A Spoon for Christmas

 


 

A spoon for Christmas.

Things were different this past Christmas 2020.

No singing unless we were outside

No real candles

No visiting neighbors due to social distancing rules

No big talents shows where fake snow would be flung around

The memories of the past year still seemed to haunt us. At the beginning of the year we had a community full of 400 people. The community was working together to help give free reliable surgeries that would change people's lives. At the beginning of the year we were getting ready to do our next wave of surgeries after the holiday. We were ready to see our hospital full of people. We were ready to do the mission that this community was brought together for. 

Then it all shut down. 

News of Covid-19 spread through the country. Cases began to rise. Our community was put onto lock down. The hospital that was beginning to thrive with life again, was emptied. We were faced with the decision: Should we go back to our homes, or stay in the community? Airports started to shut down. People who were at high risk were told they had to go home where they could get adequate care if they got sick. The community fell from 400 people to 200 people in weeks. Buses of people left. Those who chose to stay helped pack up the movable hospital in record time. We were not allowed to go to the market or the outside world. We all had to stay in the community's boundaries.

Emotions were everywhere.

Guilty for leaving people and work behind in the community
Fearful that airports would never open up and the rest of the community would remain stuck
Anger at the people who chose to abandon the community
Loneliness as close friends began to leave  
Confusion by the mixed up feeling and emotions
Sadness as our mission and goals looked incomplete
Shock: One step at a time moving forward

After several months of adjustment it all became a new normal

Wearing the mask
Sitting diagonal from one another while eating
Social distancing in lines
Having other people serve you in the food line
Singing outside
Having less people to play games with
Waiting to start again
 
The year ended close to Christmas. Those of us who knew what Christmas was like in the community without Covid tried to make it as similar as before. One of those traditions was putting shoes outside our rooms the night before Christmas. The shoes filled up with small gifts from different friends in the community. That particular morning among all the random gifts and candy that flowed out of each shoe, there lay a spoon. Attached to the spoon was a note: 

 "The best is yet to come." 

 To some people the spoon didn't mean anything. It was a strange Christmas ornament. Several of the spoons made their way back to the dinning room. The little distinguishing factor was that they had a hole in their handle where the ribbon used to be.

To others the spoon connected to a story that had been told by the giver of the spoon:

 

 "Sometimes when you eat a meal at a friend's house there with be a little extra spoon on the table beside each plate. This small spoon is rightly called the dessert spoon. It tells an important message throughout the meal: "Don't eat too much, for..

...the best is yet to come."

In some places, we don't only see the spoon on a dinner table. Sometimes at a funeral, in the midst of all the flowers on the coffin peacefully rests a tiny dessert spoon. It is placed there for the simple reminder that:

The best is yet to come.

And so as we begin to end this year with a Christmas. We remember the stress, pain, tears and shock. Yet I have placed a small dessert spoon in each of your shoes as a reminder that;

The best is yet to come."





I like to find stories in unlikely places and connect them with unlikely subjects. Here are stories and analogies that I see as I travel around the world.

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