What I need...

This year has been filled with unexpected experiences... 

Times of storm amid clear sky, light amidst shadow. 

There have been moments when I've looked to the heavens and wondered why things happen the way they do. At times the answers seem slow in coming...

There is a song at the end of The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean that struck me the first time I heard it, and each time I've heard it since - perhaps because it encompasses some of these same sentiments. It is a reminder that though I may not understand completely - indeed even when I "see through a glass darkly" - there is One who sees the end from the beginning.  I have to believe that He who knows when each sparrow falls has not forgotten His children. He knows where I began, why I am here, and where I am going even when the way seems far from clear. He knows what I can endure even when I do not. I need to have faith that I will be given what I need, even if it is not necessarily what I planned or hoped for. I have to believe that in the eternal perspective - to paraphrase the song - all I ever want, all I ever dream of, everything I hope and all the things I pray for can't hold a candle to what I'll be given when I've been given what I need...

What I Need
(The Forgotten Carols - Michael McLean)

All I ever wanted

All I ever dreamed of

Everything I hoped

And all the things I prayed for

Couldn't hold a candle 

To what I've been given

I've been given what I need

A mansion on a hill

Or love like in the movies

Perfect little lives

Where no one has a problem

Instead of all those things

I thought I really wanted

I've been given what I need

Even when I didn't understand

When I thought you had no heart

Thank you for rejecting my demands

And always giving me the better part

All I ever wanted

All I ever dreamed of

Everything I hoped

And all the things I've prayed for

Couldn't hold a candle 

To what I've been given

I've been given what I need

Where Are You Christmas?......

Christmas this year has seemed to be very far away.

It isn't that evidence is lacking declaring this to be the season....

Homes are decorated.

Tress are lit, their branches heavy with baubles and bangles.

Hearths are adorned with mementoes of years past.

Christmas music fills the air with lilting melodies.

No... it isn't that I can not see or hear Christmas all around me...

It is that I can not feel it... at least, not yet...

There are reasons for this I am sure...

Some I can attempt to change, others I wish with all my heart I had the power to change but I do not.

That doesn't mean that I will stop in my search this year or that I will not find Christmas...eventually... for wherever there is kindness and compassion there sparks a little of the Spirit of Christmas...

So, bear with me on my journey this year... realize that I know that this too - along with other moments will pass.

Regardless of where or what Christmas is for me this year... know that I wish you the best of everything. That I hope the Christmas spirit finds you wherever you may be and in whatever circumstance you may have.

May the true spirit of the season shine through and on all of us...

Where are you Christmas 

Why can't I find you 

Why have you gone away 

Where is the laughter 

You used to bring me 

Why can't I hear music play 

My world is changing

I'm rearranging

Does that mean Christmas changes too

Where are you Christmas

Do you remember

The one you used to know

I'm not the same one

See what the time's done

Is that why you have let me go

Christmas is here

Everywhere, oh

Christmas is here

If you care, oh

If there is love in your heart and your mind

You will feel like Christmas all the time

I feel you Christmas

I know I've found you

You never fade away

The joy of Christmas

Stays here inside us

Fills each and every heart with love

Where are you Christmas

Fill your heart with love

Ripples

Ripples...

      Moving

                           In gentle waves

                            Ever outward

                               With no knowledge

                   Where they end...

A glimpse...

I thought I saw you yesterday

A glimpse 
Was all it was

A glimpse
And then

Gone

Solitary

I walked

As shadows passed by 

overhead

Contemplating past, 

present, 

and future

Glancing,

I saw a lone tree

Standing guard

Keeping watch

And I -

I, too, kept watch...

For a moment

Neither was alone...

Solitary

No more

Beginnings...

This blog began as an idea about a year ago as a way to gather some of my thoughts into one place...much like scattered feathers... hence the name...

I created the blog and added a thought or two - some serious, others whimsical... poetry and prose entwining to create something I hoped would be of worth even if I was the only one who ever saw it...

It never went beyond that until now...

I wrestled with the decision of whether or not to throw these scattered feathers to the wind, to share them with the world... and ultimately decided to let them fly and settle where they may...

In that light, I went back through and changed and rearranged a few of the things I'd written prior to my decision to share this blog and reposted them as new creations... I hope you'll take a minute or two to take a glance at a few of my scattered feathers...

Here's to new beginnings....