6Christmas Comes Every Year

 Photo is of Christmas in Hawaii

 One of the first things I remember being excited about was standing next to my mother as she was taking the Christmas tree out to the curb. I asked her if she had done this before, and she said, “Yes, every year. Christmas comes once every year.”

I was wide-eyed.

In that moment, I discovered something magical — that joy is not just a one-time event. It comes back. That something beautiful could return again and again. That life has a rhythm to it.

I was thrilled by the idea that Christmas would come every year. I began to look at the world with amazement — not just at what is, but at how it works. At the patterns. At the quiet promises hidden inside of life. Even then, I was learning something I would come to understand more deeply later:

that life moves in cycles…

that what disappears is not always gone…

that joy can return.

And somewhere inside that little girl, a knowing began:

What is lost is not always lost.

What leaves can come again.

And life,

in its quiet way,

keeps its promises.