Understatement

Christmas is upon us. Even if you didn't know anything about the Holiday you could not possibly miss the excess which surrounds it.

That isn't a bad thing in and of itself. On a commercial level, well, yet it is. Buy! Buy! Buy! is not a mantra for self reflection and growth. It fails too as a signal of hope and welcome. Yet to transform your home into a special place for Christmas is another thing entirely. 

Even that can be taken too far, although I will not and cannot pass judgment on what you think enough in your own abode, on your own property. Do as you will, and I will likely admire it in a spirit of wonder and awe just the same. Still, I rather prefer an understated decor. A nice tree and a nativity scene on the mantle would satisfy me.

It is in the quiet that the transformational appears. Gabriel's horn may blast on the Judgment Day, yet we are past change then and into what we have become. Before that, where do were learn the most deeply? In quiet anticipation where wonder grows delicately in expectation of full bloom, or with a glare that blinds us?

A Christmas tree by itself lighting a room, all darkness around it, I find a greater draw to the happiness beyond, the God-child in the manger who is our sole joy. Go to the light and all will be well.

Little lights

I need batteries. Double A batteries, to power the small artificial Christmas tree in the bedroom window.

I don't know where the other trees are, but one year my oldest son bought several of them and placed them in various spots throughout the house, to aid the sense of Christmas. They're only a foot high with small lights.  But they look cool in the dark when they're the only things lit.

One is still I think (I hope) in a far corner of the basement. Now that one really shone out. I remember going into the basement in the dark, not turning on any lights, groping the wall as I made my way carefully down the stairs, just to see the impact that little tree made in the darkest part of the house.

For me, that's become Christmas. The little light in the dark. So one of my stops today as I take me Mom on a Sunday drive will be to buy double A batteries. It will delightful to wake up tomorrow morning to the light of the small tree in the bedroom window.