Christmas Day 2024

Gingerbread House Ornament, December 2024

 

Wishing you a place

where your heart is light and free

at home in great love

Advent, Day 24: Christmas Eve

Doves in the treetop, December 2024

 

Fill my heart's blue sky

with a cote of doves who sing

the unbroken song

* Tonight in Christmas Eve worship we sang " I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and they include the line, "the unbroken song." 

Advent Day 23: Where love grows

Squash Blossom, December 2024

Life and love can grow 

through every barrier we 

pin and nail in place

Advent Day 22: An old story

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston
Pictures by Barbara Cooney

 

Find an old story

fall in love with it again

let it light your way

Advent, Day 21: Beckoning the light

Celosia, December 2024

 

Sudden burst of pink

you brighten winter solstice 

beckoning the light

Advent, Day 20: Embracing all of life

Dandelion, December 2024

 

Wild dandelions 

embrace all of life, perhaps

you and I can too

Advent, Day 19: The play of light

Pink Poinsettia, December 2024

This December day

let your winter heart bloom and

join the play of light

Advent, Day 18: Connections

Web in the morning light, December 2024

 

Bless the shining strands

almost invisible, yet

they connect us all

Advent, Day 17: My Name is...

My Name is..., December 2024

 One day a week, I volunteer at a local food pantry. 

Today was a holiday event where we served 324 families. I was stationed in the parking lot with a clipboard and the food bank software program loaded on my phone. 

It was warm outside. Every now and then a breeze would come though and it was a welcome moment of refreshment. The software was slow and glitchy, so I resorted to taking down names and account numbers on notebook paper, then entering them when I could. The shift was non-stop for about 4 hours. 

I was giving a lot of attention to the list on my clip board and working with the software. We tried to work quickly so that people could get their groceries and head home. I wondered if I was making the kind of human connections that I value - the kind where people feel seen.

Then, Diana Hernandez Perez (not her real name) came through. I wrote her name on my clipboard and she said, "Thank you for writing my whole name." I felt her words in my chest and looked up. She continued, "A lot of people only write Diana Perez or Diana Hernandez, but you wrote both of my names. Thank you." 

Her words stayed with me for the rest of the afternoon. It was such a small thing to include her full name. Even though I could have taken a short cut. Without knowing it, writing her full name was a small way of seeing her and honoring her. 

Such small actions often escape my notice, but in the moment those small actions can be everything. I've spent the afternoon recalling people who know me and call me by my "full name." I am recalling the smallest of moments where someone has let me know that they see me. Best of all, I know in my heart of hearts that God knows our "full names" - each and every one of us. 

Advent, Day 16: "Tis the Season

'Tis the Season, December 2024
Art by Riley Anderson

 

The Spirit begins

to swirl among and between

and within us all

Advent, Day 15: A bright reminder

La Luna, December 2024

 

A bright reminder

to keep searching and seeking

Advent's nighttime skies

Advent, Day 14: One leaf, five blessings

Yellow leaf, December 2024

                  

  

                    May sunshine find you on a gray afternoon.

                    May you show up completely as yourself.

                    May you keep holding on - until it's time to let go.

                    May you be renewed and rain washed.

                    May you know that you are a source of delight.

                    

                

            

Advent, Day 13: More than just the one

Zinnia, December 2024

My sights focused on

the one bloom, but believe me - 

there were many more

* I took a quick photo of this lush zinnia just as I was meeting a friend for lunch.  When I saw it again tonight, I remembered there were lots of other blooms in the same patch - lantana, rosemary, and turk's cap among them. Even though I focused in on the one flower, there were so many more all around . It reminds me that none of us bloom on our own. If we are paying attention, we'll see that we are in the company many others coming into their own fullness and beauty. Lord, give us eyes to see.

 

Advent, Day 12: What do you see first?

Okra Bloom, December 2024

I first see the bloom

and team up with the leaf crowd

asking what's to come

My gaze moves on to 

a humble sturdy fence and 

a faithful trellis

Let's offer our thanks

for blooms and leaves and fences

and those who tend them

Advent, Day 11: A bouquet for God

Kitchen window bouquet, December 2024

How to pray all day long...

I like to imagine that every thought, every exchange, every feeling, every encounter is a flower that I can offer to God. 

... the flower of a conversation with a friend.

... the flower of thoughts while drinking the first cup of coffee.

