sarie, the subway strike, and our growing season

Spent about an hour on the phone with my daughter Sarah this morning. The subway strike has complicated things for her, of course. I listened as she told me how she (and hundreds of others) tromped in the cold across the bridge from Brooklyn to get to her job in Manhattan (about a two hour walk) only to find that the chef of the restaurant where she works hadn't made it, so there wasn't work for anyone. Sarie counts it all as adventure... is still loving her new home and discovering not only the city-- but herself... who she is away from all of us, growing and stretching... yet clinging to the security of knowing she is loved, prayed for, missed. Our first Christmas with a family member missing will be hard. It is a growing season for our family, with all the inevitable pain. It is the hardest for Emily, I think, who misses her big sister terribly.

"I'm not trying to grow here, Mom," she said to me the other day. "I'm just trying to get through Christmas. "

Some seasons are like that.