Inspiration
By Charles Towne
I was very busy counting our many blessings when Nancy walked into the room with a beautiful smile on her face. I said, “Tell me about it sweetie?”
“Tell you about what?”
“Why you are smiling?”
“Smiling? I’m not smiling!”
“Yes you are.” I said. “You have a big smile on your face and I’m curious to know what you’re smiling about.”
“Oh,” she said, “Oh, Well… I’m just happy!”
“O.K., and what are you happy about?”
“Well, do you remember when I stuck that stick in my eye yesterday, and it hurt real bad?”
“Yes, I remember. I kissed it, and it was all better.”
“Oh, it wasn’t all that much better.”
“Hmmm,” I said, “Well, You said it was better.”
“Yeah, sure, I suppose it was a little bit better.”
“That’s nice honey, is that the reason you are smiling?”
“Sorta, I’m happy that I didn’t poke another stick in my eye today when I was back cutting our Christmas tree!”
Charles Towne has been a caregiver for his wife Nancy for the past 15 years.
“I guess that’s cause to be happy. No one wants to poke a stick in their eye. Hey, wait, did you say cutting a Christmas tree! Where were you cutting a Christmas tree?” (Now you should know before I proceed that the only thing faintly resembling a Christmas tree in our neighborhood is growing in our neighbor’s yard. I was beginning to be a tad concerned.)
“Back in the woods,” she said.
“Sweetheart, we don’t have any Christmas trees growing in our woods.”
“Oh, yeah. There is that.” She said. “But I looked around and found a lonely little tree, so I cut it down and set it up in the living room.”
By now, as you can imagine, my imaginer was working in overdrive, running amok through the halls and corridors of the squirrel cage of my mind if you will. As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to see our “Christmas tree.”
I am sure you have seen, “Charlie Brown’s Christmas,” where he sets up his Christmas twig. Well, we had one just like it. A runty little magnolia tree about four feet tall with seven leaves on it. The leaves were turning brown so using her creative genius, Nancy had spray painted each leaf those joyous holiday colors, red, green and white, and then she had hung a few ornaments on it. It was leaning a bit askew, like all scrawny little magnolias tend to do, but darn if it wasn’t the cutest little Christmas tree, and my wife is happy.
Oh Christmas twig, oh Christmas twig,
How we love our Christmas twig!
Not too fancy… Not too big,
All blessings on our Christmas twig….
Christmas trees ain’t all the same
Some are puny, some are lame
Some humungous prices bring
Others we… their glory sing
Some in rich homes…
Some in poor
Bringing joy
And so much more
Some in forests dense abound
Some in shopping lots are found
On the white house lawn recall,
The largest Christmas tree of all!
But Nancy danced a little jig,
Round and round, our Christmas twig
Live fully,
Love openly,
And make a difference, today.
Charles Towne is a longtime Apopka resident, member of Insp!re Church and a published author.
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