Slice of Life: Afterglow

I am continuing to enjoy a book of Advent devotionals, Christ the Light of the World, by Thomas Kinkade. My bookmark in this small devotional book is a poem created by Margaret Simon for SJT at Reflections on the Teche. She wrote an image poem for each word of advent and I've enjoyed revisiting them as I've read the short devotionals in my book. I especially loved her poem for week 4:

Love 

leans in for a gentle hug

warming intuition 

and keeps glowing 

Kinkade refers to the time after Christmas as "afterglow", one of his favorite times of the year. I too love the gentle time between Christmas and New Year's Day, times when I can savor waking up early and sitting peacefully in the light of the Christmas tree. I spent most of yesterday reading, warming my hands and heart with a mug of hot chocolate. I'm old school and leave my tree up until January when I tenderly remove each ornament and think of the memories associated with each one as I pack them away.

In Kinkade's devotional for Week Five, Day 29, he speaks of the tension between doing (the active life) and being (the contemplative life). This was especially meaningful for me since "be" is my OLW for 2025. 

Kinkade writes, "Once we reach the day after Christmas, the world of doing takes a grand time-out. . .  Savoring the afterglow of Christmas is a learned art and one worth the creative effort. " 

I declared a pajama stay-at-home day today. I delighted in watching a Christmas movie accompanied by a mug of cinnamon apple spice tea. I also visited with family and friends via phone calls.  

How have you embraced being and not doing in these days after Christmas? How are you basking in the love and afterglow of this season?

Slice of Life: Love arrived in the night sky!

I read these words last night from Kate Bowler's advent Day 23 reflection:

"So here we are, a few days from Christmas, and maybe the invitation is to look for love in small ways. In a text that says, 'Made it home safe.' In a neighbor shoveling your walkway. Love in the God who came close, unnoticed but never unneeded.

Blessed are we who believe that love,
no matter how small,
is enough to remake the world.

---

Where have you experienced love arriving this season in small ways?"

And that's when I knew I had to share a moment from last night as I stepped out of our public library. The evening sky took my breath away. I grabbed my phone to capture it, hoping the pics would do it justice. I soon realized that this was a moment requiring multiple pics. Here's what I saw as I did a 360 turn in the library parking lot:

Before I reached the car, my phone rang. It was grandson Robby! He knows how much I love beauty. He noticed the night sky as they ate dinner and insisted that his mom call me so he could tell me to go outside and look. This is the same little guy who used to tell me he would take a "memory pic" as we spied fall color when I delivered him to and from preschool. And then I would hear his little click from the backseat!

I wish you small moments of love (and time to savor them) in the midst of your busy days. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to each of you!  

Spiritual Journey Thursday & Poetry Friday: Hope for Dark Days

Jone is hosting Spiritual Journey Thursday. 

Read her post on light, darkness, silence and hope. 

Then click on Mr. Linky for the posts of other SJT participants.

 

I did not grow up with a religious tradition that focused on Advent. However, I am increasingly drawn to it. I've collected a few quotes, some links, and a poem that I am enjoying during this season of Advent.

1. From my small devotional book, Christ the Light of the World by Thomas Kinkade:

"... in the days to come I ask you to sit quietly with the images from my brush and imagination, images that are meant to beckon you into a world of stillness. Allow your heart to wander on a reflective journey through the season of Advent even as you attend to the demands of December. 'The journey begins with Advent,' wrote author Jan Richardson. 'Advent is a dance set to the rhythm of waiting. We wait for the holy, we wait for the birth, we wait for the light . . . Advent reminds us that we are a pregnant people, for God calls each of us to bring forth the Christ.'"

I love the words, "Allow your heart to wander on a reflective journey..." 

2. This concluding paragraph in the essay "Dirty Feathered Hope" by Lorren Lemmons from Wayfare:

"Jesus brought unfaltering hope into the world quietly. Only those who were already oriented toward Him could see it at first: the magi watching the skies; the shepherds who followed the angelic summons to witness Him in the manger; the imperfect but willing mother who risked her social standing, her marriage, and even her life to bring the Savior into the world. Hope might have felt far away to the families whose babies were killed in Herod’s decree or the followers gathered at the foot of the cross in Golgotha. It might feel far to you as you navigate the bruises and pains of mortality, tangled in situations that feel like they have no solution. But Jesus Christ keeps His promises. We can’t see the way it will all work out quite yet, but we can hope with surety and without shame. The Light has come into the world. Every one of us will fly again."   

3. Poet Georgia Heard's newsletter Tipping toward Hope, packed to the brim with 10 heartbeats worth sharing. Don't miss her gifts near the end of the newsletter: A Daily Advent of Writing Invitations and Poems and Invitations for the Solstice and Returning to Light. Her newsletter is a resource to treasure.  

4. This poem (which I first shared for Poetry Friday in 2014) from the book Christmas Blessings: Prayers and Poems to Celebrate the Season compiled by June Cotner:

For Christmas

May you have joy
in the mad rush
of preparation:
may you know peace
in the tiny margins
of time around
the busy days;
may you have star-shine
in clear night skies
for looking at:
may you have silence
now and then;
and above all-
beyond all else-
may you have love
to give
and to receive.

- Elizabeth Searle Lamb

Dear blogging friends, I wish you joy, peace, star-shine, silence, and love "...in the tiny margins of time around the busy days..." 

Enjoy this season of darkness while waiting for the light!

 

Irene Latham is hosting Poetry Friday 

with all kinds of poetry fun. I've been

absent for awhile, but I'm glad to be here again.