Covered with camels

We anticipated Epiphany in church today. Every year I laugh about the Isaiah reading and being covered in camels, the three gifts brought by wise men... Were there really three? Were they kings? What does a baby do with those gifts?

Anticipation:

People covered with camels,

Wise folk with strange gifts

Epiphany tableau

I love how the story is retold year by year.

I remember the church:

It held an Epiphany tableau

Instead of a Christmas pageant.

Instead of three kings

It offered Native American dancers

Down the aisle.

People left many things

At the manger.

One family left the church

For something “more formal”

As if

Nativity pageants ever offer

The way it probably was,

As if the pageant

Or tableau is not rewritten

Every year

No matter where it is.

My favorite is still the year

The triplets

Played the kings,

And their best friend

In the world

Played Herod.

She did not want to be left behind

So she visited the manger

With her friends,

Knelt with them

In homage to the baby Jesus.

With that picture

I saw the world begin to change.

Wise men

The daughter put the wise men in the family room.  They finally arrived at the mangers in the living room two days late.  I understand they were really late anyway.  We are just going with the story here.  I figure they will need more time to contemplate the mystery with us.

The wise men have arrived

At our three nativities.

They will stay for now.

Advent is over

We found our first daffodils at Trader Joe*s this afternoon.  Actually, my beloved found them, and pointed them out to me.  It is good to have a daffodil partner when one is in a low place and not seeing things very clearly.  I am grateful for my beloved who knows the importance of daffodils.

This afternoon I added daffodils

Next to the Nativity,

A reminder of spring

In the midst of snow.

The Christmas tree still has yet

To come down.

This morning*s church bulletin

Offered announcements

For the future

And one announcement declaring

Advent is over,

A way of asking folk

To return their Advent rings

For next year.

Advent is over.

Daffodils grace the area

Next to the Nativity.

When the flowers come full bloom

It will be time

To take down

The Christmas tree,

Store away the ornaments,

Carefully pack up the stone Nativity

Until next year.

Advent is over.

Christmas is over.

Epiphany is underway.

I wait for the light

To come.

I woke this morning

Today is laundry and preparation to leave tomorrow.  The tree was slated to come down today.  Most likely it will wait until next week or the week after.  Today is sufficient for today.  Today I sit and enjoy the squirrels and tree, remember there are others who leave the tree up all of the Epiphany season.  Arise, Shine, the Light has come.  Remember.  See the star on top of the tree? The one your son made in nursery school?  See the star?  The star is still there.

I woke this morning

Better able to see

The squirrels at work

In the melting snow,

And

The Christmas tree.

It may not come down

Until next weekend.

The house will not suffer

For it.

The cat will still ring the bells,

Hung on the bottom branches,

In his winter

Cat fits.

I will be able to return

To a house still celebrating

Our Savior’s birth

No matter that Epiphany

Will be well

Underway.

The woman who cleans the house

The day after we have cleaned

For her arrival,

She said yesterday

Sometimes she doesn’t dismantle

Her tree

Until February.

We are in good clean company.

The cat will have his bells.

I will remember Christmas again

When I return home.

Pre-Epiphany

I set up the whole Nativity scene in late Advent this year, including Baby Jesus and the wise men.  My daughter hid Jesus.  We only found him five days after Christmas Day, in the table drawer, where he has always been hidden.  The wise men (numbered four) in our nativity, didn't walk at all this year.  They stood in attendance, waiting for the birth.  They will leave, suddenly, on Tuesday,with the rest of the creche.  Everyone will return to their places.  Even us.

Christmas

Day eleven

The four wise folk

Wait in bunched attendance

On one side

Of the Nativity scene.

I know.

They traditionally don’t arrive

Until Monday.

We used to have them

Walk across the living room

Until January 6

Epiphany

That day we put everyone away

In a special box

Until next year.

The wise folk

Got a raw deal:

Dropped to their knees,

Handed over the gifts,

Rapidly left

By another way.

They walked

Stunned

All the way

Home.

The Visit

This is the end of a season of visits.  Today, on Epiphany, I go home after visiting my sister in Santa Fe.  I will actually retrace my flight path tonight, arrive home in the dark of night.  Even flying back the way I came, it seems another way.  We are always different after a visit, if we have been paying attention.

A courtyard sits

Outside my window,

A small tree with tiny

Nascent

Buds,

They wait in the snow.

A cup of coffee warms

My hands.

It is Epiphany

The Coming of the Kings

Soon and very soon

They

And I,

Our visit finished,

Will go home

By another way.

Business as usual

Sometimes I wonder who determined green for the seasons between The Big Ones (Christmas and Easter).  We get lulled into complacency by green.  Nothing big happening here.  Business as usual... at home, in the church, in our lives.  Of course this begs the question of what usual is.  The stars are still shining.  We still need to pay attention.  Surely regular life continues.  In this meantime, Life Continues.  

The church sees fit

To mark these days in green:

Epiphanytide

Part of the long green season

Of summer and fall

As if this is part

Of business as usual.

The holidays are fully over.

School has started up again.

Ordinary time

Has begun

Or simply continued

From before,

No beginning,

No ending,

Just more of the same,

Business as usual.

Yet even now

Smaller stars shine.

The Child will grow up fast.

Soon enough he will astound

Those who listen in the temple,

Vex his parents,

Climb the mountain with friends.

Soon enough

He will be sent back down the mountain

To the valley below.

Smaller stars shine now

Even though it looks

Like business as usual.

One of those days

I hate those days when there is nothing bad to point to, but it is still one of those days.  I have to work to notice the good stuff, even when most of it is good, really good, not Pollyanna-good.  I have to work to notice it because if I don*t I will sabotage the outward goodness of the day.  This is hard work, this noticing. Sometimes a good night*s sleep brings a different day.

Yesterday was one of those days,

The kind I had to force myself

To notice

The sun shining.

For the third day running

I saw clearly.

I passed the credential test.

Still

My supervision was more like

Therapy.

I left irritated,

Ready to quit

The whole thing.

Yesterday

Was one of those days.

I slept on it.

Today is day four

Of clear vision.

It is Epiphany, after all.

The sun is shining,

Not hard to see.

The lady across the creek

Feeds the ducks as she does all winter,

Every winter.

Today is another day,

Brighter, crisper, cleaner.

The wise men stand at the manger

In full Starlight.

It is time

To dismantle the Christmas tree,

Time

To move on.

Guided by stars

In my living room is a framed Inuit print of an Inuit family on a sled packed with all their belongings, pointing to  a sky filled with stars.  This is the print that hangs over the table we use for the four piece Guatemalan Nativity set..  Years ago my daughter used to hide Baby Jesus in the table drawer before Christmas.  This morning the Nativity, the print, and oh yes, the mirror ball, all seem to be connected somehow.  And important.

In the chair next to the Christmas tree

I write.

Sunlight catches one of the small mirror balls,

Bounces light all over the ceiling

Of the living room.

The Guatemalan Mary and Joseph are in place

On the living room table.

They watch over Baby Jesus

Under an Inuit print,

Guided by Stars.

The print is huge.

It has hung there for years.

This morning the stars hold forth

For Mary and Joseph, Jesus,

The Wise Men on their way,

And me.

The mirror ball on the Christmas tree

Twists and turns

In the sun,

Bounces light.

The stars

Hold steady.