It’s New Year’s — my least favorite holiday next to Sweetest Day. The pressure for profundity is overwhelming, so I celebrate John Denver’s birthday because I loved him and he fills me up with joy. And it’s just too soon to talk about Carrie Fisher in public without becoming a teary and snotty mess.
So, in honor of John Denver, I’m thinking about the things I love this new year and there is no greater place to look than my refrigerator. We do not have a tidy refrigerator. Pictures, magnets, report cards and chocolate are scattered all over (don’t ask about the chocolate, but it involves a sweet daughter trying to encase balloons in chocolate as a gift and surprisingly they exploded every time, so it’s now a kitchen encased in chocolate).
I love the pictures of family and friends who remind me on a regular basis that we are not alone. Even when dinner is late and the refrigerator seems bare, there are folks who surround us with their love and help us stay sane.
I really love my magnets. Since most of them are gifts, they reveal the fact that my friends love me as my twisted, little self. There is a bumper sticker that says, “Jesus loves you, but I’m his favorite.” That is my favorite line when I am hot at cribbage. When I’m losing I might say pastoral things like, “Everybody hates you.”
The others are also filled with pithy wisdom:
“I haven’t had my coffee yet, don’t make me kill you,”
“You can’t scare me, I have children,”
“Spoiler alert: Everybody dies.”
And one of the greatest insight into my loves:
“I love poetry, long walks on the beach and poking dead things with a stick.”
I do love poetry; I just bought another collection of Billy Collins poetry and my beloved bought me a book of Jimmy Stewart poems. Wow. They all rhyme and make me smile like one does when seeing a doily.
I love long walks anywhere, but beaches are fabulous.
And there is something delightful about chasing children around with a dead critter. That is slightly different than poking it, but directly related. I have been caught inspecting dead varmints and scat with sticks. May I never be too busy or grown up to stop being curious.
My list of loves would be long and weird, but that is what makes it feel like such a blessed life. My faith is not in beauty or comfort or fancy refrigerators, but my faith and hope is in the eternal love I see lived out in Jesus.
I fall in love so easily. If it is beautiful or disgusting, complex or simple, scary or comforting, then a part of me has been brought to life that was dormant. I don’t need New Year’s to think about starting new; nearly every time I open my eyes, ears, nose, mouth or hands I am startled by a new love.
Now, I’m starting to sing, “You fill up my senses …” Be glad this is written and not radio.
• Tari Stage-Harvey is the pastor of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.
