Bonus Holiday Issue
Sharing some of our favorite words of the season
In this issue we’re each sharing a favorite holiday poem, story, or song and a little about why we picked it. We’d love to hear what yours are the comments!
Michelle: You won’t find “The World I Live In” by Mary Oliver on any holiday classics list, but it reminds me of the mystery and magic of this season, of what we see and don’t see, and that maybe, what-if, and I don’t know are all part of the story.
Alyssa: I heard “Labor of Love” by Andrew Peterson for the first time in 2020 when I was very pregnant (38 weeks!) with my daughter. It quickly became a favorite. I would listen over and over and hold my stretched out belly and think about Mary. I had never really considered her perspective until I became a mother. I love the celebration of Mary's labor as one of love, and the way Peterson tells her story so lyrically.
Krista: I love the poem “New Year” by Kate Baer. Every December, particularly after Christmas, I read it. It's a reminder of how much we've all been through—how much we've survived and overcome. And maybe, just maybe, instead of pledging so many resolutions to be better, we go into the new year simply living. The ending of this poem gets me every time.
Amy: I read Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow every year. Longfellow's wife had died tragically a couple years before this so he was a widowed father to six children and he wrote this after one of his son's was severely injured fighting for the Union army in the Civil War, all leading him to question the presence of peace on earth. I think in many Christian circles it can feel taboo to voice these kinds of doubts and tough feelings, so I appreciate the honesty and vulnerability of his words. His conclusion at the end that “God is not dead nor does he sleep” reminds me every year that no matter what personal or communal turmoil comes, peace is available to me in the person and work of Jesus. (Also as an aside, I don’t actually like the song that much, just the poem.)
Megan: I help bring together a women's Advent by Candlelight event. It’s an evening of scripture, stories, songs, sips and savors, and candles, of course!
It has an ecumenical heart, and this year’s theme was “A Very Mary Advent.” Mary’s waiting invited us listen to her Song, The Magnificat, three times from three different translations.
Each woman’s relationship with Mary is different, nuanced, and significant based upon their lived experiences. Mary’s voice is recorded in scripture just four times. Listening to her sermon, if you will, with one full body of women, while sharing stories of how they’ve met Mary or relate to Mary, really brought me to a deeper relationship with The Magnificat.
I hear it as part of the birth story we’re still talking about today, and I think it’s because this birth story is also our resurrection story. I love how Mary consents because God’s people and her people…are the same people.
“He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.”
Mary’s yes is proof that we’re called to participate in the divine and make way for the Great Waymaker. And goodness, is there a better time than Advent to accept this holy invitation?
Rebecca: My favourite Christmas carol is O Come, O Come Emmanuel. I love it because it’s not happy clappy. It’s dark and atmospheric and it gives me goosebumps. Crammed full of scripture and archaic words, I feel like I’m taken back into the past, rather than a cookie-cutter, mass-media consumerist Christmas.
Jillian: It’s not overtly Christmas or holiday-themed, but I've been coming back to “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith so much this holiday season. The world is so hard right now, and I just want to make it as beautiful as I can for my children. This is a great read for anyone struggling to find joy and hope in this broken world.
Lorren: I reread the book Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson almost every year between December 25th and January 6th. The book has twelve short stories for the twelve days of Christmas, and they are weird, fantastical, occasionally dark, and always poignant. The author also includes a short essay and recipe with each story, and these might be the parts I like the very most--I love her explorations into her childhood experiences and current Christmas traditions (although I'll confess I still haven't ever made any of the food despite reading this book cover-to-cover at least five times! Maybe this will be the year). I usually want Christmas to be perfect, but the truth is that it is more often that not a little wonky, dramatic, difficult, or downright bizarre. Christmas Days reflects the imperfections of the season, but it keeps the magic.
P.S. - We are taking January off but will see you on February 1 with another collection of original poems!
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Kenosis by Luci Shaw
In sleep his infant mouth works in and out.
He is so new, his silk skin has not yet
been roughed by plane and wooden beam
nor, so far, has he had to deal with human doubt.
He is in a dream of nipple found,
of blue-white milk, of curving skin
and, pulsing in his ear, the inner throb
of a warm heart’s repeated sound.
His only memories float from fluid space.
So new he has not pounded nails, hung a door
broken bread, felt rebuff, bent to the lash,
wept for the sad heart of the human race.
Blessed by this this morning, my friends. The perfect early morning read by the tree. I’m now thinking about how I read O Henry’s Gift of the Magi every year with a group of dear friends when we get together at New Years. I still can’t get through it without balling. Exactly what we need on the cusp of something new.
Also, as a side, never knew the Christmas Bells song was a Longfellow poem. Insert the more you know GIF.