"LET ALL MORTAL FLESH KEEP SILENT"

 

The world begins in a humble bed

Love is given, a baby conceived, a baby born

We nurse it, tickle it, count its toes

So it has always been

 

Maybe a manger, maybe a bed

Maybe a child of God, maybe God Himself

 

Women become women in their beds

Men become men, touching and touched

We pray with watchful eyes

A time of heightened vigilance

 

A bed is a place to cry or hide under the covers

We gossip in bed:  sleepovers, lovers, marriages

We read

We drink our tea and watch TV

I kissed my mother goodby in her bed

My father too, a hospital bed

And even my son.  My son

I cannot write without being there

In the room at the bed 

With God at the bed, kneeling, yes He too

 

In our beds we wake with sorrow some days or years

I may dream of the train I hear 

Whose wheels could save me from despair

(Or wake with joy, a grandchild near)

 

Let my world end while I sleep, we pray

In a soft warm bed where body on body we were conceived  

Let our souls outlive our mortal flesh as is promised 

And enter heaven from this bed 

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

As the darkness clears away 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS WAS PERFECT

 CHRISTMAS was perfect.  How can that be?  Did everyone get what they wanted?  Maybe not, but we sang carols.  Was everyone on time for supper?  Maybe not, but we prayed for those with less than we, for those without shelter or a home country, for those incarcerated for a crime or not.  

Did everyone refrain from arguing?  Yes, in fact, we did.  We love each other, we love our communities, we love our country.  We had nothing to argue about.  Did we find sustenance from our churches?  Yes we did.  My husband and I attended the local Catholic church with family.  The priest prayed for the safety of immigrants, for food security, for freedom to speak our hearts in this time of great crisis.  He prayed for our country and our democracy.  He was bold.

So yes, Christmas was perfect.  The Christ child was born again.  We too, if we cared to, were born again with him.  He was born in a manger because Mary and Joseph were going to be registered so that all the world could be taxed.   Caesar Augustus wanted money. 

Christmas was perfect because it always is.  Whether we are sick or confused or under siege, whether a baby is born again with Herod at the helm, with only shepherds to follow the star, whether we're not sure what year it is:  1968, 1973, 200l, 2021--Christmas says, "Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels."

AMEN 

 

FAVORITE PHOTOS, FAVORITE MEMORIES

CHRISTMAS is here and so are the winter cardinals.  They do not migrate.  They shelter in the branches of cedar, fir and pine.  A cardinal brightens the dreariest day.  A fine sketch I ran across and kept. I wish I could draw!

   

 With grandchildren, we made Christmas cookies today, homemade sugar cookies with powdered sugar icing.  Trees and angels and stars, Santas and ornaments and sleighs.  We ate a pile before the afternoon was over.  Full of sugar and love. Fun every year.

These holly berries out my door are sought after by every robin in the woods.  They check for days waiting for that perfect ripeness.  I wait with them. When they detect it, the robins cover the trees, fluttering, diving, acrobating and feasting.  Soon only prickly leaves remain until pollination in spring when the new green berries emerge to ripen again midwinter.  A lovely cycle. 
 

This is how I want to feel.  A winter cold, a disappointment, no matter if it is well with my soul.  Do you not agree? I was in hospital for a few days recently.  My body needed such attention, enough to remind me that we are not bodies with souls, we are souls with bodies. 

Have you been to the National Cathedral in Washington, DC?  Many have.  Last December we went to a performance of Handel's The Messiah here.  This year I was in hospital and missed our local performance.  Today I listened to it in my car as I drove, well-recovered now. There are so many churches in the world to visit.  Places to light candles and pray.  To feel a part of the 2,000 year-old Christian faith. 

Don't you love the light of flickering candles during our long nights now?  The winter solstice is just days away, shortest day, longest night.  This is a small collection of my candles, making the darkness a place of comfort, as it should be. 

I grew up here, in a drafty old house in Missouri where we had long winters and heavy snowfalls.  The house was built in 1904 and still looks the same.  I check it out when we go back to St. Louis, which we did in early November. A coal furnace my dad converted to gas.  Hills to sleigh ride, school even during blizzards.  We all have childhood winter memories.  I loved this house. 

This is the woods where we live today on a winter morning with the sun just rising.  The day will be overcast.  Nothing is more beautiful than a woods in winter, sculptural, clean and fresh.  It's worth going out of our way to see one.  If it's snowing, the snow absorbs sound and creates a blessed silence. 

Above is a picture of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico that we visited early last spring.  Below is the famous staircase of 33 steps, two 360 degree turns and no central support 

Maybe I will do a Part II later.  If you have time, check your own photos, even those years old, for your favorites and the memories they hold.  Thank you for looking at mine. 

Happy Advent, Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas.  Holding all dear, Nina Naomi 

DARKNESS

  

For darkness covers America.

Children go hungry while pedophiles feast.

 

Yes, darkness covers America. 

Brown neighbors disappear.  

Boats not in American waters. Unknown

Venezuelans not charged, not tried, or convicted, 

Blown up to no more than debris. 

