This time of year we all experience endings and we hope for new beginnings. We ambitiously make New Years resolutions but do we really believe in second chances?
Perhaps all of us have at least one precious item that we revisit at this time of year. For me it is a book I was given when I was four years old. Each year I try to gather children around on Christmas Eve and I read it to them. This year the reading took place with hot apple cider, safely spread around an outdoor fire.
The story is about a little old fashion (even for 62 years ago) doll named Miss Flora McFlimsey who was once loved by a little girl on Christmas morning but has long since been forgotten in the toy cupboard of the attic. She is very lonely and has only one visitor, Timothy Mouse.
One night Timothy Mouse is very excited because there are so many more crumbs than usual for him to eat and he tells her there is a tree growing right out of the living room floor. “Ah, it must be Christmas Eve” Miss Flora McFlimsey muses. And her inanimate body begins to creak and move. She feels like she would give anything to see one more beautiful Christmas tree.
Miraculously (there are lots of miracles) she makes her way down to the living room just as Santa is arriving. He is muttering under his breath, “Dear, dear, dear, I seem to have lost the doll for Diana in the snow storm on way here.” And then Flora McFlimsey steps out of the shadows and Santa says, “Well now my dear, it seems that I have seen you before. Oh my gosh you will be just the doll for Diana.” And he sets Ms Flora McFlimsey under the Christmas tree next to the doll in the stylish red dress and the bride doll and heads back up the chimney. Immediately the bride doll and doll in the red dress begin to make fun of Flora. After all she is quite shabby and worn and out of style. She feels so ashamed she wants to head back up to the attic where she belongs but all her joints have stiffened again and she cannot move.
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