Today I learned the song "In the Bleak Midwinter." It is a poem by Christina Rosetti put to music by Gustav Horst. I was asked to record it for a Christmas Eve service. As I practiced it I was struck with this deep sense of being enough and having enough: "Enough for him who cherubim worship night and day, a breast full of milk and a mangerful of hay." It made me weep with gratitude for my own children and my own life. The small tender miracles around us every day.
I think my 8-year-old son took the photo below that sums up beautifully the mood of another midwinter song I love by Lindsey Horner (you need to check out the album "Through the Bitter Frost and Snow" by Susan McKeown and Lindsey Horner if you haven't heard it. It is my favourite seasonal album.). It's called "When All the Songs were Sad."
"I ploughed on through the streets of the city,
wrapped head to toe against bitter cold
No angel sang out over the skyline
never did man feel so alone"
I think that song speaks a lot to this strange place humankind finds itself in at the end of this year. Whatever your situation, I wish you peace, love and a recognition of your inexpressible worth.
"That blazing star sailed through all the darkness
and warmed me till I reached the shore.
Amid the bleak and cold midwinter
When all the songs were sad once more"
Comments