 

Like Christians sent to the lions 

For the pleasure of Emperor Nero 

Remembered only for his tyranny and extravagance. 

Did Nero have a Golden Ballroom?  

Ah, yes he too loved gold.  

 

Darkness covers America

A faltering President turns to a reporter on Airforce One

And says, "Quiet, Quiet Piggy"

For questions about Epstein (who may not have killed himself). 

That word piggy so casually flung 

At a woman doing her job on Airforce One. 

 

Darkness also covers America

In December when the sun sinks low mid-afternoon.

A Gift-of-God-Darkness, 

So the light of the star pointing the way 

To the newborn awake in the hay beams brighter, sharper. 

This is the mid-winter dark that we savor,

To prepare, to be one with the earth.

 

When we keep to our rituals, they soothe our souls.

When we light the first candle on the Advent Wreath

And start to decorate our homes with greens, red berries and wreaths,

Some, many even, get depressed 

From memories or fear.

Those lighted candles help, week by week, one at a time. 

We light the second candle 

And wonder who might like what for Christmas. 

We light the third candle and set out the creche. 

Then we light the fourth. The church is full of light in darkness.

At home the lighted trees help, with treasured decorations.

Vintage baubles of mercury glass, so thin and shiny, so few left.

 

Light in the darkness that covers America.

Light in the people who stand up for survivors, 

The people who sell and buy local, 

Who boycott Home Depot (where ICE is allowed to do harm),

Walmart and Target (who dropped DEI). 

Light in the people who feed all with grace, 

Who quit buying Teslas, 

Who protest AVELO Airlines at our airport 

That deports brown people hands chained to feet.

 

Light shines through the deepest darkness 

When Christians follow their Lord.

When we don't look away, when we shield those under attack,

When we fund those on the front lines,

When we don't normalize evil.

 

Did we ever need Advent more?  

Was there ever a year when the choice was so heavy, the lines so deep?

Call the children to the table, say a prayer, eat your fill 

And sleep in warm beds.  

There is no moral, only truth.  

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

REFRESH PART IV

Lots of us take road-trips this time of year.  🎶"Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go . . . ."  I wonder if kids still learn this song.  I live in the woods so whoever visits this grandma's house comes past the meadow and through the trees. 

No, we don't have snow yet

Most of us moms and grand-moms have prepared more holiday dinners than we can count. Our church also hosts a Thanksgiving feast on the day itself and just a month later a Christmas meal.  Whoever wanders in has the best traditional dinner.

This year five members of our New Jersey family braved I-95 for Thanksgiving at our house.  It's a harrowing road-trip but for how early they leave.  They saw the sun rise somewhere over Maryland. Family from Florida flew in, amazingly without delay. 

Our own road-trip was to St. Louis and back to see relatives right before the holidays. We drove through North Carolina, Virginia, W. Virginia, across Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois and over the Mississippi River to get to our home town. Mobility issues, some memory loss, two marvelous children, one with special needs--concerns disappear in the joy of being together.  And of course we remember when everyone was worried about whether the two sides of the St. Louis Arch would meet, we're that old. 

St Louis Arch, 630 ft tall, 630 ft wide

All I am thinking about now is how I want this holiday season to be a refresh for everyone.  I'm sticking to making my best efforts to buy local.  Our town has some wonderful Christmas markets with makers who design unique gifts.  I have those marked on my calendar.  One year we found small fused glass mirrors that everyone still has hanging making their homes more beautiful.  My husband asked for a radio this year, totally retro.  When streaming and online go out, we can listen to the radio! 😊  We have in independent book shop that everybody likes. 

It's important, isn't it, that however big or small our Thanksgiving and Christmas are, however confined our expansive our life, that we are thankful to be alive, to be as healthy as ever we are, for family and friends even if remembered, or especially if remembered. From Thanksgiving we move right into Advent.  Tomorrow the first Advent Candle will be lit in churches around the world.  We begin our time of waiting for the eternally new birth of the Savior in whom we believe. 

Every year I look forward to this season of long nights and preparation. If I were even older and lived alone, I believe I would still feel Christ's love and the blessings of a very average life holding me gently aloft.  Wishing for you in a month that can be hurried, in a year when our government has made each of our lives more difficult, a time where peace and joy undergird your thoughts, even the hard ones.   

With much love, Nina Naomi 

 

 

 

DEFEND US AGAINST ENEMIES OF THE GOSPEL

 

 Recently the prayer of the day in our church included the words, "Pour out your Holy Spirit on your faithful people. . . protect and comfort them in times of trial, defend them against all enemies of the gospel, and bestow on the church your saving peace . . . ."  The phrase "defend them against all enemies of the gospel" particularly caught my attention.  

In our congregation we have mentioned whether the Church should be political.  Some fear that politics sows division.  Others suggest we not criticize each other for our political beliefs--and we don't.  That may be because we are fairly homogeneous, but perhaps not.  Perhaps we simply love our neighbors as ourselves and do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  It is the core of our faith.

