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December 24, 2013
CHRISTMAS 2013
The Old Year Now
The Old Year now away is fled
The New Year it is entered
Then let us now our sins down-tread
And joyfully all appear!
Let’s merry be this day
And let us now both sport and play
Hang grief, cast care away!
God send you a happy New Year!
The name-day now of Christ we keep
Who for our sins did often weep
His hands and feet were wounded deep
And his blessed side with a spear
His head they crowned with thorns
And at him they did laugh and scorn
Who for our good was born;
God send us a happy New Year!
And now with New Year’s gifts each friend
Unto each other they do send
God grant we may all our lives amend
And that the truth may appear!
Now like the Snake your skin
Cast off of evil thought and sin
And so the year begin
God send us a happy New Year!
December 24, 2012
CHRISTMAS 2012
The Snow in the Street
From far away we come to you
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
To tell of great tidings strange and true
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
For as we wandered far and wide
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
What hap do you deem there should us betide?
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
Under a bent when the night was deep
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
There lay three shepherds tending their sheep
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
O ye shepherds what have ye seen
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
To slay your sorrow and heal your teen?
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
In an ox-stall this night we saw
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
A Babe and a Maid without a flaw
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
There was an old man there beside
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
His hair was white and his hood was wide
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
And as we gazed this thing upon
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
Those twain knelt down to the little one
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
And a marvelous song we straight did hear
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
That slew our sorrow and healed our care
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
News of a fair and a marvelous thing
The snow in the street and the wind on the door
Nowell, nowell, nowell, we sing!
Minstrels and maids stand forth on the floor
From far away we come to you
To tell of great tidings strange and true
December 24th, 2011
CHRISTMAS 2011
Down in Yon Forest
Down in yon forest there stands a hall
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring
It’s covered all over with purple and pall
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
In that hall there stands a bed
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring
It’s covered all over with scarlet so red
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
At the bedside there lies a stone
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring
Which the sweet Virgin Mary knelt upon
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Under that bed there runs a flood
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring
The one half runs water the other runs blood
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
At the bed’s foot there grows a thorn
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring
Which ever blows blossoms since he was born
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Over that bed the moon shines bright
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring
Denoting our Savior was born this night
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
December 25th, 2010
CHRISTMAS 2010
The Coventry Carol
Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child
Bye-bye, lully, lullay
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child
Bye-bye, lully, lullay
O sisters too, how may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor Youngling for whom we do sing
Bye-bye, lully, lullay
Herod the king, in his raging
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight
All children young to slay
Then woe is me, poor Child for Thee
And ever mourn and sigh
For thy parting neither say nor sing
Bye-bye, lully, lullay
MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
January 14th, 2010
The wheels of science turn slowly, but the NY State Ornithological Association has finally gotten back issues of The Kingbird online, including 2007 #4 which includes my article on Brooklyn’s Western Reef-Heron. See page 6 and 29 of the pdf.
More on Calvert Vaux Park here; the species list is now over 200.
December 25th, 2009
SUN
MOON
&
STAR
Shine upon the Tenth Anniversary of the
DIGITAL MEDIA TREE
Here decorated in celebration of
CHRISTMAS 2009
June 25th, 2009
DIGITAL MEDIA TREE
10th Anniversary 1999 – 2009
Count the Rings
December 25, 2008
CHRISTMAS 2008
In a Season of Rebirth
Look forward to a New Year
Born in Hope
And Promise of a Better World
As the PHOENIX is Reborn
Of its own ashes
In a blaze of Cinnamon
December 25, 2007
December 25, 2006
Christmas
On Christmas Day 2006 I ask:Does giving balance getting?
Is there Christmas beyond desire?
Could there be an asceticism of Christmas?
And don’t miss an extra-special recycled gift in the Arboretum Card Garden!
December 31, 2005
This Year’s Card
January 6, 2005
Epiphany
20002001
2002
2003
2004
You can follow a star but you’ll never reach it, not here on Earth.
