A FUTURE TO ANTICIPATE

 It's been a week ago that Lib and I received our final Covid jabs. I had no immediate reaction but the next day felt as if I had the slight flu, just achey, sort of weak, and didn't do anything except nap and then go to bed early. Next morning I felt much better, Lib had a sore arm from the stick and next morning felt very faint for about an hour. She  also felt do less for the day and seemed to recover a little more slowly. In another week we should be much safer ...though to tell the truth we haven't lost a lot of sleep over it. 

Last year we had no snow to speak of. This year we had at least 2 little snows and Spring has been more normal with weeks of warmth followed by some freezing temps. We've had a professional service treat our lawn and it has grown rapidly on the warm and wet days. I mowed for the 2cnd time this afternoon, March 3rd. 

As time goes by and the huge nationwide vaccination program continues to put jabs in arms we should soon be reaching a safe level approximating normalcy. At some point, society will no longer need to wear masks and hugs and other family interactions will not feel slightly risky. All along normal behaviors have not posed grave risks, in my opinion, but just as the polio epidemics of the 50's, those who DID contract the disease often paid with their lives or lifetimes of disability. I remember not being allowed to swim in public pools because that was a place thought to be a good breeding ground. 

So Spring is bursting out all over. Biden, not a perfect President is quietly getting things done, instead of "trash talking" the opposite party. More and more Americans see the efficacy of the vaccines and are beginning to see realities in many ordinary life situations. We are beginning to view our neighbors as other humans, not the enemy, and that cooperation helps us all achieve shared goals. America can still lead the world to a better place by listening to its better angels. To do so, we must acknowledge and relearn our histories and suppress the more violent streaks of selfishness that tempts us to put ourselves always first both individually and nationally. Our own Civil War, two World Wars, and the subsequent "police actions" have taught us hard lessons about how war, the scourge of humanity can eat us alive. We truly are as the slogan says "..in it together!!"

So here it is ...another Easter. Christmas is that incredible notion that the Alpha and Omega for whatever reason came to live among us to show his creation and mankind how to live peaceably together. Easter shows that mankind in part was ready to accept this notion, but a small minority needing to hold on to power lynched Jesus. 

His resurrection proclaims that the "I am" still is in charge. "He is arisen!"

 

Merry Christmas

Dear Reader, Sorry it's been so long since I have written, but life has been rather ordinary and for someone like me that is something for which to be grateful. Here it is December and the Christmas mood is all around. What is it about Christmas that creates this wonderful feeling of anticipation and excitement. Depending on whether you're a child, a teen, a young adult or an older adult as myself we experience Christmas through the lenses of our very particular place on the stage of life. For some the vicissitudes of life have stamped out the exuberance, for me the magic remains though more subdued than the wild expectation of childhood.
  Advent is a strange ritual. As Christians we say we look forward to the return of the Christ child. But His spirit has suffused us all year so how is it to return. Did He go away the other eleven months? What exactly is it that returns to warm our hearts and put a light in our eyes and a spring in our step.
Let me share what Christmas means to me. Being a musician I'm reminded of all the religious and secular joys this Season arouses. There is participation in Handel's "Messiah" almost yearly from the time of my early teens. Not only the great words of God's incarnation into history, but also the accumulated stories of friends and strangers whose lives were changed by attending this oratorio. The amateur singalongs sometimes seem more fervently performed than the professional. The melodies pervading the ether are just more lovely than at any other time of the year I have also been privileged to perform in an area orchestral celebration and at our church.
  Then there are the lights. From the decorating and lighting of the Christmas tree from medieval Europe to the elegant decoration of homes, the explosion of lights on lawns and front yards, to the most humble home that is illuminated by those on a small tree or a candlestick in the window, all proclaim that Light is more powerful than darkness, that Love is stronger than hate, that God is truly among us even when we resist His insistent wooing. During Christmas it takes a truly bitter person it seems to not be somehow touched even though the secular mode is so prevalent.
  This is the season where families celebrate family. My sister is a new grandmother and it is wonderful to see the joy reflected in my brother in law and her faces as they welcome this second grandchild into the circle. Lib and I have large families on each side and so this is a special time for us. Through Christmas cards it is a time to connect, if briefly to past friends who were part of our earlier histories through Christmas cards.
  My pictures begin with the simple creche at the front of our small church. It reminds of us of the events of Bethlehem. Next there is a small sparrow I managed to capture. Jesus reminded us that God is concerned even with non human life. It clings to the branch with tenacity and bright eyed inquisitiveness, while being watchful for the predators from the sky. A short life maybe filled with an instinctive fear that keeps it alive. but for  the instant I clicked him we were both caught up in the same dance of life. The last pictures are of the beautiful homes lit to celebrate the Season. One near us has been tastefully, yet dramatically been illuminated the past several years. Several others are photos of other dwellings not far from us where a whole street has joined in proclaiming that it is Christmas. The last is Lib's decorating of our mantle and living room wall.So here, dear reader, is my wish for a Merry Christmas to you!

neighborhood house

creche

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neighboring houses

our fireplace and mantle