Sharritt Christmas Letter 2014

Dear Sharritt Friends

I can’t believe it. I was going through our draft file on the computer and found that we have not hit the send button for the Christmas letter. According to the date stamp on the file, it looks like it was done on July 22^nd. We just forgot to hit send. Nah. We’re just in denial. We followed the typical Sharritt recipe for the annual Christmas letter.

At T-minus 2 weeks that lovely Miss Beverly asks; “Got any ideas for the Christmas letter?”

Roger responds; “Not yet, we really need to get working on it.”

At T-minus 1 week Roger asks; “What do you think the theme for the Christmas letter should be this year? We really need to get to work on it now.”

TLMB responds; “I’ve got nothing. Couldn’t we recycle one of the oldies, age the kids a couple of decades and no one will ever notice? Shoot, Ben is still in Elementary school. We won’t have to change his paragraph. Even better, let’s have Facebook write it for us.”

  
 And still we procrastinated. Walking in from the mailbox with your wonderful cards and missives about successes, failures, gains and losses, we were in awe of your discipline, dedication and

fortitude. That is a lot of work to live your lives, get everyone dressed (including the dog) and sitting in front of the camera for the picture and then the paragraphs about your lives. Thanks for catching us up.

 

We do feel that things that have been changing are taking hold now. The kids who have left the nest empty have started good lives. As mentioned, Ben is still in elementary school (teaching). He finds his calling with the kids. His heart stretches to help challenged young lives learn. He also finds this calling in Bloomington among friends, church, community garden and skate boarding, a passion that took him across the country and world this past year.

Grace and Chris are in Michigan proving to other universities that they are very smart people. There will come a time in their lives when they sit down and count how many places they lived in their first three years of marriage and it will add up to something near 8 to 10. They still have some time left. They are obviously making lots of friends because you don’t move that much without some help. They both are pursing dreams of making the world a better place by expunging the scourge of human trafficking; Grace through a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Michigan, Chris through a Law Degree from Michigan State.

For TLMB the changes taking hold include really enjoying being known as The Lovely Miss Beverly through the literary reach of Roger’s blog. She is enjoying a smaller caseload at work just in time for a major revision of the English Braille Code, so she’ll spend time in the spring with online courses. She loves

Monday Morning Book Club at Starbucks, and Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club at Big Apple Bagel. She has a new Wednesday morning friend from the Y locker room that she’s thinking about corralling into another excuse for breakfast out. She went to the Indiana Dunes with 19 women in September for a yearly prayer retreat. It’s a great place for her Starbucks people to meet her Bagel people.

Roger’s change is that he is not feeling like he is still 25 any longer. If he would only act it. This year he rode for 4600 miles around the state of Indiana and a little bit on a lovely vacation by Lake Michigan in August. He also took the challenge to do the RAIN ride in July. He learned a lot about himself riding 160 miles from Terre Haute to Richmond in one day. 1; you can eat 39 packs of pop tarts and still be at a calorie deficit. 2; The lovely Miss Beverly and lovely Miss Grace are a sight to behold when you see them pull up beside you at the 145 mile marker with a pack of pop tarts and an quart of milk “just to tide me over.” 3; he will cry like a baby when he reads the sign from another biker’s fan club that says “Jerry has never ridden 160 miles in one day in his life.” Neither had Roger until then, and he cheered Jerry (and his 52 year old self) on to the end.

Together, we spent a week in the Adirondack Mountains for vacation and the wedding of Lydia and Andy. Grace was in the wedding, and we shared a house on the lake with her, Chris and other friends there for the joy.


Roger has discovered the benefits of yoga for keeping his joints feeling like they’re 25, and some nights when TLMB joins in, we are just two quiet trees together in the quiet Sharritt house. We’ve spent the year leading a new small “life” group in our church. This bunch includes singles, another couple our age, and two younger couples with babies and more babies on the way. This change has brought welcome community to our life beyond the nest.

We spent a Friday night in December caroling with this same life group through the streets of Pendleton, ending up in a nursing home. We had a few folks come to their doors or porches, but most were watching Jeopardy or John Stewart. We sang and laughed together, enjoying the lights against the cold dark, and the talk that happens in community.

At the nursing home, we strolled the halls, stopping when we saw waving hands and residents who joined with us. We were ready to leave when the nurses brought a resident to us that had been in the bath and had missed the singing. We started Silent Night, and the woman sang along. The nurses who had gathered around got tears in their eyes, and explained after that she hasn’t really spoken or been responsive since entering care. Together, we witnessed the constant of the Christ amidst the changes of age and time. Whatever changes you may be facing or settling into, we wish you the heavenly peace found on dark nights in unexpected places.

Take Care.

Have a Blessed New Year.

Bev and Roger.