THE VERY RETICIENT POST CHRISTMAS PALATE CLEANSE

In high class restaurants you are served a lemon sorbet to cleanse your palate before the next course is served.  It helps remove any lingering tastes of the previous course before you eat something distinctly different.  Sometimes I don't want the taste of something out of my mouth.  I'm not quite ready to have the next thing.  I feel that way today as it is the day after Christmas.  We had our last Christmas with our one daughter and her husband today.  It just topped off a magnificent 4 days of Christmas.  After brunch, gifts and our annual watching of "A Christmas Story" (with Ralphie and the Red Rider BB gun) the kids left.  It has been a very mild Christmas weekend in the Midwest with temps in the 40's, sun and no snow.  Soon after they left, Doug and I went for a walk.  We walked the four miles hand in hand talking about the great weekend we had with kids, parents, siblings and just each other.  As we walked I remarked that I was somewhat sad that Christmas was now over.  It is an event, a season that seems to unite people.  Whether it's through lights and trees or just generosity, the world changes even if it is short lived.  I didn't want that to end.  I didn't want life to go back to its separatist sort of ways.  I rather liked the past two days that strangers rolled down their windows or hollered from their yards, "MERRY CHRISTMAS" as we walked our miles.  It made me feel connected to them.  It made me feel a warmth from humanity that sometimes disappears during non-holiday times.  This week people will start taking down their outside lights returning the world to its dark winter state.  I rather like the lights all around when I run at night.  It makes me feel surrounded and a part of something bigger than me.  Next week the world will be dark again and isolated.  I wondered about agnostics and atheists.  Whether they doubt or deny the existence of God and the birth of Jesus, they pick out the results of those things in society and participate on some level.  Lights, trees and gifts connect them to this whole God thing whether they mean to or not.  I have spent the last year feeling as if every day was Christmas.  What an incredible experience!  Trying to tell Doug yesterday that what he did for me for Christmas was not lost on me at all, I began to cry yet again.   I have cried these past few days because I have never experienced this type of Christmas in marriage.  I have cried because Doug did some amazing things for me.  He took the time to know the real Lynn.  He learned me and then met me there with his gifts.  I was humbled by that.  God too did that through Jesus.  He knew we needed a way back to Him.  That we needed a gift that showed He knew us and loved us.  I felt that from God by the gift of Jesus.  I felt that from God by the gift of Doug to me.  I felt that from Doug with his presence over this past year.  And, by his Christmas gifts to me, I felt loved in the deep secret place of my heart.  He went to great lengths to show love and meet a lifelong passion and dream of mine.  I really just am not wanting to cleanse my palate from the holidays.  I want the lingering taste of Christmas to stay a bit longer.