Midwinter's Song

 

In the Bleak Midwinter

Song by Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst

 

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone
Snow had fallen
Snow on snow, snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter, long, long ago

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ

Enough for Him whom cherubim

Worship night and day
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay
Enough for Him whom angels fall down before
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore

Angels and archangels may have gathered there
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air
But only His mother in her maiden bliss
Worshiped the Beloved
With a kiss

What can I give Him
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb
If I were a wise man, I would do my part
Yet what I can, I give Him
Give my heart

 

 

For some reason this hit my heart this year at Christmas time. Hoping your Christmas season is magical and full of love.

My "live-in gardener" and I move the first week of January; so I am in the throes of moving, packing, clean, and preparing.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

Yesterday the Christmas program at my church took place. It always involves the children singing, but also singing and poems by adults, plus a bit of silliness. Christmas always needs a bit of silliness too.

 

This is the pastor dressed as a saxophone playing dragon. He played Christmas songs on request.

 

 

But there were also words of kindness too.

One of the women sitting behind me and leaned over and said, "I am sending you a link for amazing Christmas music I found on YouTube". She was thinking of me and knew I would enjoy it. It was a Christmas concert with Sting. I am loving listening to it, a bit at a time. The music are songs I have never heard. I thought you might enjoy it too; so I will add a link right here. I was thinking of you.

 

 https://youtu.be/PfViC0fThiU?si=TsDsJQHhanntPEdu

 And just because, my live-in gardener and I went out to dinner this weekend. I loved the ambiance and couldn't resist sharing it with you.

 

Kindness is: "I am thinking of you".  Such a simple thing to do and say, but so often people don't say it. 

 

Sending love,

Marilyn

The Shortest Day

Last winter storms near the shortest day.

 

On the shortest day I just want to sit wrapped in a quilt, sipping tea, and read awhile by candle light.

 The Shortest Day

by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us--Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land;

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

 

Have you noticed the dark nights? By 5PM last evening it was so dark. I just wanted to put my pajamas on and head to bed with a good book or curl up to watch a movie. I will be so happy when December 21st comes and goes, for then I can anticipate the return of the sun.

 In the meantime I will savor the dark nights, light the candles, and sip something warm and cozy.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

 The cookies just look so joyful.

The realtor that helped my "live-in gardener" and I buy our house 22 years ago has a Christmas event every year for all her past and present clients. She gives a Christmas tree or wreath to each one and has a fun event full of hot chocolate, coffee, soup, donuts and cookies. Last Saturday we got our wreath and had a cookie or two.

 Hot chocolate with a pile of whipped cream was a treat too.

There was a mail box for the kids to leave a message for Santa.

Family pictures were taken.

 

 What fun we had even in the rain.

The wreath is hung on my house now. Let the festivities begin.

 

Yes, the same realtor will be selling our house next year.

We love working with her and her new partner.

She is the kindest person and shares her joy regularly.

 

Isn't it special when a kind person crosses our paths and becomes a friend?

 

Sending love,

Marilyn

Inferior Materials

 "One of the signs of a true artist is a willingness to work patiently and lovingly with even the most inferior materials."                    David James Duncan

Trolls with used pallet wood. When Thomas Dambo went to Japan to build a troll they gave him new pallets to use. He returned them and said the purpose was to use old worn out pallets. It took several days for them to find used pallets to build a troll. This is one of his trolls found in the Seattle, Washington area, but it is still with used pallets.

Another word for describing "inferior materials" is maybe recycled or previously loved.

Some years ago I attended an art show with recycled/used teabags. I was amazed at the beauty created on a little teabag. The thought stuck with me and so a few years ago when I decided to pick up my paint brush after 25 years I remembered those teabags. I had plenty of used teabag sources; so I started collecting. Now many of the cards I send have recycled teabags on the card. Here is my Christmas card this year.

I empty the used teabag of tea, open the seam, wash the paper, then lay it on my kitchen counter to dry for a few hours. Once I paint on the paper, I take Elmer's glue stick and put glue on the card, then attach the little pieces of art.

Do you create something from recycled or inferior material? Or have you seen something created that amazed you?

On a side note, I will be moving from my home of 22 years the first part of January. The move actually started this week. I will try to post twice a week, but if I am missing that is where I am. On each day of this month I hope you enjoy the season of JOY. Now I am off to hang a wreath on my home. There is also a wreath on my new apartment/home. I will try to share my wreath gathering next week.

Sending love,

Marilyn

 

Words of Kindness and Joy

 Today was the first day of advent. I opened worship at my church with the following. It only once mentioned kindness, but Hope is a part of kindness. They can both be healing to our hearts when they are hurting. Remember to never let go of hope and kindness.

 

A quote tea nerds may have come across, “Where there is tea, there is hope”.  The quote is taken from an Arther Wing Pinero play, which takes place during the First World War. Tea was a staple part of a soldiers living. They took a break each day, even in the trenches, to have a calming cup of tea. It gave the soldiers hope during a time of struggle.

Today we celebrate the first day of Advent. Matt (my pastor) will be sharing words of hope at advent time today.  

