when we dance between two worlds
with angels and one another
hoping to belong
we start believing there is
an us….and…a them
and forget to trust our hearts
truly…we are together
in this life…and for always
please be kind
kat – 26 December 2016
(Magnetic Poetry – The Love Kit)
For some of us, today is Christmas. Yesterday, others celebrated Hanukkah and earlier this week, still others celebrated Yule or Winter Solstice. I’m thinking there were even a few who celebrated Festivus a few days ago. And in another day Kwanzaa will commence. Whatever our persuasions, I believe we are all connected by our common humanity, our belief in goodness and love and our collective hope for peace.
This has been a rocky year for many. It’s easy to get discouraged; to lose hope. But for today I invite you to join me in the moment. Wherever you are, whenever you happen to read this…stop. Take a deep breath and hold it inside you for a few seconds. The very air that fills your lungs right now once traveled in and out of another’s lungs. We are all connected even by the air we breath!
And now, before your lungs burst, one more thing. Say a blessing for the next person who will share those air molecules with you. Finally exhale slowly.
Just imagine what would happen if we all did this? If we all took a moment or two or more each day to send a few blessings to a stranger. Why, the air would literally be thick with sweetness!
If you’ve read this far, I have one more thing to tell you. In anticipation of you reading this blog post, I sent a blessing ahead for you! I believe with all my heart that we are connected, you and I, and we are together for better and for worse in this crazy world of ours.
My wish for you? It’s okay if I tell you. It won’t make it any less true. Take what you need and pass along the rest.
For you I wish for hope, peace, love, healing, happiness, rest, and the realization that you are not alone. How do I know this? Because I just told you so. You are not alone because you have me thinking about you with gratefulness right now. Be blessed my friend.
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 25 December 2016
blanketed in frosting
it seemed like a good idea
fortune comes to thee this night
solstice vespers toll,
leave luminous trails…
be happy my sweet…
serve it up with festive flair…
you’re heaven on earth
…always in our heartsHappy Holidays to you as you celebrate this season of many faith traditions and most importantly peace, hope and love!
~kat
The Shi Sai (formerly known as a ReVerse) is a new form I came up with during Poetry Month in April 2016. I’ve actually been writing shu sai for years but was inspired to give it a proper name. It is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”.
O
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum! Today’s dictionary.com Word of the Day is one that we have come to associate with the Christmas season, the Tannenbaum, literally translated from German to mean “fir”.
Today most people have come to accept the Christmas tree as a holiday fixture in homes and town squares the world over. Though it’s modern form traces its roots to 15th and 16th century Germany, the practice of using evergreen branches and trees to celebrate winter festivals, pagan and Christian, dates back many thousand years before Christmas was even a thing. To Pagans, decking their homes and temples with evergreen branches during winter solstice made them think of the coming spring. Romans used evergreen branches to decorate their temples during the winter festival of Saturnalia, in homage to the god Saturn, whose name means “sowing”.
The strong association of the tannenbaum with paganism has faced the ire of fundamentalist christians though, who link the practice all the way back to the prophet Jeremiah. To support their opposition to Christmas trees they refer to his words in chapter 10:1-5:
10 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
King James Version (KJV)
More moderate christians explain away this argument by saying that Jeremiah was speaking about the idolatry of pagans in general. The tree is just for illustrative purposes.
Believe what you will, as I mentioned before, the first known Christmas tree was set up in 1419 in the town of Freiburg, Germany. It was the town bakers who donned a tree in the square with fruits, cakes and nuts as a treat for the children who were allowed remove them from the tree and eat them on New Years Day.
Later in the 16th century, none other than the renowned minister, Martin Luther, is credited for bringing the very first Christmas tree inside. As the story goes, while on an evening walk, he was inspired by the twinkling stars that shone through the branches of a nearby forest. He would later tell his children that the stars through the trees reminded him of Jesus who “left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas”. Next time you’re wrestling with an unruly ball of holiday lights, remember that very first lit Christmas tree!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!! 😜
But back to our word of the day, Tannenbaum. Most of us know the word because it was popularized by a folk song penned by the Leipzig organist, teacher and composer Ernst Anschütz. What you may not know about this happy song is that it was a revised version, with Anschütz adding additional verses to a tragic love song originally written by Joachim August Zarnack who sited the faithful evergreen tree as a contrast in virtue to his faithless lover who jilted him. Here’s Anschütz’s full version in German and a popular English Christmas carol rendering, of which there are dozens!
O Tannenbaum – the Christmas Carol:
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!
Your boughs are green
in summer’s clime
And through the snows of wintertime.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me when oft
at joyous Christmas-time
Your form inspires my song and rhyme.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls meO Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Dein Kleid will mich
was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Trost und Kraft
zu jeder Zeit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Das soll dein Kleid
mich lehren.O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort
through all time.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.
As you can see, there are many twists ands turns to this beloved tradition. Here’s my haiku then…adding three more lines to all things Tannenbaum!
O Tannenbaum – A Haiku
Dear old Tannenbaum
with boughs dressed in sweets and light,
you’re heaven on earth!
kat ~ 23 December 2016
Photo from Pixabay
dying stars
leave luminous trails…
diamond dust
kat ~ 22 December 2016
For Haiku Horizon’s Weekly Challenge based on the prompt word: Trails.
Happy Sunday! We had a beautiful full moon this week. I love the Roman word for moon, Luna. Considered the feminine counterpart to the masculine Sol, for the sun, Luna has been a favorite subject of artists and writers, her beautiful full face, an illuminated fixture in night sky.
Though earth revolves around the sun, the moon revolves around the earth. She always shows us her face, each facet glowing with the same intensity. Some would say that she is only a dark orb of rock, a pale reflection of the sun’s light but I believe she makes the light accessible to us. We cannot gaze for long at Sol’s blustering, spitting face. Luna filters that intensity and softens the destructive nature of the Sol’s all-consuming, blinding fierceness. She bends the light so we can gaze upon it. She often calls us to reflect, to hope, to dream. And she is by no means weak or powerless. She commands the night sky, dipping her finger into the oceans causing them to swell in the rising of the tides. Even when the earth blocks her face from the light, she is there, unchanged, surrounded by a host of stars.
Luna, with her feminine traits, causes me to reflect on a few important truths about being female, despite what we have been encouraged to believe. It is interesting that I started this week with a reminder to love oneself and ended it with a comforting recipe that I share every year with my daughters. In the same way, I feel compelled to share this “recipe”; a list of affirmations on what it is to be female in this man dominated world. And to the beautiful men reading this…it is not my intention to dismiss your magnificent traits. It is the times we are in. With so many ugly words and actions directed toward women, I feel we need to be reminded who we are.
You are a woman…
You are a compliment and partner, not a pale or lessor reflection of man.
You have a purpose and a path, you are not a possession that needs keeping.
You are mysterious and intuitive.
You are strong.
You are powerful.
You are beautiful.
You are vibrant, not a cold, inanimate object.
You are a hearth keeper with the ability to contain and soften the intensity of raging fires, warming those around you.
You are fierce.
You are a co-creator of life.
You are a nurturer.
No attempts to control you will ever change these truths.
You are a woman.
…and here is today’s Shi Sai..
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 18 December 2016
Remember to love yourself my friends
we are a long fall from Eden
fair Luna owns the night sky
nothing warmed her heart more than a crackling fire
it is quite a rush
always thought ye were a legend though,
peaches, cream and sweet kisses
it’s just horsefeathers
murmurs of spring…
So just as I would tell my daughters from memory each winter, I’m sharing my recipe with you.~kat
like mercury colliding... 