My Better Tomorrow

December 19, 2014
Day 233

The Ghost of Christmas Future stares at me emotionless, and watches me writhe in pain.  With every tear I cry, he does nothing.  Just when I'm about to charge at him, he pushes his bony arm straight through me, and I feel all the truth of his message, all the possibility.

I gaze up into his cold, heartless gaze, and suddenly see a candle flame flickering slow and steady.  The more I stare, the more the darkness fades away, until I see the candlelight softly shining in a bright new room.  Christmas has arrived, and I'm still here to enjoy it!

Every year at this time, I watch a bunch of Christmas movies, including Scrooged, It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and more.  The one theme they all seem to have is that when they end, you believe the main characters have either turned their lives around or made the world a better place to live in.  I cry at the end of each one, and feel so happy I could jump for joy!

For the first time in many years, I re-read A Christmas Carol this past week.  It's a short book, a novella really, and you can buy it for free on Kindle at this link.  At the end of the story, after Ebenezer has been visited by his three ghosts, he exclaims, "I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.  The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me."  And really, that's what every Christmas is about.  We share and listen to stories about Christmases past, we bask in the beauty of the day and the moment here in the present, and we exchange gifts to make each other's futures a bit brighter. 

I still have five more blog days left before Christmas, but I'll say it now anyway.  Thank you for reading along with my random musings here, and Merry Christmas!  For those not feeling merry, I pray something changes in you soon.  I honor and respect your sadness or misery, but I so want you to be happy too.  More than that, I want you to have reason to be happy. 

Enjoy these last few days of pre-Christmas prep, everyone!  And oh yeah: God bless us, every one!

My Ghost of Christmas Future

December 18, 2014 
Day 232

As the bells ring out one last time, I sit alone in the darkness of night awaiting my final visitor.  He is the one all men fear most of all, the Ghost of Christmas Future.

What will my future hold?  How will things play out with my life, career, writing, friendships, and relationships?

What changes must I make now to avoid dire consequences later?

I beg all this from the spirit, but he does not speak.  Instead, he just points a bony hand forward, commanding me to walk with him and see...all of the future, all that may be. 

We cross a threshold through mist on a dark night, and see a scroll opened up before me.  Written there is a long list of friends' names who have now left my life for one reason or another.  I ask the spirit why these souls and I are no longer friends in the future, but he will not say.  A sudden gust of wind tosses the scroll up into the cold night sky, and as I watch it rise, the Ghost of Christmas Future suddenly shoves me forward onto the ground, where a second scroll awaits my gaze.

I see written the names of family members now dead, many I know to still be alive.  "Spirit!" I plead, "What is this awful future?  My loved ones gone so soon?  Won't I have more time with them?"

In what feels like a second of time, he blinks, and we are now in a large white room filled with paper and pens, and in the center, a computer.  A tiny stack of papers is labeled, "Successes," but throughout the rest of the large room, there are only empty pages representing stories left unwritten or unread. 

It's at this point where my sadness is now just a numb feeling of despair, and I completely resent this spirit for showing me all this.  I open my mouth to curse him, but we are now in a graveyard covered with snow.  A tombstone rises up from the earth, and the strikes of an old-fashioned typewriter slowly type out my name...with a typo, no less.

"Nooooooooooo!!!" I yell.  I see the year of death, and I shake my head furiously back and forth in denial.  "No, this cannot be.  I can't have lived such a short life.  No, please, spirit, please tell me this is only the possible future.  Why else would you be showing me all this if it is already certain?!"  He stares at me emotionless, and watches me writhe in pain.  With every tear I cry, he does nothing.  Just when I'm about to charge at him, he pushes his bony arm straight through me, and I feel all the truth of his message, all the possibility.  I gaze up into his cold, heartless gaze, and I...