December 25, 2016

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 25 December 2016

By Kat Myrman


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 hearts

Happy 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”.

19 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Spirituality, Week in Review

December 24, 2016

Where Love Dwells – Magnetic Poetry Saturday – 24 December 2016

By Kat Myrman

we search this star-filled
sacred night listening for
angel song, hoping for
the god-child hero with
his promise of peace and
love, but remember, his love
is always in our hearts

kat – Christmas Eve 2016

May you feel the love this holiday weekend! ❤ Peace and joy to you!

A magnetic poem using the “Love Kit” for Elusive Tropes Magnetic Poetry Saturday Challenge.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Magnetic Poetry, Poetry, Spirituality

December 23, 2016

Tannenbaum – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

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 me

O 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

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

December 22, 2016

Fool Me Once … A Three Line Tale

By Kat Myrman

Dust it with sugar
Serve it up with festive flair
It’s still a fruitcake!

kat ~ 22 December 2016

For Sonya’s Three Line Tale Challenge based on this photo by photo by Jennifer Pallian via Unsplash. Happy Holidays to you and yours! ❤

14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in 3 Line Tales, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Flash Fiction, Haiku, Humor, Poetry

December 22, 2016

Seasoning – Part 21

By Kat Myrman

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Madame Henriot, c. 1876

Seasoning – Part 21

Henry hated leaving Hannah so abruptly but he was afraid she would sense what he was feeling. He closed the door of his room, turned on the nightstand lamp and opened the blanket chest at the foot of his bed. Underneath layers of linens he found a small, silk-wrapped bundle. As he gently unwrapped it, he fell to his knees. Tears streamed down his face as he gazed at her lovely face frozen in a sweet smile behind a layer of framed glass.

“Oh Alice,” he whispered, “what must you be thinking? I feel like such a fool. I don’t know what’s come over me. Can you ever forgive me, my darling girl, for straying?”

Henry was startled by a faint rustling in the room as a cool waft of perfumed air caressed his face. “Am I dreaming?” he gasped, as he beheld the glowing specter of his beloved wife gazing at him from the corner of the room. “What is happening? Is that you, Alice? How can this be?”

“It is time Henry. It’s time to let me go,” Alice whispered, “even in life I knew there was another love who consumed you. You have found her at long last my dear Henry; the one who has always held the deepest part of your heart.”

“I don’t understand Alice. I was never unfaithful to you.”

“Oh Henry,” Alice smiled, “you were the perfect husband. I will always love you. I am so grateful for the sweetness we shared. But I was not the “one”, Henry. I was merely a stepping stone on your journey to find her. Our love was a gentle nudge to open your heart for what was to come.”

“What are you saying Alice? You were…you are the love of my life. Our love was true, was it not?”

“It was true Henry, in every sense. But it is time now. Time to let me go.” Alice’s voice and presence started to fade.

“Don’t go…oh Alice…please…” Henry begged.

With her parting breath Alice sighed, “Find the letter, my darling. I wrote it for her. For your Hannah. It’s in my secret drawer. You know the one. Be happy my sweet…” The room darkened. She was gone.

“Secret drawer?” Henry’s head was spinning, but he knew where to look. He rushed to Alice’s vanity and slid the tiny drawer under the mirror open to reveal a folded envelope. Henry slipped the flap open and removed the letter. It was indeed Alice’s beautiful handwriting that stained the pages. “I know it’s not addressed to me,” he thought, “but…” He unfolded the letter and started to read.

Dearest Lady, …

————————————

This is installment 21 of a fiction scariest prompted initially from a Microfiction challenge from Jane Dougherty Writes. To read previous passages click HERE.

14 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Fiction Series, Short Stories (300+ Words)