But if refraining from politics means that we stay silent and passive in the face of oppression, then no.  Both Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic church, the Lutheran church bishops and others do not shy from speaking out.  No Christian should.  No American should.  No human being should. 

Many recognize that this administration and its supporters in Congress act as "enemies of the gospel."  How so is that true?  After all, do not all of us sin, repent and ask for forgiveness?  Of course we do. 

But we do not steal from the poor to give (tax cuts) to the rich.  We do not terrorize immigrants of color, cut food benefits to children or fire government employees; we do not deny science, make American businesses pay tariffs to the government, or build grand ballrooms where the beautiful East Wing of the White House once was--where Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalynn Carter, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama once had their offices.  Where Jackie Kennedy planned the Rose Garden (now also demolished).   

Here in America, our white (like me) president has fired the black Chair of the Joint Chiefs, the first Black person to serve as Librarian of Congress, the first Black woman to serve on the National Labor Relations Board,  the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve, the first Black chair of the Federal Energy Commission, the only Black member of the National Transportation Board, the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors and so on.  None with cause.   

As Christians, as humans, what do we do with this information?  Ignore it?  Pray it will disappear?  Keep silent?  Our service the same week ended with "Send us to do good and to share our possessions with all in need."   Our Prayers of Intercession included, "Move us to understanding and reconciliation between people of other faiths...." 

This is a lot.  But we can't eat the bread and wine that are Christ's body and blood if we let others go hungry.  Hunger is a weapon, whether used against Palestinians in Gaza or poor people here.  ICE raids, troops on our streets, racial terror are evils to overcome. That's why 7,000 of us, many from our congregation, were at the NO KINGS day in our town on October 18.  That's why the speaker was the Rev William Barber--look him up if you need to--, a Dr. King successor. 

Most of us aren't politicians and have no pulpit or bullhorn. All we Christians have is the Holy Spirit feeding us and the words of our faith guiding us.  But we, along with those of other faiths and no faith, have the duty to bear public witness, hold leaders accountable, speak out and resist systems that oppress.  

Some things--the most important--are moral, personal, religious and political.  Think justice, mercy, fair-dealing, respect, goodness, the virtues that stand opposed to sin, including the seven deadliest ones.   We can't ignore politics and keep sin at bay.  We can't fear to mention the names of our two American political parties in a Christian setting and speak truth to power.  Of how we treat the poor, Pope Leo XIV said recently, "Either we regain our moral and spiritual dignity or we fall into a cesspool."

My thoughts of the present are animated by God.  We woke to ICE in Charlotte this morning and to protests against them.  As of this writing 81 Charlotte residents have been arrested for the color of their skin and their first language. God is in the midst of them.  He is in our midst.  No where else do we find hope but in His promise to defend us against all enemies of the Gospel.  The calls to prayer are legion, but so are the calls to peaceful action.  Not my words, but to give up is unforgivable.        In peace, Nina Naomi

 

VERY ORDINARY FALL DAY

November Early Darkness

The best thing about today might be now, sitting outdoors by the fire pit waiting for the early darkness that comes in mid-November.  The citronella candles are lit, since soon it will be too dark to type out here.  the air is mild, I am in long sleeves only by this fire.  We have so much old wood lying about, any strong wind brings down branches to scavenge. I love this place, this patio, this old house, the fire pit that was shiny copper at the beginning of the pandemic, now tarnished by smoke and ash.  

Or maybe the best thing was this morning when I got to sleep a bit and then drink tea.  Lazy Saturdays are always special, left from years of working long hours with stress and travel delays, trying to finish up and get home.  Especially as the weather changes, isn't a slow start nice?  

Or perhaps the best might be this evening when some grandchildren (no longer children), family and friends come for my husband's small birthday supper.  If the fire is still burning they may join me outside for a few minutes.  I made sloppy Joes, my husband's favorite.  And a bought cake.  Maybe that will be best.

Still, isn't the best part of the day when we slide into bed?  Are we ever not happy about that?  Even when as new parents we didn't know how much rest we would get, it was still a desperately needed lie-down.  Sound sleep is a luxury.  After a meal and clean-up, I always think how nice a warm bath and cozy bed will feel.  Body lotion, clean old tee-shirts and raggy sleep pants, Pillows just right.  Just writing this makes me look forward to the end of the day.  

What is best for you?  Every morning I look forward to getting up and every night I look forward to going to bed.  I wonder if this is true for everyone.  Maybe we're just made this way.  Absent disasters and crises and all those times in our life that are too hard, maybe our default is to mostly love all the parts of our day.  Even work, over now in retirement, I could never have done without.  I remember not working and looking. for the right next step being more worrying than working.  

This is seeming like a very good, very ordinary Fall day, like one that most of us are having in our own individual way I suspect.  A weekend, some family, relaxation.  I hope you look at your day and find good things.  My wish whenever I write, is that what I am thinking connects in a small way to those reading, those who choose to read a simple diary of a mindful nature lover to the end of a post.   

The fire is dimming now and needs some stoking. 

Blessings to all, Nina Naomi