and lying in a manger." Luke 2:12
Dee Dix is an employee of the First Congregational UCC Church.
Her duties include the Sunday School.
Last Sunday was the annual potluck and Advent Workshop.
Dee decided to offer the littler kids the opportunity
to make a popsicle stick manger for their craft project.
In planning the activity Dee had plenty of popsicle sticks
and hot glue tools. She made a practice manger here at
the Odd Fellows.
She wondered how to fashion a baby Jesus to
lie swaddled within the structure.
She thought of the peanuts that I feed the squirrels.
She thought too of the gauze bandages we still have from when
Leland fell and injured his knee way back when.
Dee wrapped a peanut in a gauze first-aid swaddle
and her project was headed for success.
More than she anticipated, for every single little kid
wanted, nay, insisted on making a peanut Jesus.
Notions like this are what gladden hearts at the Congo.
The kids are taught to add a piece of straw in their mangers
between now and Christmas
for every good deed they perform.
.......
JOHN DOAN, HARP GUITARIST
play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz7MAQzgiSs
.......
Flying Ribbons
Out of the corner of my eye.
what is this I'm pleased to spy
through the dining room window glass?
Did a flying ribbon to the arbor pass?
Ribbon lengths we carefully laid
in the back yard where our daughter played
now are chosen by a Mourning Dove
to build a nest in colors loved
that once adorned our dear girl's hair,
may happy be the bird who saw them there,
flying ribbons from our flown girl's braid,
relifted and towed, then surely re-laid.
The dove amidst the sheltering vine
will watch us pass her incubine,
but we'll not stop, we shall not stare,
enough to know a child's up there.
David Zep Dix 1999
.......
OUT OF A DARK SLEEP
On Dec 4th Dee uncovered this old amaryllis bulb that had been
placed in a dark furled sack in the storeroom. She'd been looking for
Advent and Xmas decorations when she found this forgotten bulb
and looked inside the paper bag where it'd been placed
for another year. Laid to rest.
It had sprouted in the dark, no light.
A trace of light green was nevertheless there.
We celebrated this renewal that required no investment!
We gave it a few days on a windowsill to more fully awaken.
A bit of water was added to the old soil.
Then Dee re-potted it very carefully, exposing the white fresh rootage -
and the old dark - gently, and surrounded the revitalizing bulb
with fresh soil.
Exposed to some light during the further awakening on the sill
the amaryllis bulb had begun turning a darker green with some streaks
of pink, which may be the color of the blossoms, if it blooms.
We will see what it does.
It will be nice if it does bloom those dramatic red flowers
but it it doesn't
the phenomenon of the reawakening
will be good enough for us!
Right now it measures 1-3/4 inches.
.......
