I don't have much to say.

Last night, the last night of this year’s Hanukkah; tomorrow night, Christmas Eve.

Lights! Light! The winter solstice behind us, we now have one or two minutes of additional daylight every day.

Cards and letters, greetings, gifts and gatherings. 

This is the good news—and while there is all too much of the other kind, this morning I am focusing on light and love and life and wishing the same for each of you this holiday season at another year’s end. We will never have this day again.

“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…”

Early morning, and I sit happily here under my Christmas tree! It’s only a foot and a half tall, but it perches atop one of my bookcases, so when I sit in the closest chair to that bookcase, as I am doing this morning, I look up at the lighted tree above. Yes, lighted! Our grandson’s family sent a string of tiny battery-operated lights just the right size for an 18” tree, so after sunset last night and early this morning I turned on the tree lights and am absurdly pleased. Adding to the effect and my happiness is the shape of the lights: each one is a miniature Eiffel Tower!

Next to the tree, what started out as a neat stack of holiday cards (actually, in the beginning I was standing them up until there were too many for the space) is now a sweet, slippy, messy pile, telling me every time I look that way that faraway friends have remembered me. There are also little presents that arrived early, and rather than put them away I arranged them on top of the bookcase where they make me smile, reminding me of family who love me.

 

On the table are pots of poinsettias that a neighbor bought for a dinner party and then passed along to me. So bright and beautiful! 

As is true for so many of you, I was happy to have the winter solstice arrive and to know that our hours of daylight will now grow longer and longer, but at the same time, with lights on my little tree I look forward to the dark of evening and don’t mind the dark of early morning, either. 

 

Funny how much difference a few tiny lights can make, isn’t it? 

Happy Holidays –

Let your little lights shine!