At best you arrive, as the Magi did, at the designated place, but the Star remains supernal; directly overhead to be sure, but still beyond our Earthly realm. Epiphany signals the realization that what is above also dwells with us, but the Mystery of this Presence is that it is simultaneously immediate and remote.
I’ve spent the last five years following a star, or a bird, or something similarly far and fleeting. Still, like the top of a Tulip Tree, no matter how distant it may be it maintains some connection with the Earth. My gaze goes further than my feet can follow, but epiphanies will come from looking both ways: near and far, within and without.
Am I any nearer than I was?
Looking back at my Epiphany posts, the themes of manifestation, revelation and recognition are constant. Whether framed in terms of wise kings or empty birds’ nests, the posts from the first three years of the Arboretum explored nuances of those ideas, leading to 2003’s offering of my own sort of revelation in the form of answers to the year’s Christmas riddles.
Those were only games of words and notions. Last year I was faced with the very real realization that my life was in the process of changing, and though I could recognize that fact I couldn’t really comprehend it until it was fully manifest. In that state of flux I found continuity in the Arboretum, although I was beginning to feel the format was flagging. I began the cycle again, but with an eye to collecting the previous posts and summarizing my five years’ findings.
I’m not sure how well that’s worked; there’s been some genuine consolidation of thought, but in other cases I’ve basically just appended this year’s post to a laundry list of past ones. The immediacy of the living Year is what I was originally after, and sometimes it may have overridden my attempts at summing up. And perhaps that’s as it should be. At least I’ve provided a thread through the years.
As it is, I’m somewhat impressed by how much I’ve been able to wring from these clichéd occasions, but repetition does become an issue at a certain point. Not that some things aren’t worth repeating, either for the sake of making the point, or for sheer beauty, like the chorus of a song, but eventually we become habituated. The Arboretum was meant to reveal the wonders hidden behind the habitual, but after five years it has become a habit in itself, and I run the risk of boring my readers, or myself.
A year ago on this day I looked into the New Year and saw change coming. That was obvious enough, but I didn’t know just how and what. Needing a job was the main thing, but in the end the biggest change was (as is so often the case) totally unexpected.
I moved.
As I write this I am recently ensconced in a new residence. After sixteen years in a largely satisfactory situation, the offer arose to take a space in a building bought by some good friends from DMTree. Moving was the last thing I was expecting to do, but it was also something that I had a certain longing for, although it was hard to bring myself to make the break. That, coming on the heels of my long “vacation” followed by the new job, has made the last year one of the most disjunctive in my life.
Through it all, as I said, the Arboretum provided continuity. Yet it was hard to pull together the posts amid changing schedules and commitments. And I’ve grown tired of the deadlines, and I’d like to put my energies into some other things. So after five years I’m doing away with the Holiday format, and I’m rescinding my promise to report from Central Park. That doesn’t mean I won’t post for a Holiday, or from the Park, but I’m giving no guarantees. For one thing, I’m now nearer to Prospect Park, so you may see something from there. And maybe you’ll see more in general, as I’d like to produce more visual material, beyond the photos and the once-a-year Christmas cards. And there are some more in-depth topics I’d like to tackle; writing that will take me beyond the deadline-driven Holiday posts with their prescribed themes. Or maybe I’ll just be lazy, and give up altogether…
…well, I don’t think that will happen, but I do think it’s time for a change around here, in keeping with the rest of my life, and in recognition of what has been achieved. I hope the repository of the last five years will stand as a source that may be dipped into at need, maintaining relevance to our passing cycles; otherwise, let the New Year write a story of its own.
So that’s my New Year’s revelation; I haven’t gained the stars but I hope I’ve reflected a little of the light.
Light, they say, goes on forever, or at least until it strikes something. When that happens, the result is illumination, but also a shadow cast behind. If I turn away from the light it’s only to shine a new beam into the dark. When all the World is illuminated, then every day will be a Holiday, and the celebration will go on and on…
All it takes is an epiphany.