Blessing

May the Light of lovingkindness
fill you and the world
with peace.

Thank you for joining me during this season of Advent.

Twylla

The Advent of Love

The Advent of Love

©2010 Twylla Alexander

“Love came down at Christmas,”

as the old hymn goes.

“Love all lovely, love divine. 

Love was born at Christmas.

Stars and angels gave the sign.”

Where was Love before?

It surely was not absent from the world.

Husbands must have loved wives

and wives their husbands;

Children their mothers and fathers;

Parents their girls and boys.

Was there not love of

          Home

          Faith

        Tradition

          Nature

      Community?

What was so special

about this Love,

prompting stars and angels

to take notice,

glories to be sung and presents given?

This Love understood

the world’s understanding

of love, yet offered more.

She knew her words would be

shouted down, ridiculed,

misunderstood, dismissed,

and labeled

Impossible.

As hers was the Love for the

disabled, diseased, displaced, disfigured,

deemed different from the rest;

For neighbor as for self,

For the enemy.

In her hand, she held the gift of peace

and placed it tenderly

upon the heart of a child,

swaddled in cloth.

And upon the heart of

each child born

from that day forward.

“Love shall be our token,”

 as the old hymn ends.

“Love shall be yours and love be mine.

Love to God and to alll men.

Love for plea and gift and sign.”

"Love Came Down at Christmas,"  Christina Rossetti, 1885

                              Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh - public domain image

Be

Be still.

Be still and know.

Be still and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10

  Photo taken in Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo Park -- Moscow, Russia

 Twylla Alexander

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice by Maria Hodkins*

Winter Solstice

by Maria Hodkins*

I notice more than anything

how dear the light is

in these December days

and nights…

Like an infant’s face

that first light in the morning

full of promise.

A rosy-cheeked dawn,

waking me with its insistent cry.

Life! A new birth–

The light shatters the seduction of dream

“Come, I will light the Way.”

From the dark shroud of sleep

I leap,

throwing back the drape,

scooping the light into my face.

I turn the plants

to gulp their sky chai

and straighten their pose

for they have been praying, hoping.

leaning into the light, in spite of its leaving.

Arctic blues, powder, smoke, and wisps of white

dress you, sky, in Day’s gown and cape

cold taffeta attending the Earth ball,

my eyes squint in your harsh winter light

and I wait, wait for the warm return

a sun, now so far, so cold

like the heart of a lost lover.

Light of sunset, breathtaking sky

hues too deep for words

dazzling sherbet of periwinkle and peach

Delightful, Trickster, Magician

I bow to your light gifts

luminous mystery

where light hides in the shadows

and halos mountain peaks

And when the night moves in like lava flow

over the land…

The houses sing furious light carols

bright, white, glaring carols

red, green twinkling carols

desperately holding light space for the sun,

everybody’s darling.

Come back, Sun, come home–we miss you!

How dear the light

how I crave the light, drink the light,

lift my glass to the light,

oh Holy light

through this longest night,

you soothe my soul.

*printed with permisssion 

Advent

by W. H. Smaw
(selected lines)*

I am. I was. I will be.
I am not coming soon I am here.

                                          
*(click for complete poem)

Advent's Fourth Candle - A Cinquain

Flickering

candles of

Hope, Peace, Joy

flourish when joined by

Love

©2010 Twylla Alexander

Sunset Surprise

Radiant reds, pinks

Fill the sky as we ski home.

Wake up! grateful heart

Haiku © 2010 Mary Toland

Printed with permission

                                        Photo by Randy Lincks
                                         

                                            

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem

 by Maya Angelou
(selected lines)

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.


(click for complete poem)

Graphic by Monny's

There is a Place Beyond Ambition

When the flute players
couldn’t think of what to say next

they laid down their pipes,
then they lay down themselves
beside the river

and just listened.
Some of them, after awhile,
jumped up
and disappeared back inside the busy town.
But the rest —
so quiet, not even thoughtful —
are still there,

still listening.

by Mary Oliver
published in Red Bird, Beacon Press

                                              Photo by Stephane Therrien

The Light Within

 ©2010 Twylla Alexander

The flame awakens to the familiar touch,

stretches, breathes, quietens.

The woman sits nearby
with her book,

open to Advent writings.

Today
she does not read.

She stares
into her companion’s face;

Its thoughts
held in shadow.

“Dear Flame, you hear the words I repeat,

the prayers,

the Promise given

year after year.

Yet I remain the same,

waiting to be changed.

Have you no wisdom for me?”

She bows her head.

Needles scratch a frosted pane.

Chill slips through tired cracks

as a rude wind pushes past.

Ticks follow tocks,

in perfect step.

in perfect step.

The flame leans forward.

“That for which you wait is

within you, and in all.”

She lifts her head,

takes in
the Light. 

                                             Photo by Twylla Alexander


Note:  The next posting will be on December 16.  I will be in route from Russia to the U.S. on the 15th.

Praise for an Ordinary Day

December snow settles

on spruce and hemlock,

swollen flakes forming

a heavy mantle.

Pliant shoulders bend,

quietly accepting

layer upon layer,

draped in astonishing beauty.

We are connected,

my woodland companions and I,

arrayed in our accumulated burdens,

stronger than we know.

Later, a wash of rain

dissolves winter’s finery,

elegant boughs,

now plain.

I mourn

such fleeting splendor

until my searching heart

once again sees.

Assembled in joyous profusion,

a vibrant, green sisterhood

embraces

the place where I live.

And thrust into the pallid sky,

a riot of evergreen arms

praises

this ordinary day.

