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December 20, 2018 Beloved: On these dark mornings, the Christmas tree’s reflection in the picture windows creates the effect of a lighted forest throughout the living room. To make it last, I leave the lights off as long as possible. Truth be told, these short days and long nights are a trial for me. I’d be perfectly content to stay in my moose pajamas to sleep, read, knit, cook, stare at the fire, and play scrabble until early March. I can’t tell if I’m tired, cold, depressed, slightly ill, or just lazy – adjectives never used to describe grizzly bears and oak trees who themselves take the winter off to give birth and to grow in different ways. It sounds cozy enough, but the bears don’t eat a thing the whole winter long – three to four months for males, five to seven for females – a hands-down deal breaker for me. Winter has too much good food I refuse to miss. Grapefruit, oranges, and Christmas cookies. I came into possession of a beautiful green and orange acorn squash the other day. This recipe calls for two medium squash but I used one big one. I have maple syrup from a friend in Unionville who taps his own trees. It was so good and so pretty. Next time I’m adding bacon and serving it over rice as the whole meal. I guess I’ll put my shoes on and go to work after all, since it’s what we humans do. And I’ll try to ease up on the whining too, grateful for human treasures like moose pajamas and winter squash. ~ peace and prayers, pastor annette
Directions
Mocha Stars
Ingredients
1. Cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add flour, eggs, coffee, coffee liqueur, cocoa powder, espresso powder and mix until it forms a ball. 2. Divide batter in half and wrap each in plastic wrap tightly. Chill 20 minutes. 3. One at a time, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness and cut star shape. 4. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 or 8 minutes. Cookies should be slightly darker but not crisp. Cool on pan one minute then move to cooling rack. 5. In double boiler melt together baking chocolate and shortening. 6. Dip stars into chocolate, covering half of the star. 7. Lay on wax paper until well set, 2 to 3 hours.
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December 11, 2018
Beloved: I’ve lost our Christmas stockings and fear they may be gone forever. I ordered four of them from Land’s End twenty-three years ago, each one embroidered with our names. When I discovered I was pregnant again, Land’s End searched their clearance stock but there were no more. So my friend, Becky, sewed the fifth to match. Four years ago we added three, for my son-in-law and two boys my son brought home from college – the same stockings that held pacifiers and Hot Wheels before graduating to gift cards from Amazon and Starbucks. Maybe they will still turn up but I can’t imagine where. We had a dumpster in the driveway last fall, which had me purging high and low. The dead and broken went to the trash, but loads of stuff went to Habitat ReStore and Goodwill. I sorted boxes into piles, some to keep and some to give away. One box must have gone astray. Or maybe I stored them in some new place last year. But my 53-year-old self would have known I’d never remember. She would have written me a note I’d be sure to find this year. I love thinking some other family somewhere named Carl, Annie, Mariah, Ben, Emy, Jeremy, Seine & Yang might find and enjoy them. Or a family with their own names who thinks it a hilarious joke upon their mantel. They are only things. I can buy or make new stockings that we enjoy just as much, eventually. And all the things that matter are here, alive and warm and well: Carl, Annie, Mariah, Ben, Emy, Jeremy, Seine & Yang. I have everything to be grateful for and nothing in the world to count as loss. I pray the season is gentle to you and yours. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette
While Reverend Niebuhr titled his poem The Irony of American History, it rings with the lyrics of Advent. Hope, faith, and love are the essential skill set for life in the spirit. Without them we have only the promises and powers of this world to sustain us, a known recipe for calamity.
Advent invites us to reset heart and mind to what we believe deep down: that all we see and hear is not all there is to see and hear; that God is at work in the world right now, visible and audible to whoever will watch and listen. Where justice, kindness, and humility are thriving, God is there. Where peace persists in the midst of violence, where the hungry are fed, the prisoner set free, and the poor regarded with dignity, God is there. Where hatred fails and love thrives, where truth prevails in the face of duplicity, and evil dies by its own sword, God is there. Abide in me, Jesus tells us. The task, always, is to pray. Put heart and head, body and soul outside this world’s reach as often as we can for as long as we can, practicing the watching and the hearing so necessary for this life. I pray you are made strong in hope, faith, and love this Advent season. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette |
I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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