Busy Sidewalks

Rosa and my boys...she still spreading cheer and love through generations of my family.  May God bless her and keep her. Notice I'm in the picture too :) 

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks,

Dressed in holiday style,

In the air there is a feeling,

of Christmas

Children laughing,

People passing

Meeting smile after smile,

And on every street corner you'll hear :

Silver bells, silver bells

It's Christmas time in the city

ring- a- ling, hear them ring,

soon it will be Christmas day.

Well...for some reason I woke up with this song in my head today.  It's one of my favorites.  And even though Christmas in Panama is not very much like the picture this song paints...it makes me think of my youth in my hometown...

No, we don't have the silver (or golden, really) bells of the Salvation Army ringing outside stores; and most people aren't really meeting you "smile after smile" when passing you by...the notion of "busy sidewalks," however, does ring a bell in my memory box.

My hometown is usually not that busy and it isn't a "city" in the full sense of the word; but...during Christmas season it comes alive!  

Like any kid, I always enjoyed the excitement of Christmas; but I especially got a kick of the busyness of the last days before THE BIG Day!  December 24th in the morning, particularly, when the last minute shoppers crowded the sidewalks, and made it difficult to walk always gave me a big rush!  I remember going with Rosa to downtown pretty much every 24th. Since she was always so busy tending to our needs, her own shopping got pushed down to literally minutes before the stores closed.  She would frantically hurry and scurry through desperate shoppers, hanging on to my hand, hoping I'd keep up...while I'd just marvelled at the unusual scene: busy sidewalks! 

I remember everything:  the smell of apples imported from far away places like Pennsylvania as an exotic Christmas treat, the street vendors pushing trinkets that would only last a few hours in the hands of over-stimulated kids, being hit in the head by gigantic shopping bags carried by distracted shoppers and the cacophony of Spanish "villancicos" or Christmas carols blasting from every store...

It's weird the things one remembers, isn't it?

I haven't spent Christmas in Panama in a long, long time.  And even though I'm mostly OK with it...I still feel the sting of homesickness in my heart after all these years.  

My parents are both gone and Rosa, I'm sure, does not venture to downtown or any commercial area in my hometown on December 24th anymore...but the memories remain, vividly in my mind...the selfless love and dedication of a woman who gave it all for me and my family and the wonderful times she gave me which I've treasured in my soul from then on...I would never be able to repay her...so I just take them as what they were: gifts of love.

Like the greatest gift we all received that first Christmas night, when the Holy Infant was born in a stable and placed in a manger as an offering of love that makes the lame walk, the blind see, the dead live again, the colorful lights twinkle, the sleepy sidewalks burst with people and the silver bells ring announcing that the Light of the World is here, I pray we treasure this truth in our hearts forever.  May your Christmas be all that remind you that Jesus is born in our hearts today and every day!

The sleepy sidewalks of a normal day in Chitre, my hometown in Panama

A normal day in Chitre, my hometown in Panama