“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, born on this day in 1892

Psalm for the Year’s End by Carla Grosch-Miller,

“Here I am.
What is done is done.
What is undone
nourishes seeds still hidden.
Nothing is lost.

Here I am.
A little more hollowed out by grief,
a little wiser for the wear and tear,
my eyes are open now.
There is a dawning knowing in me
of beauty and of terror.
My soul stretches to hold it.

Here I am.
Joy has made a home in me.
Its radiance warms
and extends.

The light shines brighter.
Ancient songs glow
with a wisdom
for which I hunger.”

🌹 Wisdoms 🌹 by Azam Ali,
“People live a whole lifetime not knowing how to say these simple words and yet learning how to say them can mean the difference between living a life with meaningful connections full of love and joy, or living in dark isolation and sadness with only the ego as a false companion.
Learn to say them and say them as often as you can, for no one else but yourself and see what a difference it can make in lightening the weight of your being:
I don’t know
I need help
I was wrong
I am sorry.”

Winter’s Cloak by Joyce Rupp,
“This year I do not want
the dark to leave me.
I need its wrap
of silent stillness,
its cloak
of long lasting embrace.
Too much light
has pulled me away
from the chamber
of gestation.
Let the dawns
come late,
let the sunsets
arrive early,
let the evenings
extend themselves
while I lean into
the abyss of my being.
Let me lie in the cave
of my soul,
for too much light
blinds me,
steals the source
of revelation.
Let me seek solace
in the empty places
of winter’s passage,
those vast dark nights
that never fail to shelter me.”

From Hearticulations: On Love, Friendship, and Healing by Jeff Brown,

“It has to end, you know. The self-hatred. The collective shaming. The disdain for other. The emotional armor. The buried pain. The displaced humans. The misplaced kindness. The repressed trauma. The fake positivity. The meaningless materialism. The forgotten heart.
We’re all tired of these patterns. We aren’t built to carry them. Never were. They are perverting and distorting us. They’re too heavy for our tender hearts.
It has to begin, you know. The self-love. The collective healing. The love for other. The emotional release. The liberated pain. The welcomed humans. The perpetual kindness. The honored story. The authentic feeling. The meaningful purpose. The open heart.
We are ready to surrender these patterns to a deeper love. Of self. Of other. Of Earth. It’s why we are here. To rejoice in our time together, on our beautiful planet home.
It’s time to lay down our weapons and welcome every precious human life into our arms like a new born. Every human cradled in compassion and kindness. Every human honored as a true reflection of the Divine. Every human loved like our life depends on it. Because it does. We are lost without each other.
It’s time.”

“There is no situation that is not transformable. There is no person who is hopeless. There is no set of circumstances that cannot be turned about by ordinary human beings and their natural capacity for love of the deepest sort…
We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know. We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, educated, not educated, male, female, gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to this family, this human family, God’s family.”
Desmond Tutu, RIP

Serenity prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr, adapted by Laura Dobson,
Beloved, grace me with serenity to accept
the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
May I live one day at a time,
Being present, one moment at a time,
Taking the world as it is, not as I would have it,
Trusting that all will be well,
Surrendering to the One heart’s desire,
And knowing Heaven as Earth, here and now.
Amen.

How the Light Comes by Jan Richardson,
“I cannot tell you how the light comes.
What I know is that it is more ancient than imagining.
That it travels across an astounding expanse to reach us.
That it loves searching out what is hidden,
what is lost, what is forgotten
or in peril or in pain.
That it has a fondness for the body,
for finding its way toward flesh,
for tracing the edges of form,
for shining forth through the eye,
the hand, the heart.
I cannot tell you how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape you did not foresee.
And so may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still
to the blessed light that comes.”
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Waiting for Now by Mandie McGlynn,
“Everything
is about to change.
And
it already has.
It will be. It was. It is.
The dawn you eagerly await
to end the long, cold darkness
is already full sun
far off in the east.
Yet even after light’s return
spring is months away.
Thirty long years pass
after His birth
before the Messiah comes.
Stones of justice
have been tossed in the lake
but their ripples have not yet arrived,
have not resolved into the kin-dom
already present among us.
While we wait, let us seek
—in the darkness of
the Now and Not Yet—
for the treasures God has hidden there,
the riches of the secret places
only found by night.
This is what is promised us:
the wheel of life turns ever on
and darkness is a path to joy.”

“We are all meant to be mothers of God.
What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself?
And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace?
What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us.”
Meister Eckhart