Christmas thoughts

    I must thank Margaret Powling for sending me the following passage from Sir Roy Strong's A Country Life; it will have particular resonance for many of us.

“Christmas is Janus-faced. One side is joy, the other grief.  It opens gates of memory firmly locked into a corner of the mind for the rest of the year.  But when the festive season beckons those gates open and the past comes back to take us in its embrace. Christmas is always as much about those not there as about those present.  The card no longer received because the sender is no more, the telephone which does not ring this year to remind us of a friendship around the globe, the person who is not at the table, the visit which is no longer made.

            “But then the sadness fades, for that gate lets in not only tears of grief but those of joy, and thankfulness, too.  Memory’s sacred role is to hold in the mind all those whom one has loved.  At Christmas they come tumbling back in a season when recollection pulls strongly on the emotions.  How often over these days leading into the New Year does the conversation harken back to times past, to people and events long since gone.....

          “Always the twelve days of Christmas take on the character of a garland of friendship through time, for not only those of yesterday are recalled, but those of today rekindled. We are reminded of their centrality in any life. Age and bad times make them a bedrock, giving us strength to go forward into whatever the new year will bring.”

Happy Christmas.

Comments

[Claire]

A very Happy Christmas to you and yours.

[Margaret Powling]

Thank you, Karen, for including Sir Roy Strong's words from his lovely book A Country Life. And a very happy Christmas to you and your family and to all who read Cornflower XXX

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Trust Roy Strong to give us such apt words to describe the season. Today — Dec. 24 — is my dad's birthday. He died in 1998 but, for me and my sisters, this will always be his day.

[Barbara MacLeod]

So very true what he says. And so well expressed!

Best wishes for the holiday season.

[Donna]

Words of a very wise man,thanks so much for posting them. Christmas is a very bittersweet time of the year for me. so I can relate to Mr. Strong's writings.
Happy Christmas to you and your family Karen, and thanks for all your wonderful posts. They still remain at the top of my daily "must reads".

[Les in NE]

Thank you for sharing this with me, Karen. So apropos on this bittersweet day for my husband and me. I hope you don't mind if I post it on my blog, as well.
Merry Christmas.

[Juxtabook]

Merry Christmas!And thank you for all the good reading, food for thought, and well, just food!

[natalie]

Merry Christmas!
Father Christmas brought me "Breathing Lessons" so I am all set for January.

[Tara]

A very Merry Christmas to you and your family!