Happy Holidays: Winter Solstice; Hanukkah; Christmas. Each celebrates peace, light, love. Would that we could join the celebrations . . .
Tonight's the Malloy Program Christmas party. Hope you can make it.
Some meditations to deflect a dark Winter's day.
"At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows."
- William Shakespeare
"May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love."
- Ada V. Hendricks
"A thousand hills, but no birds in flight,
Ten thousand paths, with no person's tracks.
A lonely boat, a straw-hatted old man,
Fishing alone in the cold river snow."
- Liu Zhongyuan, River Snow
"On the first day of winter,
the earth awakens to the cold touch of itself.
Snow knows no other recourse except
this falling, this sudden letting go
over the small gnomed bushes, all the emptying trees.
Snow puts beauty back into the withered and malnourished,
into the death-wish of nature and the deliberate way
winter insists on nothing less than deference.
waiting all its life, snow says, "Let me cover you."
- Laura Lush, The First Day of Winter
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows."
- William Shakespeare
"May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love."
- Ada V. Hendricks
"A thousand hills, but no birds in flight,
Ten thousand paths, with no person's tracks.
A lonely boat, a straw-hatted old man,
Fishing alone in the cold river snow."
- Liu Zhongyuan, River Snow
"On the first day of winter,
the earth awakens to the cold touch of itself.
Snow knows no other recourse except
this falling, this sudden letting go
over the small gnomed bushes, all the emptying trees.
Snow puts beauty back into the withered and malnourished,
into the death-wish of nature and the deliberate way
winter insists on nothing less than deference.
waiting all its life, snow says, "Let me cover you."
- Laura Lush, The First Day of Winter
