And a Child Will Lead Them

"The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them". - Isaiah 11:6

It is Christmas Eve, still dark on this morning so close to the Winter Solstice.  The grocery store opened a half hour ago and in spite of my best intentions to be there, I am still enjoying my coffee in the den while I watch the daylight dawn over the ravine.  I am a Christmas girl who has been struggling mightily these past couple of weeks to find my Christmas spirit.  It is unlike me.  I was leaning into it before the shootings at Sandy Hook pretty much destroyed any momentum I had made. Try as I might, I haven't yet found my way back.

I've been trying to think of all the good things that have happened this year.  I took some good trips, got my paralegal license, watched my son rise to the top of his university engineering class.   But in this year I've also witnessed much sadness and loss.  Really, it that I've been thinking of most these past weeks.  The world already felt sad to me and then Sandy Hook happened.

I will try with all my might today to put all that aside.  It is Christmas, the time of miracles.  I will finish wrapping the gifts, set the table for our annual Christmas Eve dinner, buy the groceries, make the cod fritters and the trifle and find the recipe for the Bivver Shivers that we're planning to serve as our specialty cocktail tonight.  I will clean the house and arrange the flowers, chill the champagne and sing carols while I work.  As for the sadness caused by the slaughter of twenty innocent children, I've decided to reframe things.  In The Holy Bible Isaiah wrote "And a child will lead them."  I believe twenty children will lead the U.S. from the darkness of guns and violence now and people will finally find the will to do what they must.

Wishing you peace and joy.