Before You Go (Richard Shindell)

This is the first Saturday I've had "off" (as in no major commitments/
obligations/events) in weeks and weeks and weeks - I'll spend it catching up on laundry and paperwork, as well as writing my holiday cards, ordering all my presents via Amazon.com (to be sent to my mom's house, where I'll wrap, using Publix green bags, upon our arrival Christmas Eve) and making a Holiday Mix CD, one of my very favorite parts of the season.

I've spoken before of my tape-now-CD-making ability... and each year, early- to mid-December finds me compiling songs I enjoyed listening to from holiday CDs the previous season - I then sit down with those piled around me, and "channel" the flow of the mix. One of my best, from 2005, begins with Joni's River and ends with Dar's The Christians and the Pagans, with lots of wonderfully creative songs in between - I do tend to choose the original, eclectic tunes over the standard traditional ones, as I appreciate a new retelling of the Reason for the Season... which ultimately is Love...

Below are links to some terrific internet radio stations, featuring much of the music that ends up on my mixes - enjoy!

Folk Alley Holiday Stream

Pandora Holiday Station

I particularly love the text of a holiday card I've sent in past years:

This holiday season, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Offer encouragement. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you are wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence. Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again.

SONG: Before You Go by Richard Shindell

BOOK: Love Came Down: Anglican Readings for Advent and Christmas by Christopher Webber (Editor)

POEM: A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior by Ben Jonson

I sing the birth was born tonight,
The Author both of life and light;
The angels so did sound it,
And like the ravished shepherds said,
Who saw the light, and were afraid,
Yet searched, and true they found it.

The Son of God, the eternal King,
That did us all salvation bring,
And freed the soul from danger;
He whom the whole world could not take,
The Word, which heaven and earth did make,
Was now laid in a manger.

The Father's wisdom willed it so,
The Son's obedience knew no "No,"
Both wills were in one stature;
And as that wisdom had decreed,
The Word was now made Flesh indeed,
And took on Him our nature.

What comfort by Him do we win?
Who made Himself the Prince of sin,
To make us heirs of glory?
To see this Babe, all innocence,
A Martyr born in our defense,
Can man forget this story?

QUOTE: "Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas." ~ Dale Evans