Seeking Hope and Peace in a Wounded World
By Margery McCurdy Plummer

New Year’s Day was a day of relaxing at our house. After doing the few necessary things and eating enough black eyed peas to ensure me good luck for the coming year, I was thinking of the days before Christmas and the day itself. The activities we participated in were all done in the spirit of the season. There was the joy of being with friends and family, even some living out of town, attending more musical events with beautiful Christmas music and giving and receiving gifts. We received more Christmas cards than usual, but sadly I’m still waiting for a card from a friend who lives far away and from whom I have usually heard from before this time.

All in all, it had been a good Christmas with the sounds of “Silent Night,” “O, Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Come All Ye Faithful” and hopeful songs of Peace on Earth still in my thoughts and a feeling of all’s right with the world, I picked up the morning paper. In one section was an article with a large headline stating “Americans predict plenty of gloom and doom for ‘07.” It stated that some polls predicted that we would suffer another terrorist attack, a warmer planet, death and destruction from a natural disaster and higher gas prices. There were a few more positive predictions, but directly across the page was the picture of a twenty-two year old soldier shown as the 3,000th military fatality in Iraq. I doubt his family had a Merry Christmas. Looking at the picture and reading the statistic, I felt very sad.

There just wasn’t much good news that day, but hopefully the coming days will bring stories of great deeds of kindness and love and prospects of Peace on Earth.

After the holidays, I go through the cards, reread them and remove the Christmas letters and photographs. I enjoy sending and receiving Christmas cards and this year got many beautiful and meaningful ones. One card with a letter and family photograph that told of the family’s activities throughout the year, ended this way:

“We believe there are beauty and hope in great abundance in our wounded world and seek them daily!” I do, too.

Margery Plummer will be disconnected from the Connection for a few weeks to “connect” with some work at home.