Around the world Christmas trees are decorated, coloured lights adorn houses and shopping malls, and the sound of carols float through the air…air that is thick with the sounds of excitement and expectations of the children. If you can remember the feeling, there is nothing quite like it. All year you look forward to this time of wonderful surprises, toys, gourmet foods and visits from adoring grandparents. In Australia it is glorious beach weather, white zinc noses, convoys of vehicles moving up the northern coastal roads; a time for roast turkey, Christmas pudding, bowls of mixed nuts, stubbies, and of course the familiar sounds of Michael and INXS rocking on the airwaves. In Northern Europe and North America it is sleigh bells, snowmen and the traditional Christmas meal around a crackling fire. I guess for some Christmas isn’t this idealistic. It may be more to do with struggling against loneliness and depression, isolation from family and friends. To you we send our love and warmest greetings and say never give up.
But isn’t this festive season made that much sweeter by children? Children who innocently shrug their shoulders at the days gone by and have no fear of the days to come. After all, this is Christmas, a time for joy, love and peace. Isn’t it heart warming to know that despite all we have experienced and felt over the past five years since Michael left, that a precious little girl in England will be playing fun games with her sisters?
I helped Kell and Susie edit their family video’s after their last trip to England and saw this fun-loving little girl rolling around the floor with infectious giggles. There was so much healing in that child-like laughter for Kell. He left us with a broken body that did not heal, but his spirit and his heart were in very great shape. He spoke to us of a pleasant expectancy, like a young child about to cross over into the true world of Christmas where love, joy and peace never end.
No wonder over 2,000 years ago on that first Christmas night, the Angels were so pumped about bringing such great news to a hurting world. It remains a story of forgiveness, of second and third chances, of new beginings and of eternal hope. “Glory be to God in heaven, and on earth, peace among men” was the opener on their first live outdoor gig, somewhere in a Woodstock-like field near Bethlehem. So to complete our year, 2002, we at www.michaelhutchence.org wish you love, joy and peace this Christmas and for the year to come, good health and blessings. Our prayers are with you, wherever you are, and also for Michael’s family who are still feeling great loss. In particular at this time our thoughts are for Susie, Croy (Kell’s sister), Rhett and Tina, and for little Tiger, “heaven sent”, and for her dear Granddaddy, heaven bound. Merry Christmas!
Lots of love from Susie, Ian, Mario, Jacqueline and Ange.