lives that fill it that make it a life worth living. As you might have already noticed I’m not so good at writing about myself nor am I all that interesting—but I do have a interesting life and a good one because I have so many incredibly good people in it. So rather then trying to make myself interesting, which I’m already doomed to fail miserably at, I’m going to share with you the people that fill my life with love and happiness and hope and smiles and laughter (heheh Laura gets leading points in that department).

It's a New Year! It's a Happy Year. It's 2010 and it's going to be grand.

Now I don't know what this year is going to bring me--like really really no clue at all, one single bit, no idea kind of don't know.

I never thought I'd be starting a new year in a new country, yet here I am, in the last place I thought I'd be, not quite as accomplished as I'd hoped to be, not as strong, as wise, as beautiful, as "wow" as I could dream, and yet still happy. So I think of that and know that no matter where this year is going to take me, all the hopes and promises I might make and might break, the one thing I am taking with me the promise of happiness and that is found in this promise...

I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.

I am your next chance at the art of living. I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.

All that you sought and didn't find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.

All the good that you tried for and didn't achiever is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.

All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith you claimed but did not have--these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.

I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said, "Behold, I make all things new."

As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles. An Angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life.

But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, The challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air. Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth.

The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame.

I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, and death, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.

And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was. I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes.

Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ. then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you." May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through.

-- Author Unknown --