Christmas soirée

Overnight the temperature went down to minus four, but then followed a bright clear dry day. Perfect for the run up to the Winter equinox in six days from now. I uploaded the link for this week's Morning Prayer and reflection to WhatsApp, then got up and made breakfast. 

A walk to Tesco Metro for foodbank donations, then St John 's to celebrate the Eucharist with seven others and a cup of coffee before returning home to cook lunch. I needed a snooze in the chair after lunch, having had another late night. After a snack supper we drove to Fran's house in Penarth for an evening of readings carols and quiet reflection around a properly candle-lit Christmas tree. Clare and I sang the Welsh plygain carol we're performing in the Fountain choir concert and I contributed a brief poem on the incarnation that I wrote a couple of nights ago after an idea came to me when my head was just hitting the pillow around midnight. No wonder I get late nights! Here's the poem.

When the Word became flesh 

Old gods and demons were un-throned

so they said

Yet worshipped still unceasingly

Consuming their devotees

With deathly violence.

Foolish humans cannot bear for long

The silence of heavens

Emptied of glamorous mystery.

Divine utterance now dwells

Hidden in plain sight

Behind the child's naked cry

And mortal agony endured 

In the face of folly. 

Fran's partner Marc and I accompanied carol singing, violin and guitar, and while people were tucking in to their refreshments and mulled wine afterwards, we played a few Irish reels and jigs together for fun. I haven't done that for over thirty five years. After the death of our dear friend David Barker, with whom we used to play and sing whenever we met over the years after graduation, I didn't seek another opportunity to play like that again, sad to say.

Although the temperature was minus one driving home at eleven, the roads were dry with little traffic and I was able to reclaim my parking place outside the house, which was a relief. I was hard enough getting out of it when we left, as a new neighbour with a huge VW electric SUV had parked very badly and far too close to make this straightforward, over a foot out from the kerb and at an outward angle that added to the difficulty of the manoeuvre. Strange to say, getting back into the space seems much less tricky than leaving it.

It was a good evening, but I'm certainly ready for be now.