AN ADAGE A DAY- ENCOURAGEMENT
Here We Go Again
By Carole Gilbert
It’s the start of the holiday season, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve coming up. This will be my 65th time going through all of this. So, here we go again. I love it all so much. But now that I’m older, it’s not as easy to do all the decorating and celebrating, especially the way I like. And being in our empty nest days, I don’t have the helpers like our kids were while growing up. They always made for extra excitement during the season.
I do miss those days. Our Halloween decor has gone from completely covering the yard and house to a simple witch that appears to have crashed into our front window. I now put our small Christmas tree up in November with autumn decor, which helps me so much with the decorating at Christmas. All I have to do is change what’s on the tree. And I really love my autumn tree!
So how do I feel as here we go again after all these years? I did go through a few years where I was negative or sad because of all the hard work decorating and having to take it down without the help and excitement from our kids. But I learned a way to have joy and excitement in the season. I learned to be positive about where I am in life. Find the good, as they say. The light at the end of the tunnel. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I can now sit back and watch everyone else going around and around, being so busy they don’t know if they’re coming or going. I think here we go again, but I am a happy camper.
I can also decorate any way I want, as much or as little as I want! One year, I even put up a ladder tree! It’s been my favorite and I hope to do it again. And my life is filled with many blessings. One of my blessings actually figured out how he could pull one ornament on the ladder tree toward him, let go, and watch it swing and tangle up all the other ornaments. And he did that several times, to my dismay.
I can choose how to live it up, whether or not to let my hair down, and when to have more fun than a barrel of monkeys. I can live the life of Riley, and not even care who Riley was.
This idiom, “Here we go again.” is usually used for a negative situation repeating itself, but it can also be used positively and joyfully. And even though it only started in the mid-20th century, it was picked up quickly and even has been used in a song.
I wonder if Moses ever thought, "Here we go again,” as he led the Israelites through the wilderness. He did have God’s instruction and guidance, to use for their freedom. But they would become discouraged and start grumbling time and time again, even though God supplied all their provisions. Aren’t we glad Moses never gave up because of all the examples and blessings of how to follow God that his story gave?
So, even though here we go again, let’s get excited and rejoice in what the season is all about; cooler weather, getting to see family more than normal, eating food that’s not on our healthy eating plan, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the best event of all times, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!