advent journal: return visit

After a long day, I have been staring at the screen and writing down dead end streets to the point that I have circled back to an old poem of mine that showed up in a memory today. I need to sleep, so I am going to lean into to your grace and offer words I said a few years back on this same night--updated where they needed to be.

far afield

I wonder what the shepherds did the year after the angels came, or how the Magi went about their business when they got back home.

Do you think the innkeeper woke in the night sometimes and opened the door, hoping for strangers, or sat out in the barn for no reason?

How did they keep the story fresh? Or did they go back hoping for a return engagement of wonder— gloria in excelcis ditto—

Did they hang that one special night like an ornament in their hearts, but lost its shine over the years? Could they still hear the melody?

Steps away from my sixty-fifth Christmas, and the field of my heart feels far away from the manger. though I’m out hoping to hear angels . . .

but tonight I have found these words: Love will not wait till I’m ready; grace comes, but does not evict grief; hope runs like a hound for my heart;

peace disquiets as it comforts. So I gather my sorrows like sheep, stack these words like wood for a fire, and strike the match of all that matters . . .

only to find I am not alone. Can you hear the angels singing? Do you know the way from here? If not, we will follow the stars.

Peace, Milton