A very simple wish for Christmas

Leave the crowds at the mall and return home.

Do it now.

Ignore the news tonight. Turn off the television and the radio.

Dampen the lights, lay down your worries and allow yourself an evening’s quiet.

Sit with a child on your lap. Put their head on your chest.

Let them feel your warmth. Let them know they’re loved.

Tell others around you the same. Let them know you care.

Deal with the troubles of the world tomorrow. For now, they can wait.

Then find this song and play it softly. Softly enough to calm your soul.

Tonight is a night for peace.

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.

In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,

A breast full of milk, and a manger full of hay;

Enough for Him, Whom angels fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But only His mother, in her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.”

(“In The Bleak Midwinter.”

Sung by the Gloucester Cathedral Choir available on YouTube

Words by Christina Rossetti, 1872.

Musical settings by Gustav Holst, 1906 and Harold Darke, 1909.)

In closing, a very simple wish.

Merry Christmas to each of you.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to: larrysim@ comcast.net