Blue

Sometimes it amazes me that this blue -

filtering through the almost empty soap container

and the plastic cup that has two thousand twins -

contains the same depth, same strength, same light

the same beauty

as the blue that filters through

the stained glass window

of a church.

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Together

She's back from Afghanistan, safe and sound. And we were all together, even if only for a little bit. I love all the real smiles in this picture.

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Today

The raindrops form bright, clear pieces of glass on the dark branches of our trees. We have had strange weather lately: rain and grey skies for the mornings and most of the afternoons, but just around evening, it all clears up to reveal skies and colors that take my breath away. The sun causes a faint, gold glint in the windows of my neighbor's house. White clouds leave long trails on the hills, and hints of the snow-capped mountains can be seen. I watch as the sky slowly changes from the deep oranges, reds, and purples of sunset to the cold blue of dusk. My siblings are all home by now, either reading, emailing, or doing last-minute homework. There's a quiet around the house. I step outside for a moment and watch my breath make small clouds in the air around me. Here, at least, there's peace.

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Light

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The Sixth Day of Christmas: Ending with Beginnings

We're going to a wedding tonight, and I really can't think of a better to end this year. I ended both of my semesters with weddings. It felt so fitting to end with a beginning because no end points merely to the past, an end also looks towards the future.

It's been a good year, hard in so many ways, beautiful in more. Tonight will be a celebration of God's faithfulness: to our friends getting married, and also to His bride, the church.

Merry sixth day of Christmas, friends! Here's some T.S. Eliot to end the year and look forward to the next.

(excerpts from East Coker)

In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls

Across the open field, leaving he deep lane

Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon.

[...]

On a summer midnight, you can hear the music

Of the weak pipe and the little drum

And see them dancing around the bonfire

The association of man and woman

In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie --

A dignified and commodiois sacrament,

Two and two, necessarye conjunction,

Holding eche other by the hand or the arm

Whiche betonketh concorde. Round and round the fire

Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles,

Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter

Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes,

Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth

Mirth of those long since under the eart

Nursing the corn. Keeping time,

Keeping the rhythm in their dancing

As in their living in the living seasons

The time of the seasons and the constellations

The time of milking and the time of harvest

The time of the coupling of man and woman

And that of beasts. Feat rising and falling.

Eating and drinking. Dung and death.

Dawn points and another day

Prepares for heat and silence. Out at sea the dawn wind

Wrinkles and slides. I am here

Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning.

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