#adventapertures2025: Blue Christmas

One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the soundContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: Blue Christmas”

#adventapertures2025: day 14

…darkness reaches out to offer whatever helping hand it can, calling us to trust it, saying, “Sometimes only the darkness will do.”  We owe it to the darkness to reach out and grab that hand, to respect what it has to offer, to join it to the hand of light. Catherine Bird, The Divine HeartContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 14”

#adventapertures2025: day 5

I carry with me the awareness that many people find that this season brings not tidings of comfort and joy but of frustration and grief…. I believe… that in this season [we are invited] to carry the light, yes, but also to see in the dark and to find the shape of things in theContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 5”

#adventapertures2025: day 3

To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim. Mark Nepo from Christine Valters Paintner, The Love Of Thousands, (65) Why begin a journey, especially when one has no idea of whereContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 3”

Christmas Day: for birth

Light splashed this morning  on the shell-pink anemones swaying on their tall stems; down blue-spiked veronica  light flowed in rivulets over the humps of the honeybees; this morning I saw light kiss  the silk of the roses  in their second flowering. my late bloomers  flushed with their brandy. A curious gladness shook me. So IContinue reading “Christmas Day: for birth”

Blue Christmas: for mourning

Grief is a response to an irreversible loss… To generate grief rather than sadness, the thing lost must carry great emotional weight, and it must pull back the veil that covers a transcendent aspect of the world. Breathe out to push the fog away from a brilliant pinpoint of light. … Gravity holds my feetContinue reading “Blue Christmas: for mourning”

day 20: for nourishment

In winter, we are prone to regard our trees as cold, bare, and dreary; and we bid them wait until they are again clothed in verdure before we may accord to them comradeship. However, it is during this winter resting time that the tree stands revealed to the uttermost, ready to give its most intimateContinue reading “day 20: for nourishment”