Christmas is coming

Cold swept in the other night on an artic wind that came down and blew the trees about, shaking out the deadwood, loose branches and bows. Chimes rang with the wind song. The cold stayed the week but the artic wind went on, over many mountains, rivers, prairies and the plains. In the Mid West it reached up and touched the moisture in columns of clouds, pulling them down to cover the ground with snow. The cold wind continued to blow on over hills and dales to the East coast. I remember years ago when, as a young family, we caught the train in San Luis Obispo and rode the Starlight Limited to Seattle. We arrived on Christmas Eve when it began to snow and the snow extended from the summit of Snoqualmie, all the way to Boston.

Clear and cold. I move slower, perhaps everyone does, except the birds, flying from tree to tree to bush to find food. Two eagles sit atop a giant fir with a grand perspective of the Salish Sea and the peninsula and mountains all around.

Snow came on Sunday, just a trace, just a tease before Christmas. Rain came back last night and it’s here to stay, til Easter, or even May. Ice on the pond is swimming under rain water. The creek is swollen again. Just back from a walk

and I’m soaked. But I’m a man and I can change… I must.

As we are preparing for Christmas and enjoying the holidays, I would like to share with you from Words to Live By from Eknath Easwaran, for December 15^th.

“We needn’t rule out the exchange of useful, thoughtful gifts at Christmas, but when we expect something in return, it’s not a gift, but a contract. Using this strict definition, we might wonder if all those gifts under the Christmas tree are really gifts.

Rather than giving expensive, perhaps not really useful gifts, there are really so many meaningful things that all of us can give. If you have been a smoker, you can give it up – not as an act of self-denial, but as a loving gift to your family. It will be a most precious, most treasured gift. If you have been drinking heavily, you can give up alcohol as an act of love. It is a gift that will keep on giving. If you have been overeating, you can start eating nutritious food in temperate quantities, and exercising regularly. It’s a beautiful gift for everybody in the family. These are real gifts.”

Thomas A Kempis wrote: “He does much who loves God much, and he does much who does his deed well, and he does his deed well who does it rather for the common good than for his own will.”