In between light and dark
Good and evil and Christmas coasters in the making.... And chickens.
It's the third week of Advent, which I didn't mention on the last post, over which I then inwardly chided myself, but sometimes not everything lands in an entry. The Bondi Beach shooting had occurred, that didn't get into the last post either. Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered, allegedly by their son. The list of awful incidents seems unending, and yet, a miracle is nearly due.
How to slot waiting for the birth of Christ into my daily, and mostly mundane, activities; we're getting three to four eggs a day, Camilla still the star, but then her Barnevelder sisters are pretty cool too, laying eggs a good two months before the average Barnevelder hen. Fussy the Chicken raised HECK yesterday when she emerged from the coop, all her sisters out free ranging. Cluck cluck CLUCK brought me to find Fussy in the run, and it took five minutes of crooning/cajoling her to where her coop-mates were foraging. One can only call Chicken, chick, chick, CHICK! for so long as said chicken continues wailing for her posse. But I'm their chicken-mama, even if treats aren't handy. Not sure how that fits into Advent, but make of it what you will.
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| Seven of eight happily graze while Fussy does her egg-thing. (I did get a picture of her later, but it was blurry, sigh.) |
And then there's the case of the missing Christmas fabric, which I finally found last night after searching through every tote under the work table. A ziplock back of precut squares waited for me in the back left corner of the office, and once discovered, I quickly arranged on the sofa a couple of coasters to be sewn at a later moment. Which turned out to be this morning, and I learned a couple of important lessons that apply whether you use a binding or Kawandi. One hedgehog in a red Santa hat is going to be obscured no matter which method is employed.
All this sewing keeps me distracted from the evil, as I attempt to harness the good. Enhance life, not diminish it. I can't pull out my magic wand and erase the despair; I don't have a wand, and these awful incidents don't touch me personally. Yet I ache for those in mourning, not understanding why people think that violence bests love. American culture seems steeped in the misanthropic value of harm and cruelty, but we aren't the only ones so deluded. And that all of this is occurring during Hanukkah and nine days out from Christmas? No, I don't understand it at all.
Instead I will continue to pray for peace, for love, for humanity to drop its fascination with the less stellar parts of our characters, and to instead search for the better angels of our natures. That over the next six evenings the lights of Hanukkah will shine brightly, and that the star over Bethlehem sparkles anew. That love heals souls and bodies, that peace is a balm all over our planet. That I can save one hedgehog's Santa hat, and that my chickens will do what is deeply instinctual, bless their henny-penny hearts. And that your heart is protected this holiday season as Advent and Hanukkah continue. Love matters most. And regardless from how dark the cold nights seem, love will always win.
