Christmastime 2005

A Christmas Letter

Stream-of-consciousness writing is a style of expression that is, perhaps, closer to the way we really think. You may know people that seem to speak in this manner, as if the concept of a run-on sentence as a bad thing is unknown. Grammar and composition rules are an afterthought, so don’t see this approach as an attempt at clear English. Some forms of this style of writing do not have any punctuation at all, of which I will spare you the labor of deciphering. Here, rather, is a much milder example of this style. Hint: don’t read this quickly, but add your own rhythm to the phrases with appropriate breaths, accents and pauses.

December, 2005

For those who don’t like to read these Christmastime letters/ epistles/ newsletters/ updates/ whatever, now you know that Roberta and I are alive, and, to the best of our knowledge, doing pretty well overall, and that we honestly do want everyone we know to have a peace-filled holiday season, so after this paragraph you can click on something else and call it good enough, although some of you will probably read this whole thing anyway out of curiosity, and for those who do like to read these things, well, we think you will find it interesting, although we cannot guarantee that your curiosity will be satisfied instead of piqued even further.

Because our lives seem to be entertaining to others in some inexplicable, ineffable way, we share this letter with you and have also created this web site that has photos, commentaries, and other stuff as I get it on here, which is a fascinating process because I’m teaching myself “.html” web-page authoring, although I’m getting tips from friends wherever I can scrape them up, so check it out now and again if whatever’s on TV isn’t all that interesting.

So, we haven’t sent any cards or letters out at Christmas/New Year time in at least three years and some of our friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, comrades and adversaries are wondering about us. Which, people do anyway, since we still don’t have a TV, and we work for a church (which is St. Mary’s Catholic in downtown Grand Rapids, by the way) and we talk openly about spirituality, and have a prayer room in the house, and don’t pay much attention to commercial advertisements, except for some of the funny ones people point out to us when we visit. We don’t visit often enough, but we sure aren’t home a lot of evenings, and we’re both at the church a lot or all of each weekend, which puts a cramp in our social life; but people put up with us anyway and our time always seems full—although I sometimes wish not quite so full—although we’ve had some success in simplifying by prioritizing our time better and getting rid of excess “stuff” in the house that is nice, but maybe someone else can enjoy it now through eBay. We have less to keep track of, maintain and worry about, and less worry is a positive development when you can get it; it’s just hard to hold on to.

Even though Mom Lewis has had advanced dementia, and we moved her into a full-time care place (Luther Home) a couple of years ago when we could no longer care for her properly in our home, it was very difficult to say goodbye when she died this November, and we were overwhelmed with the kindness and care shown to us by our relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintances, which really helped take the edge of the unpredictable mood shifts that come (uninvited) with grieving, and eventually part of our coping will be a collage of mom-photos for the web site.

Roberta plays piano for the Edelweiss German choir, and now works full-time as a pastoral staff person at St. Mary’s in charge of too many things, even though working in a church office can make a person grumpy sometimes. Her ebullient and caring personality wins over the hearts of young and old, allowing the Holy Spirit to work through her in whatever fashion God chooses. Of course, it is always... tricky to presume that one knows what God chooses, but after that underemployed year-in-the-desert (no longer working at the Area Agency on Aging, but not yet working at St. Mary’s) discerning, praying, attuning and listening, a person may begin to see more clues than most people sleepwalking their way through life. The Evanescence song Bring Me to Life has served as an anthem for us in many ways, and if you’re not familiar with the song, you can check out the lyrics online for a glimpse at the pop side of spirituality that strikes a strong chord in us. Roberta is in the middle of her third of three years of a spiritual direction formation program through the Dominican Center at Marywood, with tons of theological and spiritual reading, and she serves as a spiritual director now, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me, not that I’m biased or anything. Roberta smoothly combines her spirituality into her Reiki practice, a technique of Japanese origin for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing, a channeling of God’s energy, so to speak, mysterious but very real stuff that works, so contact her if you are curious about it.

My ministries at St. Mary’s and beyond have been eclectic and interesting, singing special songs at funerals for distraught families, listening intently to people pour out their hearts, diligently researching which song/hymn lyrics would best compliment the scripture readings of each Sunday, singing Psalms meaningfully in Spanish when I barely grasp the grammar—after study—and I don’t always even get all the vocabulary, solving seemingly impenetrable problems with computers, looking out over the city from high in the church bell-tower with a friend, being the best husband I can manage, giving lessons to students who play instruments I myself do not know how to play, kind words, mediating arguments, pushing the choirs to the limits of their potential as often as possible without (too often) pushing them past the limits of their patience / frustration / exhaustion, subtly coaching each engaged couple to intentionally attend to prayer in their wedding liturgy, preparing for and working with high-school students at the intense DYMO camp each summer, spending January 2005 in Cuernavaca, México to study Spanish, learning to play (stand-up, acoustic, fretless) string bass and mandolin (yes – quite the size difference), teaching workshops for cantors & other musicians and also for lectors… and many people wonder what I could possibly do during the week to have given up full-time “work” to dedicate myself to full-time parish ministry, especially as a musician / “choir director”.

This summer, we had the pleasure of having our friend Erin live with us until she moved back onto the Aquinas College campus for this school year, and Michelle, who has lived with us for a couple of years, moved to Maryland this fall and has found a job that she actually likes, which is not too common among people these days, especially since we know so many without jobs to like or dislike at all, so we are really happy for her, although the house seems a little quiet at times now, but not during the Halloween parties, of course—one for kids and one for adults, and you can see pictures on the web site—when we had tons of people here at the house, inside and outside, and played goofy games and generally had a smashing time without smashing anything, & without starting the house on fire except for one brief moment.

We still take yoga classes, go to a musicians’ conference every summer, have four cats, entertain angels, listen to all kinds of music (have you checked out any of the Putumayo collection discs?!), and work (slowly) on our house and yard.

We could go on like this, yada yada yada for some time, without yet telling the full story and all of the “other” things we do to use our time fruitfully. God has blessed us all, and for those with eyes to see, the love of the Lord knows no boundaries, borders, divisions, or limits. May your new year bring inspiration to serve each other in kindness, actively assisting and crafting justice for those in need, and may the peace of Christ, which is beyond all understanding, fill each of our hearts!

— Larry (& Roberta)

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Every now and then someone mentions our letter from 2000. By request, we make it available again...

» Christmas Letter 2000