URBANNA — A life threatening experience, any event that comes about that reminds us that our lives are short and temporary, is a good reminder to think of life’s many blessings.
Especially as Christmas nears — the special time of year when we think of the birth of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago and His message of peace and love for our fellow man. Don’t we all wish that humanity could adopt such behavior?
A friend has told me that I worry too much. I suppose that I do. But who could live in such a world as ours and not worry?
Yet after my recent heart-stopping event, it’s time for me to heed her advice and quit worrying about the state of mankind and the perilous state of our world and appreciate the message of the season. Especially for the hope it expresses to an exceedingly needy world.
I guess it is in my nature to worry, but worry is the most wasteful use of one’s time known to man. It’s a bad habit and hard to shake but I will try to learn how to relax this coming year and … just appreciate life.
I feel so fortunate to be given a little more time on earth. Even when our days are not perfect, which they seldom are, for I have found as did Prince Hamlet that life is filled with “slings and arrows.” And when troubles come — they come not in single spies but in whole battalions — but we are fools if we let daily troubles mar our appreciation for life.
So, arrows, go ahead and shoot me! I will fear not the sharpness of the sting! For no matter what happens next, I will still appreciate life just as long as the days and weeks or months are given to me.
The good news of the season abounds in a glorious display of lights. Our blessed little town of Urbanna is aglow with the Christmas season. How I love the colonial style street lamps and the red bowed wreaths hung on every lamp. I love seeing the holiday flags out and the many houses lit up in some merry way for Christmas.
Our blessings are great in not only life itself — just consider the hapless stone — but also for spouses, children, “grands,” friends and neighbors. That the people of Middlesex County live together as one family in peace in this beautiful rural area with people that really care for one another. When you consider the violence going on here in our country and abroad, people that cannot seem to get along with one another, how much more could anyone ask for more in life than such treasures?
There are two sensational yard displays so far in town — one at the corner of Marston and Rappahannock avenues that features a variety of boats, even a sailboat riding through the blue waves and Santa Claus and the other at the corner of Kent Street and Rappahannock Avenue. This site features a big Santa and a little Santa along with several snowmen and even a pair of joyful pink crabs no doubt celebrating that the “crab season” is over.
If you are lucky at this site, you might even get a glimpse of an adorable miniature black pony peacefully grazing behind the fenced yard, a favorite sight on Kent Street.
Deltaville also has its annual Christmas tree light display which gets bigger and better each year. It is sensational and the zillions of lights glittering in a dark night can’t help but brighten the day.
A recent weekend featured the Christmas house tour in Urbanna. I enjoyed seeing many visitors while out touring homes, shopping and dining in Urbanna.
In the meantime, I wish all my readers a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!
© 2023.
On a somber note: Urbanna dog lovers grieve for the recent loss of Cathy Newcomb’s adorable little dog that somehow ingested poison while walking on its leash with Cathy on their daily rounds in Urbanna. We are reminded at such sadness to be extra careful with use of any type of chemicals or poisons as they can injure or even kill not only our pets but our children.
(Note to readers: One Woman’s Opinion columnist Mary Wakefield Buxton will be taking some time off from writing her column and hopes to return to the Sentinel’s pages in 2024.)
Buxton books available; great stocking stuffers
Welcome to “One Woman’s Opinion,” a long-term feature of the Southside Sentinel, written by Urbanna resident Mary Wakefield Buxton. Traditionally a humorist, Mary has written a column on all subjects and sometimes in very serious vein. Along with writing a column for the Sentinel since 1984, she is also author of 15 books about life and love in Tidewater, Virginia.
