Today I looked around at my Christmas decorations trying to will them to put themselves away.  It didn't work.  They are still up and still haunting me with the dreadful chore.  Don't get me wrong, I love the decorations, it's the putting them away I don't like.  I feel like I start getting out the boxes to put them away and it's like opening Pandora's box.  The storage room feels like I have to overhaul it to get everything to fit back in and then there is the task of redecorating my house back to normal.  It makes me tired even thinking about it.  I am a whiner aren't I.  BUT, in the midst of it all, next to my nativity, Heaven said hello through a beautiful flower my dear, sweet, thoughtful friend gave me for my birthday.  It is a red amaryllis, and it started blooming on the 31st and today all of the buds are completely open.  It is brilliant red.  I love the burst of color on an otherwise cold, dreary day.  The beauty of nature always brings me a little closer to God.  Just thinking of the miracle of it.  I planted this ugly, dry, uninteresting bulb, in the dirt.  Gave it a little water and waited, and then miracle of nature occurs and a few weeks later a beautiful, magnificent flower emerges.  I love it and I love that it is from a friend and that I am able to think of her and how much she means to me as I see it.  Thank you little flower.