Christmas Eve: Something Beautiful, Something Good from the Christmas Cactus

Christmas Cactus, December 2025

 My Christmas cactus is bursting into bloom. She's right on time. 

When I was growing up, I heard the advice to place your Christmas cactus in a closet for several weeks. The idea is that the extended time in uninterrupted darkness is supposed to send the signal that it's time to bloom. A quick search of online plant groups give this method mixed reviews. It works for some, not for others. 

I wonder about that. Sometimes darkness just feels like darkness, not any kind of signal or encouragement towards new growth and blooming. Here we are on Christmas Eve - a night to welcome Emmanuel, God with us - right on time. 

I am remembering the words of Isaiah 9:2,
"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." May it be so for each and every one of us. 

Fourth Tuesday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from What We Keep

 Prayer Card, December 2025

 

The antique French prayer card reads: "Je suis l'Immaculée Conception." In English,  "I am the Immaculate Conception."

A Catholic prayer card falls out of an old family Bible that belonged to my husband's grandmother. A surprising find considering she was Methodist. Maybe it was a gift or something from an earlier time in her life.  All the same, lovely. It sits on my prayer altar now with other tokens that have found their way to me. 

That's how it seems to go. Special objects and tokens find their way to us - carrying messages of divine presence and encouragement - pointing us to a view of life more beautiful and expansive. The prayer card reminds me that I treasure Mary as part of my extended family of faith. I see the card and connect to her story once again. 

Look around. What tokens or reminders have found their way to you? What have you discovered or chosen to keep? What makes them special? And what messages do they carry?

Our treasures old and new. They are something beautiful, something good.

Fourth Monday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from the Duck Pond

Lake Tomahawk, Fall 2025
Black Mountain, North Carolina

 

Yesterday was the winter solstice. People I love walked a labyrinth or spiral path to mark the day. A sign of our inward and outward journey. 

On a visit to North Carolina in the fall, I remember watching this duck at sunset and the beautiful ripples that encircled him on the water. His own spiral path. As he glided across the lake, he stirred the sunset colors all around. As above, so below. 

Bless us as we follow the path that is ours.

Bless us as we stir all the colors of life.

Bless us as we create ripples that go where they will.

Bless the Lord, who encircles us in love. 

Third Thursday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from Being at Home

Christmas Tree, December 2025

                    I am at home. 

                    I am at home in the early morning. 

                    I am at home with a cup of hot tea.

                    I am at home with bright lights on the tree.

                    I am at home at the beginning of a new day.

                    I am at home with a stack of books to my right and left.

                    I am at home with a prayer shawl around my shoulders.

                                I am grateful to know what it feels like to be at home.

    

Third Monday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from First Light

Sunrise in the Backyard, December 2025

Every minute of the coming day, 

Every item crossed off my list,

Every conversation and message,

Every envelope in the mailbox, 

Every errand and every stoplight,

Every ingredient measured and chopped, 

Every prayer breathed, 

    Started here...at first light. 

Second Wednesday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from Listening Again

Celosia, December 2025

A pastor friend hosts a mid-week prayer and communion service each Wednesday. 

Today we practiced lectio divina with the Annunciation passage from Luke 1:26-38. I listened as she read the passage three times; listening deeply for God's invitation. Where is the story of Gabriel and Mary intersecting with my real, everyday life? In this season of life?

Gabriel carried a message to Mary. Could it be that Gabriel has a message for me? and for you?

In the Sacred Space Prayerbook, the Jesuits ask it this way, 

    

    "If God were trying to tell me something, would I know? If God were reassuring me or challenging         me, would I notice? I ask God for the grace to be free of my own preoccupations and open to what        God may be saying to me."

Here's to cultivating freedom and openness of heart so we might listen again to the old, old story.

Second Tuesday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from the Cat

 

Monastery Cat, Fall 2025
Pecos Benedictine Monastery

                  

A study of stillness.

An exercise of essence.

A rubric of rest.

A lesson of lifestyle.

A practice of pause.

A composition of calm.

An examen of ease.

A manner of mindfulness.

A reflection of repose.

A posture of presence.

                    

  

First Saturday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from Soft Light

Highway 59 outside of El Campo, December 2025

 

A winter sky over South Texas. 

The clouds are washed in silver over fields that are resting from growing and harvest season. The colors cast a soft light over everything. The light becomes my companion on the drive. I love how it shifts every few minutes as sunset approaches. 

Some moments come wrapped in their own diffused softness. Moments when the most important thing is to simply be present. To witness. To tend to what is right in front of us. 

I'm grateful for the quiet joy that finds us along the way. It is something beautiful, something good. 

First Wednesday of Advent: Something Beautiful, Something Good from Blackbirds

Backyard Grackles, Fall 2025

 There hasn't been enough rain in my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. Hardly any. 

So when my mother empties her watering can into the birdbath, birds gather and spend several moments getting a drink. Just that small amount makes all the difference. 

No one needs to remind birds to drink when they are thirsty. They don't forget and they don't put it off. They don't try to get one more thing accomplished. Backyard birds are good teachers in that way. 

May we learn to recognize our thirst, our true thirst.

May we discover small pools of refreshment.

May we see that there is enough to share.

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 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 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