For me hope comes with the morning light. The light allows me to see the path forward.  On Social media this year I have focused on Kindness and since the election kindness has turned to hope. I must focus on the small glimmer of hope in darkness. In noticing the small glimmers of hope, we will see the way forward. Those glimmers are like the stars at night and the star in Bethlehem that lead the way for Joseph and Mary.

Quaker’s say, “I will hold you in the light”.  Many churches today are lighting the first advent candle. Light shines in the darkness of winter, even if only the glow from one small candle. As we approach the darkest time of the year we find hope. Hope is waiting in anticipation while focusing on the light. This Quaker spiritual practice of holding someone in the light is praying for someone in silence and through imagery. It is the way to support another through a difficult time. Imagine surrounding that person with the warmth and glow of light, allow the light to lift them up, care for them, and heal the hurts. Hope wraps them in the warmth like a quilt hand stitched with love, surrounding them in that light, it holds them in the arms of God.

As a child waiting to see Santa, we anticipate delights. Dreams come true at Christmas time. Waiting to open the gifts under the tree, we hope for our hearts desire.

In today’s world of immediacy, we can hardly wait weeks or even days for something, let alone generations or centuries. But the story of God’s people shows us that waiting in hope isn’t a “sit back and do nothing” kind of a waiting. Advent hope is active; it is always listening to God, always learning from God, always walking with God and embracing the light. Very few immediately recognized the Messiah when he first came, a mere baby. And then he steps forward into the light and they knew they were in the presence of the light.

So for today and every day, let’s shine the light wherever we go, hold others in the light, and embrace Hope.

Sending love,

Marilyn

 

Puddle

 Puddle

Do you ever come across a word that already resides in your mind in one way, but then you see it in a book used in a way you hadn't thought of? In reading A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater with my morning tea, I keep coming across the word "puddle". 

Now for me when I hear the word "puddle" I picture a child with red rubber boots on stomping through water on a rainy day. It is such a pure picture of delight and laughter that I have never thought of it any other way. Now Nigel Slater comes along and he is writing about food with puddles of gravy or a gorgeous red sauce sitting on the plate just waiting to be soaked up by a piece of bread or savored with a pudding or ice cream. It shakes up my thinking on a "puddle". I want to delight in that gorgeous puddle on my plate like a child stomping through it in my red boots. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, there actually was a puddle on my plate of turkey gravy, but no picture of that puddle. It was gleefully devoured.

Then I begin wondering about words that create images in my mind and shake up my thinking. This book with his gorgeous, descriptive words does just that. Here is one line, "To smell steaming rice in the early morning is as comforting as being a baby swaddled in a cashmere shawl". Isn't that imagery amazing? Don't you just want to be "swaddled in a cashmere shawl"? Do we pay that much attention to a particle of food placed in front of us?

The closest I could get to a puddle in my own backyard is sitting in the birdbath. I imagine the birds think of it as their own personal puddle, a place to stomp their feet and splash about while washing their food or their feathers.

We must have rain to make a puddle. With bad times we can make something beautiful. There is a quote that says, "Into every life a little rain must fall".  So let the rains come and in the morning after the rain has passed, the sun will shine and we can dance in the puddles.
 

Find your own personal puddle today and dance.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9MWiVMYhqA&ab_channel=SBettinaBrand   

Yes, I shared this picture last week, but when I was thinking about kindness this morning I thought about how kind my cousin was to take me here recently. He knows I love to take pictures of nature. Without even asking me, he drove me here and suggested I get out of the car and snap some pictures. It's these little thoughtful acts that surround us with an emotional quilt of comfort.
 

Kindness

by Naomi Shihab Nye 

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

 

And then this past Saturday a friend made reservations, picking me and a couple other friends up for tea time. As I sat there I realized people don't do that normally for me. I am the one doing the organizing. I told the friend that and she said "I know, that is why I wanted to do it for you". It touched my heart.

 

As the poem says, it is kindness I have been looking for this year. It is kindness we need in the world around us and in our world. I hope and pray each of you reading this find kindness in your days.

 

Sending love,

Marilyn

Light in Darkness

 Law of Fair Exchange

I met a stranger in the night

Whose lamp had ceased to shine;

I paused and let him light

His lamp from mine.

****

A tempest sprang up later on

And blew the world about;

And when the wind was gone,

My light was out.

****

Then back again the stranger came;

His light was glowing fine.

He held again the precious flame

And lighted mine.

Author Unknown 

 *****

As winter is approaching I am craving the light. Candles come out as I sip my tea. It reminds me of the need for light when life is most dark. The light, even if it is only a flicker, brings hope to my heart for days of healing, laughter, quiet times, and times spent with dear ones.

May you find glimmers of light in these dark times. May these little signs of light shine on you and bring hope to your heart.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

 "Practice being awake." 

Bethany Lee recently spoke at my church and these very simple words got me to pay attention. Bethany has written several books of poetry and plays the harp most beautifully. She is a thoughtful young woman.

Thinking about being awake, what does that mean? Again I think it means to pay attention, "notice what you notice". I can't say it enough. When we are awake we see both the beauty and the sorrows of life. We feel. In feeling it can be painful, but if we pay attention it can also be a growing experience. Growing is good, Being awake is good.

