Lucky Enough

Pam went for her normal walk this morning. She starts out with Lucy tagging along, but after a bit of that she drops Lucy back at the house and starts the second, more aggressive part of her walk. She wears ear buds when she walks, usually listening to an audio book. But this morning she had a ton of things on her plate and was especially anxious. My wife is a worrier, a planner, a meticulous organizer, who thinks about things, sometimes to excess. That verse in the Bible that says, Let not your heart be troubled, I am convinced was put in the Bible specifically for her.

Anyway, she gets back from her walk this morning in a decidedly upbeat mood, almost light hearted, a rarity in these days of pandemics and social upheaval. Then she told me her secret, “You know what I listened to on my walk this morning?” I’m trying to think of some Jodi Picoult book when she burst out with, “Christmas music!!!” She has now left the house after spending all day making these treats for her dad...

These are the world famous Molasses crinkles, a staple of the White family...Christmas tradition. Pam made three dozen or more, all the while with Nat King Cole, The Carpenters, James Taylor and Harry Connick Jr streaming through the kitchen speakers. She’s like a different person. Her plan now is to listen to Christmas music until we leave for Maine. It transports me to a different place, makes me think of happier times, makes me concentrate on what’s really important, she explained. Hard to argue with a woman baking cookies.

Oh...and there’s this, perhaps the truest words ever placed on a piece of wood. For us it will be true for six weeks this year...