©2010 Diane DeSloover

Juneau, Alaska
(printed with permission)

                                                 "Virgin Alaska Forest"

                                                 Photo by Ken Graham

The Third Candle

 Liturgy adapted from United Methodist Church of Chugiak, Alaska


 The first candle reminded us of hope. The second candle reminded us 

of peace. The third Advent candle is the candle of joy. 

May the light of hope, peace and joy burn brightly in 

our hearts all our days. 

Dear God, in the height of our Advent walk, 
grant us the courage to experience joy. 
Joy in the face of apathy, 
Joy in the face of sorrow, 
Joy in the face of uncertainty. Amen.
(Katherine Hawker)

Saturday Morning, 10 AM

by Jan Richardson
The Advent Door
http://theadventdoor.com/2008/12/07/righteousness-seeks-peace-for-friendship-possible-relationship/


Saturday Morning, 10 AM

Justice and Peace meet at the cafe,

sit together, 

hands folded around steaming cups,

heads bent over the paper.

They are not taking in

the news of the world

with sorrowing eyes

and the clucking of tongues.

They are instead planning their itinerary,

plotting their map,

looking for the places where

they might slip in.  

Their fingers touch, release, 

touch again as they read,

moving with the half-aware habits

that come only with long living alongside.

They have met, parted,

met again on countless mornings

like this one, torn and taken 

by turns.

They put the paper aside

they brush away the crumbs

they talk quietly

they know there is work to do.

But they order one more cup:

there is savoring they must do before

the saving begins,

they lean in

barely touching 

across the table for

a kiss that makes a way,

a world.
(printed with permission)

                                                   Photo by Rachel Ford James

                                          

Blessing

The blessing of God

who has promised

to come into our lives

be with you today.

The blessing of God,

whose breath brings new beginnings,

send you forth into the world

to create a new day for the good of all.  Amen

-- stanzas 1 and 3 of a blessing given at the close of an advent service at Trinity Epsicopal Church, Santa Barbara, California

from Nora Gallagher's book, Things Seen and Unseen, A Year Lived in Faith, p. 17-18.

                       "Apollo Sunrise," taken by crew of Apollo 12 as the sun was
                              emerging from behind the earth, November 1969

Advent - Day 12

Waiting, Waiting

Tired of Waiting!

Flip the channels

Text the ex

Order out

Log in

Sleep

Waiting, Waiting

Too much waiting!

Brew the coffee

Watch the watch

Work more

Rest less

Eat

Waiting, Waiting

Sick of waiting!

Pacing

Drumming

Thumbing

Tapping

Stewing

Fretting

Fumbling

Wait!

For Whom do you wait?

I forget.

-- ©2010 Twylla Alexander

                               Photo taken in Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo park -- Moscow, Russia

                                                 Twylla Alexander, December 1, 2010

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

--Wendell Berry

                                                        Photo by Leta Paine

"In Our Midst"

"What a waste it is to be surrounded by heaven, by a sky 'made white by angels' wings' and to be unaware of it.  Perhaps the first step is that we really should want to unearth God in our midst. . . [to] let the mundane become the edge of glory, and find the extraordinary in the ordinary."-Esther de Waal 
"To find not perfection, but possibility."-Nora Gallagher 

 -- Quotations taken from "Advent" chapter (p.27) in Things Seen and Unseen, A Year Lived in Faith by Nora Gallagher

                                     Photo by Twylla Alexander, June 2010

Advent Litany

Liturgist:  Spirit of love beyond our conception

Congregation: Come to us here where the earth blooms with snow

Liturgist:  Take human form and magnify beauty

Congregation:  Help us be peaceful people of God.

--taken from "Daily Advent Litany," Luther College, Decorah, Iowa

                             Original artwork by Margie Beedle, Juneau, Alaska

                                 Printed by permission only

"Dawn Psalm"

by Thomas Merton,

selected lines from A Book of Hours

pages 93-94

When no one listens

To the quiet trees

When no one notices

The sun in the pool

Where no one feels

The first drop of rain

Or sees the last star

Or hails the first morning

Of a giant world

Where peace begins

And rages end:

One bird sits still

Watching the work of God:

One turning leaf,

Two falling blossoms,

Ten circles upon the pond.

One cloud upon the hillside,

Two shadows in the valley

And the light strikes home.

                       Photo taken in Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo park -- Moscow, Russia

                              by Twylla Alexander, December 1, 2010

What Has Been Given

"Let us not be so foolish as to lose time by waiting to receive --

  what has already been given us once."

 --Teresa of Avila*

*(quote taken from an advent meditation in "The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts")

Season of Lights

by Ann Dixon
Copyright 2002 Ann Dixon*

Winter cold
Does settle and seep
While its best friend, night
Drops wide and deep
To bury the world
In darkness

And then. . .

Christmas bulb

And Hannukuh flame
Kwanzaa and solstice
All proclaim
The power of light
Over darkness.

(*printed with
permission)

"New Year's Tree" on Field of Mars
St. Petersburg, Russia
December 3, 2010
Photo by Twylla Alexander

Advent Haiku

dancing candle burns
filling all the trees with hope                      
lighting up the night.

by J.D. Walt*
Asbury Seminary
The Asbury Poets Blog
*(printed with
permission)

Photograph by QT Luong

)

Advent

Advent
by Christine Rigden*

The land is grey
and wan December
hangs in barren branches,
cries from castle walls.
Frost-trodden,
leaves are stilled
unmoved by winter's breath.

But the solitary trees,
in each clenched bud
silently enact
an Advent carol.

*(used with permission)

                                              Photographer - Peter Griffin