... the flower of concern or anxiety - large and small.

... the flower of the unexpected.

... the flower of listening.

... the flower of imperfection.

Sometimes I even extend my hand and make a gesture like I'm giving away a flower. 

By the end of the day, I've given God a whole bouquet. 

* I first came across the idea of giving God a bouquet from Corrie ten Boom:
"When people come up to me and give me a compliment, I take each remark as if it were a flower.  At the end of the day, I lift up the bouquet of flowers I have gathered throughout the day and say, 'Here you are Lord, it's all yours." 

Advent, Day 10: Wonder

"Wonder", December 2024

 

May every corner of your heart be filled with wonder. 

Advent, Day 9: Abundance

Dragon's Breath Celosia, December 2024

 Everywhere I go

the abundance of Advent

appears on my path

An abundance of

hope, mystery, joy, and love

fill our Advent days

Advent Day 8: Small Mercies

Glossy Abelia, December 2024

 

Blooms in December

tiny treasures, small mercies

as winter arrives

Advent, Day 7: The pattern of love

 

Wallpaper, December 2024

The pattern of Love

runs up and down, side to side

through all of our days

Advent, Day 6: Dear Vincent

Afternoon Walk, December 2024

 

Dear Vincent, in my

imagination you are

around the corner

* One an afternoon walk, I was charmed by the rust red leaves. When I look at the colors in the photo, I imagine they would charm Vincent Van Gogh as well. 

Advent, Day 5: Breath after Breath

Echinacea, December 2024

Soft petals of prayer

breath after breath I ask God

to look after you

* Join me in praying for a friend in need of God's healing.

Advent, Day 4: Welcome

From the Front Porch, December 2024

                    Welcome warm sun and blue sky.

                    Welcome sturdy branches and stirring leaves.

                    Welcome to golden hour on the front porch.

                    Welcome spirit of peace.

Advent Day 4: A true friend

Chinese Lantern flower, December 2024

 

To have a true friend

is to walk by lantern light

through all kinds of nights

* The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; for those living in a land of deep darkness, a light has shined upon them. (Isaiah 9:2) When we are "the people in great darkness" - and we have not yet seen "the great light", the lantern love of friends is everything. 

Advent, Day 3: A Blessing

 

Hibiscus on the back porch, December 2024

May you discover

the blazing beauty at the 

center of your heart

Advent, Day 2: Sticks

Sticks, December 2024

 I've been thinking about sticks. 

When I was little, my brother and I would go out in the yard and pick up sticks before my dad cut the grass. He didn't want to run over them and damage the mower. So we canvased the yard for small branches that got shaken from the trees by wind and squirrels. They went into a pile that was eventually bundled up and hauled away.

Yesterday I took an afternoon walk and picked up a stick to carry with me for a couple of miles. It fit well into my hand. I noticed others as I walked - one floating in the water, several piled against the fences of my neighbors, others scattered here and there. 

Some weeks ago, someone asked me to consider what shape my feelings take on. 

Some of my feelings are like sticks.  Specifically, my grief takes on the shape of a stick. Grief and sticks can be sharp and poke or scratch. They snap easily. Grief and sticks can get lodged or hung up and block the moving flow. Grief and sticks are what I walk along with - when I spot the first one, I began to see them scattered here and there. 

I imagine gathering sticks. Not to collect and keep them all, but also not to leave them laying around. I imagine gathering my grief with the same motion as picking up sticks - to make them an offering - to give them into God's care. 

For what? What good is a stick? Sticks become kindling at the beginning of a fire. Sticks become hospitality for bugs to burrow. A good stick trellises a young vine. Those are my hopes for grief too. That my grief becomes kindling, or shelter or unexpected strength for something (or someone) young and growing. 

This Advent, I'll be picking up sticks - to remember and to hope. 

 

First Day of Advent

Tulip in the kitchen window, December 2024

                    Who says tulips can't bloom in December?

                    My son says otherwise

                    and brings them in with the groceries

                    This one is almost spent

                    another day of translucent beauty

                    one more afternoon in the window

                    If my heart can learn to open

                    with her gentleness and ease

                    the glorious impossible becomes possible again

* The Glorious Impossible is a children's book by Madeleine L'Engle 

"The birth of Jesus was a Glorious Impossible. Like love, it cannot be explained, it can only be rejoiced in."