Dreaming of a wet Christmas

After a spell of unusually frigid temperatures, the Willamette Valley is back to its usual weather for this time of year: wet and grey. The only “white Christmases” I ever knew, growing up in Oregon, were the foggy variety.

It’s perfect weather for sitting inside with a book or DVD. And for soups, like the Simply in Season recipe of the week, Maple Parsnip Soup: a creamy, beginner-friendly choice for those new to this root vegetable.

This poem arrived on a homemade Christmas card today:

"Water Prayer" by Stuart Kestenbaum

And this morning, I awoke to rain, which makes
its own rhythm on the window, and the world is full
of these rhythms, rhythm of water, rhythm of the heart,
which sounds like an underwater pump, the lub-dub
of all it knows, which is making all I know possible,
and on the roof rain falls and turns to hail, then snow,
then rain again, running down the shingles to the gutters,
the gathering-up that makes rivers and lakes and oceans,
from cloud to drop to torrent, how nothing is lost.


On this shortest day of the year, blessings to all who paused here, and a wish for light in whatever darkness you know.