Autumn’s glorious colors give way to bare branches and cold breezes ushering winter.

The rush of getting ready for Christmas is over. The shopping, baking, cooking and cleaning is finished. The expectant heart waits no more. Christmas is here. Familes and firends gather, share about their lives, enjoying the season of love.

I prepare for Christmas decorating our home week by week. The Christmas tree is the last to be decorated. I watch Christmas movies in the evenings. I am a huge fan of “Touched by and Angel”. Every year I watch the “Touched by an Angel : Isperation Collection: Holiday. I love all of the four episodes, but my most favorite is titled “It Came Upon a Mdnight Clear. The music is beautiful in all episodes, with Della Reese and Randy Travis singing.

The fourth Holiday episode, “It Came Upon on MIdnight Clear”, the poem and music captures the essence of our modern day Christmas.

Christmas Bells

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: December, a season of transition

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
    And wild and sweet
    The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
    Had rolled along
    The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
    A voice, a chime,
    A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
    And with the sound
    The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
    And made forlorn
    The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
    “For hate is strong,
    And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
    The Wrong shall fail,
    The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

From my family to yours, wishing all a Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year.

In Autumn, Nature lets everything go. It is undecorated in simplicity, the energy of life has faded. There is a quiet humility about the Earth in the winter months, inviting deep inner work. Winter invites reflection, a slowing down from the frenzy of holiday preparations. The painting below inspired me to think about quiet reflection I do on my walks in the woods. Winter is time for transition and deep inner work even walking in the cold on winter city streets. This paining “Flatiron Building Circa 1902”, painted by Michael Budden in 2020, (American, born 1957).