Life can be a beast.

Sometimes it gets to you, it invades your thoughts, your heart.  You become angry, feel helpless.

But I also believe life is like waves in an ocean.  Everything ebbs and flows.  The tough times help us appreciate the good times.  The sadness helps us know the full extent of the happiness.

We flew home from Jamaica last Saturday.  It was a long day.  Snow and ice rain delayed flights … cancelled flights.  We spent far too much time in a dumpy airport bar with Pizza Hut  personal pies.  I felt as though I’d never felt so tired.  (Which is saying something, as I am intimately familiar with fatigue!).

But on either side of that misery was family, our home, goodness.  Home cooked meals and evenings of laughter.  Palm trees, blue ocean — soft blankets and drifts of white snow.

Snow has begun to fall again today.  The skies are gray.  I had to cancel my girls weekend because somewhere along the way, I got a head cold that knocked me sideways.

But Christmas is around the corner.  Family and good food and snuggles.  Ebb, flow.