So...Christmas Eve...
How do you come to it? Are you weary? Frazzled? Staring down the barrel of too much still to do and running out of time for doing it?
Take a breath...
Are you worried? Distressed? Has this unpredictable, seemingly random space and time that we occupy thrown a brick at you...stopped you short in your tracks in ways that you would not have imagined?
Take a breath...
Maybe you are excited because this Christmas holds a promise or a hope...for a situation or a person...
Take. A. Breath.
This may be a Christmas Eve of watching and waiting to see see what unfolds...and you don't know what to hope for and you're afraid of how it might be...
Breathe In...and then Breathe Out...
I know of at least 2 families whose Christmas Eve has all of the above. And on top of that they know real apprehension...actually downright, naked fear about what the next 24 to 48 hours will bring.
However you come to this Christmas Eve...weary, distressed, watching and waiting...may I offer you this little gem delivered to me by the Writer's Almanac...
Christmas Light
by May Sarton
When everyone had gone
I sat in the library With the small silent tree, She and I alone. How softly she shone! And for the first time then For the first time this year, I felt reborn again, I knew love's presence near. Love distant, love detached And strangely without weight, Was with me in the night When everyone had gone And the garland of pure light Stayed on, stayed on.
"Christmas Light" by May Sarton from Collected Poems. © W. W. Norton, 1993. Reprinted with permission.
On this night of nights...may you experience the possibility of a constant light in your life...and may you know '...love's presence near...' Merry Christmas... |
