Taking My Christmas a Little at a Time

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
— Charles Dickens

Wreath made of colorful ball ornaments

“I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays – let them overtake me unexpectedly – waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: ‘Why, this is Christmas Day!'”
— David Grayson

I like the idea of parceling out the special treats of the Christmas season over the entire year, but especially during these final days leading up to Christmas Day itself.  I will take each Christmas-y moment as it comes, and try to attend to its unique colors, sounds, and scents.

Here are a few moments I captured with my camera at Swansons Nursery in Seattle, still early in this year’s holiday season.

Young shopper at Swansons Nursery

Amaryllis in bloom

Pine cone and squirrel ornaments for sale

Luminous pear ornaments for sale

One of the reindeer at Swansons Nursery

A garland of bells

Decisions, decisions

Red bows

Radio Flyer shopping “cart”

 

 

Snowdrops, Candlemas Bells

Snowdrops almost ready to bloom

First snowdrops

“Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years.”
— William Wordsworth, from “To a Snowdrop”

Today is Candlemas Day, and snowdrops are sometimes called Candlemas Bells because they commonly bloom around this time.  Sure enough.  I saw the first blooms of the year bordering the sidewalk on my walk around the block.  The buds are just beginning to open.

Botanical print of snowdrops by Otto Wilhelm Thome, from Flora von Deutschland, 1885

Foxglove: Cascading Bells

Foxglove, little bells in a row

The foxglove grow like weeds around here.  I like the pattern of repeating bells that cascade down the stalks.

Foxglove, backside view

Foxglove in the morning light

Foxglove's speckled bells

Watercolor sketch of foxglove

Watercolor sketch of single foxglove blossom

Another watercolor sketch of foxglove

Purple Bells and Wispy Things

Bouquet of little purple things

Wispy seedhead

Bits of nature for my watercolor sketches

Watercolor and colored pencil sketch of Pasque folowers

Tintinnabulation of Bells

Silver bells on vintage canning jars

Strings of jingle bells, Swanson's Nursery

The Bells
by Edgar Allan Poe

Hear the sledges with the bells-
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

Silver bells, Swanson's Nursery

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
     — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 

Watercolor paintings of bells

Watercolor sketch of a row of bells

Another watercolor sketch of jingle bells

Prayer

“Spirituality . . . is a commitment to divine reflection.”
     — from Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today by Joan Chittister, OSB

"Prayer is the filter through which we view our world." Joan Chittister, OSB

“Praying with Imagination” was crafted to deepen our capacity to listen attentively and live each moment in an intentional way.  Kathleen, our Prayer Leader, introduced us to several prayer practices, and each morning during the retreat, we sat as a group in visio divina, one form of prayer.  This involved gazing at an image from the St. John’s Bible and listening attentively to Kathleen’s reading of a passage from scripture.  She read the same text four times, using the following format:

• During the first reading, we listened for words or phrases that especially resonated with us, and then after the reading, we spoke these words out loud to the group.
• During the second reading, we pondered the passage and image again, and then shared with the group what we saw and heard.  I came away with many snippets of wisdom and insight articulated by the perceptive women in the group. 
• We listened to the reading a third time, and then we shared a spoken prayer with the group.
• Finally, we listened to the reading a fourth time, rested a while in silence while gazing at the image, and then listened to Kathleen’s closing prayer.

Becoming attentive to words as a catalyst for contemplation

I found it very helpful to use the art of the St. John’s Bible as a tool for deepening my understanding of the words.  The illuminations in this edition of the bible hold layer upon layer of meaning.  Donald Jackson, the artist who created many of these images, said:  “The continuous process of remaining open and accepting of what may reveal itself through hand and heart on a crafted page is the closest I have ever come to God.”  (from The Illuminator)

"Scripture, the Rule insists, must be read daily. How can we hear the voice of God if we are not familiar with it?" Joan Chittister, OSB

I am not averse to reading scripture, but I consider the Bible as one tool among many (such as nature, people I meet, craftsmanship, homemaking, gardening, essays, novels, etc.) to becoming a more spiritual person.  I hope to continue the practice of visio divina when I read the St. John’s Bible at home.  I bought two reader’s guides, The Art of the Saint John’s Bible by Susan Sink, to help me with this project.

Susan Sink's Reader's Guides help explain the layers of meaning in the art of the St. John's Bible.

The retreat activities were scheduled around Morning Prayer, Noon Prayer, the Eucharist, and Evening Prayer at the St. John’s Abbey Church so that we could, if we wished, participate in the Benedictine  monks’ daily prayer practices.  I attended Morning Prayer at 7:00 a.m. every day.  The monks chanted and sang the Psalms in dialogue from their seats around the altar, and I loved sitting in the presence of this ancient tradition.

The St. John's Abbey Church's soaring 112-ft. bell banner glows in the morning light.

The interior of the St. John's Abbey Church, illuminated by light through the stained glass windows of the facade.

Ring in the True

New Year's Scrabble

 

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. 

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
     — Alfred Lord Tennyson, “In Memorium”

Purple Bells

Grape hyacinth transforming into bells

Purple bells

Sidewalk on Corliss Avenue North

The grape hyacinths have erupted into purple bells.  I’ve always seen a profusion of these purple bells in my neighbors’ gardens and borders.  But until this year, I never realized that these bell-shaped flowers came from grape hyacinths.  The things I learn by paying attention …