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)