Christmas Greetings for 2012

Today, I feel deep-down gratitude for all of you who have so faithfully read my two blogs—the one I began in 2011 and this one on writing. Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement through your comments and good wishes. Your generous friendship has lifted my spirits during a year when I find myself musing about what next to do with my writing.

         Before reading my Christmas wish for you, which is a repost of last year's Yule prayer on my coming-home blog, you may like to listen to one of my favorite Christmas carols: The Shepherd’s Pipe Carol. At the end of the posting, I’ve inserted another favorite: Pat-A-Pan.

To all of you from South Africa to Great Britain

to the far-flung states of the Northwest and California

to Canada and Florida,

the Southwest and the Midwest,

Boston and Cleveland,

and all the toasty homes in between,

I wish you a Chanukah filled to brimming with merriment,

a Christmas heart-deep in peace,

a Boxing Day sparkled with laughter,  

a Kwanzaa candlelit by joy,

and a year’s ending

that finds you content

with your life and its gifts.

Ellie, Maggie, and Matthew

have asked me to convey their gratitude to all of you.

Now that I’ve joined the family of bloggers,

I no longer disturb their naps with play.

For this, they give thanks

even as they hunker by the patio doors,

gnashing their teeth and chirruping

at winter birds and squirrels feasting on sunflower seeds.

Those three scamps,

one as inquisitive as a young sleuth,

join me in wishing you a new year filled

with possibilities for growth in the human spirit.

May you enter the new year merrily

and come to its end in good health,

your lives enriched with friendship

and your spirits enfolded

in the Holy Oneness of All Creation.

You and I,

the three felines observing me type,

and all your cherished animals

are part of that Oneness.

We are the essence of One.

Peace as ever and always.

Amen.

Postscript: I won’t be posting next Sunday as a friend is coming to visit. Deborah and I met when we arrived at Mount Saint Scholastica College in 1954 as bemused freshmen. After our sophomore year, she entered the Mount convent. Two years later, after graduation, I entered. I stayed only eight and a half years, but she has stayed all this time—fifty-six years now. We have remained good friends and the prospect of her visit makes me just a little giddy! Peace.