Isn’t that upside down?

Isn’t that upside down?

(still more, as I see it)  It’s now been a whole week! A week of extreme ideas, extreme waiting, extreme excitement, extreme lows and extreme highs: in short, exhausting on many fronts. There’s even extreme effort in keeping anxious thoughts at bay, in keeping a watch...
The Birth of Wonder

The Birth of Wonder

I invite you to invest a few minutes of your day, basking in the following songs on this Christmas, Day 6:  Gather Round, Ye Children Come Away in a Manger Mary giving birth to Jesus was a wholly natural event – painful, long, complicated, messy, exhausting – and yet...
The Arrival

The Arrival

Just after midday they had entered Bethlehem, their long-awaited destination. Joseph had settled Mary on a small hill near the north entrance gate and gone in search of now-urgently needed accommodations. He spent the whole afternoon asking, asking, pleading, but...
More Traveling Story

More Traveling Story

Today, the news from those returning from Bethlehem was not encouraging. All rooms were taken. Many Bethlehemites, too, like Joseph and Mary, had been obliged to leave for their ancestral towns for the census. In fact, it appeared that all of Israel was traveling to...
A Travelling Story

A Travelling Story

Having asked around the village how long others thought the journey to Bethlehem would take, Joseph added three days to the predictions, wanting to accommodate Mary in her condition. However, those extra days had already elapsed, with the rest stops getting longer and...