Standing on the edge of the field
the wind scything the brambles
toeing the brown grey dirt
through deadened mulch
my boot heel stretching
then
cracking the ice
I search for your voice
your sign
a sign
the terrible whisper
that freezes rivers
hearts
I come out here
because nature
is capricious
as often You seem
I still
cannot fathom
God as a Baby
or on a Tree
so I watch the earth freeze
turn white
clean once more
see the choir of snow
touch ice crystals
and listen

CHRISTMAS 2010

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God – for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.
Archbishop Oscar A. Romero
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"And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself."
— Sigrid Undset

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Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.


The innocent in gaols [jails]
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.


History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.


So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.


Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky


That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
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From The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney, his translation of Sophocles's play Philoctetes. courtesy of the Ekklesia project


And,my all time favorite, from John's Gospel,the quote that actually changed my life when I read it shaking in bed
"There,on the shore,Jesus stood. And it was morning..."
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to everyone I know,Blessed Christmas, to anyone I may have hurt this past year, I beg your pardon, may I do better this next one.To all those who helped me[which is everyone] thank you,bless you.

So less the better

Fighting the flu for the first time since the early 1990's.It's wearying ,however,there are people who feel like this every single day of their lives.I'll take the hand I've been dealt...a right wing -nut judge in Va. overturned part of the Obamacare bill as "unconstitutional." America has almost vanished,Amerika grows closer.Justice is simply another commodity bought and sold by clerks in business suits...ADvent,onto more and higher thoughts, is 17 days upon us.My favorite time of the year, the weather is cold crisp,clear the air breathable ,I ignore the stores the black Friday bullshit,the Santa Claus monstrosity of consumerism, and try try try to focus on the Lord Jesus.And, I find it keeps me somewhat happy, certainly in tuned to a small stillness which resonates . My wonderful beautiful wife is an Advent person,filled with light and life, intelligence and the deepest compassion of anyone I've yet to know. I remember our first Christmas as parents,poor, tired, overwhelmed constantly [the baby was a week old]out of our depth,and i distinctly recalling that it was the first time i began to understand the Incarnation .We were happy, poor, tired ,confused, frightened, ecstatic.It was Christmas...