Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noël

We're heading out to celebrate Christmas with loved ones and won't be posting much until later. Thanks for staying in touch, for reading my ramblings, and for sharing your thoughts with me, too. Here's our annual Christmas letter.

Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noël

What a full, complicated, and blessed year this has been! It is always revealing to take stock of what has happened over the past year in our small part of creation, in the lives of those we love, and in the greater world. At this time in 2018 we were preparing to head north for the Winter Solstice, to visit our friends at L’Arche Ottawa for the Christmas Pageant, and then to feast with the Brooklyn family for Christmas Eve and Day. Shortly after Epiphany, we spent time with our loved ones in Plainfield before flying out to Tucson at O-God-Hundred in the morning for ten sun-filled days with Linda and Larry Schloss. Other highlights included:

v Being with our friends in L’Arche Ottawa throughout the year, celebrating the marriage of Ross and Jennifer in Northern California – and spending time with Phil and Julie in North Beach – before joining Henrietta and Robin for their wedding in Ottawa. A late summer vacation took us to Montreal, too.

v Making music and poetry all over the region with precious friends from First Church, Famous before We’re Dead and the poets of Word X Word in Pittsfield. We built a terraced garden in the backyard, planted Louie’s Milkweed and Butterfly Garden and rebuilt our deck with Jon. Finding ways to help our land become a small Sanctuary of safety and peace will be next year’s priority.

v Dianne continues to deepen her teaching and editing work with the English Farm as she participates in growing this innovative enterprise; James launched a new website to strengthen his small spiritual direction practice. (Check it out @ https://northernjames66.wixsite.com/website.)

Watching our grandchildren grow has been a thrill: Louie turned 6 and headed off to first grade; Anna celebrated birthday number two with her infectious gusto, charm, 

fullness, and verve.        

Like many of you, we grieve the fear-mongering and hatred that the current regime foments in the US and all across the world. More and more, the wisdom of the late Jean Vanier resonates: we can only change what we can touch. So we join with others in practicing the 10 Foot Rule – sharing loving concern in tangible ways with those close to home – and entrusting the rest to God’s care. The late Henri Nouwen put it like this:

The small child of Bethlehem, unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of our salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shout that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices. I remember seeing a film on the human misery and devastation brought by the bomb of Hiroshima. Among the scenes of terror and despair emerged one image of a man quietly writing a word in calligraphy. All his attention was directed to writing that one word. That image made this gruesome film a hopeful film (for me.) Isn’t that what God is doing: writing a divine word of hope in the midst of our dark world?

You are one of the signs of hope and light in these dark times – the presence of the holy in your humanity – and we both return thanks to God for you. May your holiday be filled with gentle peace and your New Year with strength for the journey. With gratitude and love,

James and Di