A Christmas Gift
A Pantoum poem
Hello all and sundry!
Come on in! How have you been?! Are you taking some deep breaths? Giving yourself some slack? Telling the hiccups that come up now and then that it’s-not-the-end-of- the-world and giving them release? I do hope so. I hope that you are taking long and mindful moments just to let everything about celebrating this season fill you with all of the best feelings.
Sometimes this part of the year is heavy laden and it is particularly difficult to get through. I have had those seasons myself; it isn’t always the superb presentation of a perfectly frosted Christmas cake, or even close to as sweet. Take a deep breath in this moment as well. Give some extra love to yourself during times like these; for there will often be times like these. It will all be okay. I promise, it really will be.
During this Christmas, the second without my father-in-love (he passed last year just before Christmas), we know this feeling all too well. My mom, who passed in 2021, is so missed during this month as she was ALL about Christmas and her birthday falls on December 30th. So, getting a bit gloomy, is a natural expectation. It can’t be helped.
What can be helped is the way in which we decide to think of them during the month. They would want us to have peace, smiles, laughter, and feel the JOY that comes with the Hope that came through the birth of Jesus. So, to honor that, we will find those feelings and we will still feel their loving presence as we remember and celebrate.
No matter what holidays bring about for you, there is always something, even the tiniest thing, that reminds us just how precious these days are and why this living is the best. LOVE is always found somewhere. In family. In a stranger. In a memory. In the hope of tomorrow.
Notice it in what you are giving to another this Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or winter celebration. Whether it is a tangible gift or it’s the gift of your time and attention, if LOVE is in the giving, you have EVERYTHING.
The ultimate gift can not be packaged.
As I am on the topic of gifts, I wrote this poem about a very special gift I received one Christmas.
encouraged this poem, a Pantoum, last month. We were instructed to choose a thing very dear to us and write about it following the rules of the Pantoum. See his post about it below. He writes Poetry Unbound on Substack, here:
Pretty neat method for writing isn’t it? This is what came out for me—
A Christmas Gift
a pantoum
A sister’s gift for Christmas came boxed by mail. Kept for ease of reach on my bed’s headboard shelf. Some fear it, curse it, speak their judgement from it; few share the agape love within it. Holding all secrets, giving Light to their mysteries, promising forgiveness of those in darkness held. Kept for ease of reach on my bed’s headboard shelf. Leather bound, embossed, encased within embroidered suede it reads ‘Footprints in the Sand’. Holding all secrets, giving Light to their mysteries, promising forgiveness of those in darkness held. Guidance for life, my heart lives within its pages. Leather bound, embossed, encased within embroidered suede it reads ‘Footprints in the Sand’. Reached for in grief, when comforting Word I seek, all those written in red. Guidance for life, my heart lives within its pages. Everything to me, the message penned within. Reached for in grief, when comforting Word I seek, all those written in red. Some fear it, curse it, speak their judgement from it; few share the agape love within it. Everything to me, the message penned within. A sister’s gift for Christmas came boxed by mail. W. Gray 10-2024
Thank all y’all for reading! Won’t you give writing a Pantoum a-go?! Let me know what emerged for you.
Have a wonderful next few weeks; remember that I will not be making any new posts from now until January 5th. I am taking a much needed reset so that I will be ready to rock-n-roll with my writing in 2025!!!
A Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and blessed winter celebration to ALL!
The HAPPIEST of New Year wishes to you, as well, and wishing you and yours a most loving and joy-filled year ahead! May it be a year that fulfills all the hope in your heart. Love all y’all!
Many blessings and MUCH LOVE,
~Wendy💜
What a splendid way to bid adieu to this year. You have done complete justice to the device and style. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Wendy. We will now read you in the next year after January 05, 2025.😊😊
Thinking of you, Wendy, as you gather for the holidays missing your loved ones. Its hard I know. Thank you for this beautiful poem. Never heard of Pantoum poetry…love its cadence/rhythm and repeated riffs. I’ll be waiting for more when you return! Happy time off… rest, relax, renew- and don’t forget to play! ☃️❄️⛸️