Christmas Never Comes By Itself

Christmas never comes by itself
It always brings along its companions of prior years
Hanging this ornament on the tree, the one from years ago
This one that was my mother’s,

That one the baby made in kindergarten, 30 years ago
We carefully nestle the Nutcracker among some ribbons
So you can’t see the place where it broke that one year
We always make that special cake that Nanna used to bake
But never turnips, because Papa was allergic, tho he’s been gone 6 years now
At Christmas, he is still here, we laugh telling the story for the thousandth time
When the candle wreath caught fire and he had to toss it outside in the snow
He moves through our gathering with the other family members long gone
Touching gently the angel figurine Great-grandmother brought over from the old country.
Christmases past – so many, one every single year! – are layered one on top of the other, on top of the other.
The years of joy, the years of sorrow, too.
Layers upon layers upon layers.
We say, enjoy this day, this Christmas will never come again.
But it will.
In the memories, the stories, the fragile ornaments and sturdy recipes
This Christmas will come again and again.

jfc 12-19-2018

Comments

Me and My Collar

You may run into me on a Friday, in my neighborhood, so it's time I let you know what you might see. When I was doing my required unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), my supervisor suggested that any of us who came from traditions where a clerical collar was an option, take one "collar week," to see how we were treated, as opposed to wearing regular professional clothes. After a couple of days, I joked to the Catholic priest, "How do you manage the power?" In regular clothes, I would walk into a patient's room, and it would take about 5 or so minutes of introductions and pleasantries before we could really get down to talking about their feelings, their fears, the deep stuff. With most people, as soon as that clerical collar walked in the room, with me attached, they began pouring out all the heavy stuff they were carrying. I was riding the bus back and forth every day, and though not quite so dramatic, the collar effect was alive there, to...

Beloved Community: The Now and Not Yet

Rev. Christine Robinson has a great little post up about the phrase "beloved community" and why it's problematic to use that to describe a church. Like her mom, I can get cranky about the whole thing, but my crankiness lies in the misuse of what is, to me, such a breathtaking and profound concept. Martin Luther King, Jr., someone whose words I study in great detail, is the one we often think of as originating the term, but he learned about it through the writings of Josiah Royce. Josiah Royce (right) with close friend William James. Royce was a philosopher, studying Kant, Hegel. I imagine he would have enjoyed Koestler's theory of the holon , because he saw humanity as being both individuals and part of a greater "organism" that was community. As King's belief about Beloved Community would be rooted in agape , Royce's philosophy stemmed from what he called loyalty, and by that he meant, "the practically devoted love of an individual f...

Wordle, Wishes and Boundaries

Wordle, Wishes, and Boundaries In the beginning was the Wordle. Some people liked it, and some people didn’t. And then more people liked it, and they began posting about it on social media, especially Facebook. And so then more people found out about it. Some people liked it, some people didn’t. So, what can we learn about systems theory from the current zeitgeist of Wordle? First things to understand: There will not be an objective truth that is universally agreed upon. Is Wordle good, is it bad, should people share or not share … this is all immaterial. The issue is: What are your wishes? What are your boundaries? A wish is something you’d like, but in healthy relationships, it is not an expectation. It is not a boundary. I sort of wish my spouse liked Brussels sprouts so we could share in my delight, but he doesn’t, and that’s okay. He’s happy for me to eat all of them. A boundary is something so important that you create a consequence if ...

Boots and Blessings

Search This Blog