bleak

Yesterday - on what would have been the last day of playgroup, if I hadn't effectively cancelled playgroup in November - I finally bit the bullet and wrote to my WhatsApp group of parents to say that I am quitting. Then I decided to call it an early night last night, and woke up to (1) the news this morning that a beloved college professor just died and (2) a couple of kind texts thanking me for my work...the work I felt so completely inadequate at, and prayed every time just to get through. Did I manage, even or perhaps through my inadequacy, to create a (for lack of a better word) "safe" space for the parents to relax and be themselves? Did the safe and loving space Dr. Cave created for so many students come from a similar source? Probably not. Maybe? In any case, his Christianity was a source of comfort to him and I hope he'd like this tribute.

In the bleak midwinter 

by Christina Rossetti (source: poetryfoundation.org)
(my recording: Crash Test Dummies)

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; 
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Rest in peace, Bob.

A busy and not socially distanced Christmas on the Züri-Tirggel. Doesn't the thing in the upper right look like the star of Bethlehem being projected over Zoom?