My Christmas message this year is Childlike Faith:
ottoline & her daughter julian, 1909
Imagine the wonder of a child's Christmas in 1927 ?
A tree lit with candles tied to its branches.
A mother that shares your Christmas wonder.
Maybe a train set, or a doll- christened Patricia under the tree*
A box full of red apples, tart oranges, and peppermint sticks.*
Yes,Virginia" there is a Santa Claus.
He exists as certainly as love
and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and
give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas! how dreary would be
the world if there were no Santa Claus.
It would be as dreary as if
there were no VIRGINIAS.
There would be no Childlike Faith then, no
poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.
We should have no
enjoyment, except in sense and sight.
The eternal light with which
childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
This year Renew Your ChildLike FAITH in all things!
Merry Christmas~ Gaye
My mother's favorite Christmas present as a child-and Yes Virginia-she named that doll Patricia. From
an affluent family at the height of the Depression, my mother,born in
1930, remembers a single-and special gift most Christmases, and a box
wrapped in colorful papers holding fruit & candy. This was her
Christmas. What a contrast with today's horde.
& a Note on Virginia:
Virginia O'Hanlan became a teacher & school administrator, earning her masters from Columbia, and doctorate from Fordham University. (read more here)
Virginia O'Hanlan became a teacher & school administrator, earning her masters from Columbia, and doctorate from Fordham University. (read more here)
Out of necessity, we had to scale back for this Christmas and yet it was my favorite that we have had together in years and years. The beauty of the candlelight, the sounds of wonderful music and the aromas coming from the kitchen were the best gifts...wonder is precious and a healing quality too.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your Christmas was delightful.
My Christmas was quite different this year as well. From a house full last year, to just my mother and I this year, yet as you say Christmas is unique to any time of the year. I prefer the reflective to the chaotic any day. PEACE, pgt
ReplyDeleteWonders, when a writer speaks of a mentor who has enlightened a person on a subject (or many subjects, usually one catches the idea of the mentor in a place-such as a dinner, in the home where books, paintings and friends talking of beauty, intelligence in a writer's work or passion in religious setting speaking of great ideas of the so called "soul" that makes one delve into the idea of design?
ReplyDeleteFashion? Costume in painting, Madonna sculptures in Rome? St. Louis Cathedral building of it??? atk