[Through a Quaker meetinghouse window: brightly; December, 2015]
When I was a little girl I received a copy of Jack and Jill every month. My favorite feature in that children’s magazine was “I Used to Think” where kids could explain the childish misconceptions and misunderstandings they’d once held before putting away childish things.
I used to think I had mined The Christmas Story for every drop, every ounce, every nugget of Truth and Relevant Metaphor I could possibly discover. But lo, this past Sunday at meeting for worship, a new way to think about this ancient tale!
A woman I respect very much rose and said (basically): The birth of Jesus reminds us that the Sacred is present in the world all around us. (A related idea: Martin Prectell, a super-star in my particular firmament, tells us that a shaman is a person in love with the Sacred.)
Oh!
Dear Patricia,
Hello, there, Patricia, my so, so very dearly special and dearly precious friend and sister who you are For Always so, so very much!!!!!!! Wow, I am just so very excited-I have your very special Christmas card which I chose just for you and yours, Patricia, all ready to go out in the mail to you first thing, sister! I just absolutely love the very beautiful card which you so very graciously sent to me, sisterfriend, and what you wrote is just so very dear, my friend!!!!! Thank-you!!!!!! What a great joy and a blessing you are for sure, Patricia!!!!!
Patricia, I love so and like so the beautiful picture which you have featured with this very inspiring, uplifting, and enlightening blog post article of yours which perfectly complements your absolutely amazing article, sister!!!!!!! I so love with sheer joy reading about your childhood memory and how you loved and cherished the children’s magazine, Jack and Jill. This sounds like it was such a fun, interesting, and fantastic magazine, my friend. I so enjoy your recounting of this ancient tale. The wonderful and sagacious woman is so right on when she declared and reminded people that the birth of Jesus is very much indeed the Sacred present in the very world around us! What high value our Good God Spirit must hold for us in our Very God’s So Very Dearest and Darling Sacred Heart in how Jesus came to us in human form to be like us and one with us, sister!!!!!! We must be so precious and special since Jesus came to us as a beautiful human being as a so very dear baby whose observance of Jesus’ birth we celebrate joyfully at this time, Patricia. I thank-you so, so very much and so, so very profusely for this great link about our Martin Prectell. This is just great, Patricia! He is so right on in saying that a shaman is a person in love with the Sacred. I think that we as our Good Sacred God’s good people as God’s children are shamans because we love the Sacred for certain, sister!
I’m just bursting with such eager anticipation with your Christmas card going to be on its very joyful and merry way to you, Patricia!!!!!!! Yay sister yay sisterfriend yay my friend Patricia! I’m just so full of the Spirit and very inspired and uplifted by you, sister, and this absolutely fantastic blog post article of yours, and in fact by all of your blog post articles and other writings, sisterfriend!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!
Patricia, please have a wondrously wonderful Wednesday which it will be in a few minutes for me being on Central Time, a wondrously wonderful rest of your week and weekend, and may all of your days be so, so very especially blessed, my so very dear friend!!!!!! You are such an immensely great joy and blessing to me, Patricia!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always my so very special sisterfriend Christian white woman, Patricia, with Peace and Love To You For Always, my so very precious sister, and with Blessings and Even More Blessings To You For Always, my friend,
Your sisterfriend Christian lesbian black woman For Always in the spirit and solidarity, Sherry Gordon