Yesterday I was thoroughly enjoying the winter rains and the signs of Christmas. The day before, I was in stores where there was too much junk crowding the aisles and it wore me out. But even there, other real people were shopping, many of them looking as dazed as I, and we were kind to each other.
Our city’s redwood trees are lit up and I love how the blue lights dominate, though they are only one third of the total number. It is a little refreshment from the constant red and green. Speaking of red, at one quieter shop I bought a pretty and elegant red top to wear at Christmas, and then I tried Macy’s, where the scarlet Christmas garb hurt my eyes and made me glad to escape. It’s a matter of tone.
This poem captures how it happens that in simple events and moments of time beauty and joy are revealed to us. It’s a constant flow for me this week, thanks be to God.
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
–Robert Frost
Gladsome Lights 
I like LIKE your sweet reflections.Ā I have one red thing to wear – a red jacket that the elderly lady I work for gave me.Ā I thought of you this morning as you start your week with your grandchildren.Ā Love, Christie
p.s.Ā Many people from our church saw the play last night and loved it.
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I’m glad you found some “real people” in the stores. Often I worry about the automatons standing behind the counter at J C Penny’s hour after hour listening to that awful piped in music and punching keyboards while they stare at their screens instead of looking at me. What must it do to their souls to have to work there, I wonder. But then I catch myself in yet another superior attitude, and try to remind myself that God is there with them–and they don’t have much of a choice about being there, whereas I and my fellow shoppers. . .
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Very tall blue lit trees. You do know there are so many of the East Coast people who have those redwoods on their bucket list.
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RAIN!!!!!!
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That’s a wonderful little poem by Robert Frost – I love it! And your reflections on your week also. May those lovely moments continue to refresh you in the midst of all the rush and noise with which our culture goes about participating in the Christmas season!
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It does wear one out being in the stores. I agree with Albert, above, that it is mind-numbing to have to listen to the store music all day long, but we are not automatons. We’re just other “real” people who are so relieved to escape from the store at the end of our shifts and resume our lives. I must admit to having a bad attitude about going to work every day, but after I get there I realize God put me there to be kind to people, just as you and the other shoppers did. Christmas does get a little extreme in our culture. It’s too bad we can’t emphasize the peaceful and worshipful aspects of the holiday. Well, I guess we can in our individual lives. š I love the lights on the trees!
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I can’t do poetic justice a la Mr. Frost to the large dark birds perched like decorations in the nearly leafless trees outside the fabric store where I briefly ventured this early evening, but I must say, it was the best part of trying to find a little something I needed…I needed those birds’ silhouette against the pale eastern sky.
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Thank you for this Frost poem- it’s one I didn’t know. I’m on the road Less travelled this week!
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