may your hearts be bright

 

this year..... 

i want the "little" back in Christmas....

tiny crystal lights strung together like a chain

 of softly uttered prayers 

offered humbly

over the top of this cluttered world. 

 just a simple white rosary of lights, 

that no one puts away when the holidays are over. 

 

little.......like the moment 

when all the crowded cost co isles slipped from view, 

as I heard an older couple 

singing  familiar Christmas carols on a karaoke machine. 

soft and reverent, their paper thin voices rained over the sound system 

as gently and fragile as an unexpected snow. 

suddenly i was five,

sitting in church between my brother and parents,

as the voices of these elders broke my heart

in the way

you want your heart to be broken. 

 

 little, like the footsteps of my son 

sneaking up the stairs way too early on Christmas morning, 

when the sheer delight of possibilities were enough

to take his breath away. 

and that hopeful note he left for Santa

beside a generous plate of still warm gingerbread cookies. 

 

Dear Santa, 

Please share the cookies with your reindeer.

And could you please find

the missing key to my treasure chest and leave it under our Christmas 

tree so I know you are real?

Love, 

Adrian

 i remember

when a tiny brass key 

hardly the size of the first snow flakes of winter 

could keep the magic of believing alive; 

and the long night i spent desperately searching.

as fate would have it, it found me.

i placed the key on the plate 

beside a few less cookies. 

in the morning it was adrian's first destination,

he gripped believing in wonder and relief.

 

i don't remember how many years passed

until i knelt before that old trunk my grandmother 

had given to me when i was a child....

and more years later,

i to him. 

S l o w l y

i placed that sliver of believing in the old lock

and gave it a careful turn. 

it was a hot summer day and what met me was the faint,  

perfect scent of Christmas. 

 

 

stacked to the top... 

paper dry and silently waiting;

 a humble collection of frail little branches 

retrieved from each hallowed pine of all our holidays together. 

always the last vestige of Christmas

 to be taken down and

adrian's most difficult to release.

carefully 

without notice;

he had kept a remnant of each beloved tree.

 

 

may the smallest most tender

memories of Christmas 

tie our hearts to both seen and unseen miracles. 

may all the disparate shards of life knit themselves together 

beneath a pure blanket of snow

forgiving all our short comings and delivering us 

to a new year of believing.

and just for a few white hours, 

before scads of new sleds and brightly bundled kids 

weave their spirited footsteps across the soft horizon, 

may our hearts be bright.

may our world be transformed.

may some small forgotten memory 

 fill each heart with a surge of love, wonder, and believing;

that no one puts away when the holidays are over.

xoxoxox

 

 

Comments

[Vanessa]

You are a gift to this world x

[Laurie Zuckerman]

Oh, what a wonderful Christmas story, dear Rebecca. Perfectly precious memories. I hope that you and Billy and Adrian and your mother are enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Stay warm and well! Love, Laurie

[Stephanie]

lovely Rebecca...so bright and heartfelt. Merry Merry Christmas dear friend!
x....x

[gloria]

Rebecca, your words fill my heart with joy. Thank you for that. I stopped by to say Merry Christmas to you and your and may your New Year be joyous and healthy. I hope you are well. ::hugs:: Gloria (I think of you and your beautiful blog at times, and when I do, I feel anew.)

[Orly]

You are so beautiful, you move my heart...your son, so precious...you, your spirit, your heart so open...opening mine...Orly

[jean]

Oh you take my breath away...blessed little christmas to you...xo

[priti.lisa]

to have a memory
and a way with words
like you do...
what a gift
you have given us,
xoxoxoxo

[Laura Hegfield]

Rebecca dear, what a precious memory of wonder, tenderness and love you've shared. thank you.

[Susan Fox]

I am always awakened to the surge of love when I read your words over again, like at the sight of fresh snow my heart always leaps at the thought of you dear one....Hugs from over the ocean. x

[Adriana Esqueda]

Beautiful story Rebecca.
Feliz Navidad, to you and your family.
Adriana

[Fran aka Redondowriter]

So glad I was able to see this Facebook post--it was magical. Your son is such a good looking man, by the way.