Then laugh and love a lot!

Be joyful!

Sing!

I had lunch a couple days ago with my cousin and his wife. He is a bird person. So after lunch he drove us to one of his favorite places to sit and watch the birds. We weren't disappointed. There was an abundance of birds. He knows I like to notice nature; so he encouraged me to snap a few pictures. The middle picture particularly made me happy, as it also caught the reflections on the water. Isn't it fun when a simple snap of the phone camera makes you smile and feel joy?

 What is making your heart sing today?

Sending love,

Marilyn

Starry, Starry Night

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrk

Happy Kindness Day!

Looking back at posts I had started, but never finished, this song had been bookmarked. It is rather sad, but beautiful to me. It speaks of starry, starry nights, how people didn't listen until it was too late. I am planning to focus on those stars with more to come on that next month. I hope you will continue to follow along with me as I look to the stars, as I speak my truth, and as I continue to travel with kindness and joy.

I noticed the moon shining through the clouds as they rushed by during last night, as I woke up to enjoy a couple hours where I couldn't sleep. There were no stars, but I could see that moon, the clouds, the rain, and the shadows in my yard. I could imagine the beauty of the sky and grounds as the sun rose to see another day.

My tea plant (camellia sinensus) is blooming, hope for new growth.

The leaves are puddling on the greenhouse roof. I think they are beautiful.

And if I look closely, I find new blooms still shining on a dark day.

As the sun goes down, the evening sky from my back door.

In the song it mentions a blood red rose. This is the closest to that in my garden each spring.

I pray people wake up and listen to each other, love each other, and show kindness in little and big ways. I need to believe it isn't too late to listen and embrace each other. Notice those starry, starry nights and wait for the dawning day light hours. Be awake, alert, and notice what you notice. Be Kind!

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

 "Wherever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul." Unknown

 

Dear Friends,

I knew this year would be rough, but this election has pretty much drained me. It is hard for me to focus on the beauty, the kindness, or the joy in life some days. I am shattered.

But in the midst of all the sadness and angst the words that come to me this morning is that in the darkness we must sparkle and shine. How do we do that? Where do we go from here? The quote above sort of answers those questions for me. It might be in the little things that I have shared this year, the noticing of the small things. But also in the "creating beauty". How do we do that?

 

For me it might just be the picking up of an acorn on my walk and savoring the beauty. Isn't it amazing how the nut fits so snugly into the little cap? I often carry it home and admire it for awhile. It might be to pause and admire the flowers or beautiful fruit at the market. It is all about the nature around me. As far as creating,it is my small watercolors I love to paint for friends,just putting a few flowers in a vase to enjoy, or lighting a candle on a dark, stormy night.

Also it is noticing the "sparkle and shine". Last Friday I went to my favorite early Christmas event at the local antique mall. There was plenty of "sparkle and shine". It made my heart happy. I don't buy much anymore, but I just love snapping a few pictures and for awhile be surrounded by beauty.

So, friends, let's notice the "sparkle and shine" each and every day.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Autumn and Hope

 

 

Thoughts by Jacqueline Bouvier (Kennedy) in 1943

I love the Autumn,

And yet I cannot say

All the thoughts and things

That make one feel this way.

 

I love walking on the angry shore,

To watch the angry sea;

Where summer people were before,

But now there's only me.

 

I love wood fires at night

That have a ruddy glow

I stare at the flames

And think of long ago. 

I love the feeling down inside me

That says to run away

To come and be a gypsy

And laugh the gypsy way.

The tangy taste of apples,

The snowy mist at morn,

The wanderlust inside you

When you hear the huntsman's horn.

Nostalgia-that's the Autumn,

Dreaming through September

Just a million lovely things

I always will remember.

 

To me, this sounds a bit melancholy. "I always will remember." Through different seasons of my life I have said "pay attention" for this will be a memory some day. Each adventure I have taken, a memory now resides.

In these dark times, the memories, noticing small things of beauty, will get me by.

Yes, I am sad today. Sad for my country, sad to let those things of beauty go. But hope comes in the morning and I must still have hope and notice what I notice of beauty and delight. 

Sending love,

Marilyn

Words of Kindness and Joy

OK, I wrote this in August and realized I hadn't posted it. As tomorrow is election day I hope and pray a woman will soon be in charge.

Now you might say, "what does that have to do with Kindness and JOY?" I believe Kamala brings to the table just that "kindness and joy"! 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciQeRGYFlw&ab_channel=Keb%27Mo%27

Put a Woman in charge! 

I hope you listen to the above link, it inspires me.

I believe, as women, our time is coming.

Women have the power to add tenderness and beauty around them. To take something ugly and make it something special. To heal our "booboo's". To cry with us, laugh with us. Yes, you might say a man can do these things too, but I believe a woman adds the gentleness so lacking in the world of men.

I am excited for the possibilities a woman adds to our world. Now normally I am not political here, but our time has come in the US to have a woman in charge. Please vote BLUE 

Sending you love, kindness and JOY in this time of struggle and upheaval.

Peace to you,

Marilyn