Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Faith, Hope, Charity 

The true meaning of Christmas  is as well and widely known as the recipe for ice water, but for us Christmas has been and will always be a celebration of and an appreciation of our family. There are (in my mind at least) three things needed for a family to thrive and succeed. Faith, Hope and Charity.


Faith not confined to faith in God, but also faith in ourselves and our peers as well. We need to have faith that we are capable of being better than we are: smarter, more productive, and less inclined toward cruelty and stupidity.


Hope is the determination to keep on going despite obstacles and failures. It's the conviction that things can be better than they are, and that we are capable of making them so. Without hope, one attempts nothing; we merely struggle to hold what is already ours. Hope allows us to invest some part of ourselves in our future, and to persevere in the pursuit of improvement.


Charity, possibly the least well understood of the three, it is in part, the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It enforces the willingness to forgive transgressions against us and ours, and to help those who struggle to find the upward path. 


All three virtues are required to commit to, to sustain, and to nurture a family. One cannot commit to a family without faith. One cannot nurture a family without charity. And one cannot persevere in the unceasing labors demanded by a family without hope.

        Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours

Pics from the homestead