As we ring in the new, reflect on the old

 

 

 

 The new  year looms large and it's straight ahead. 2024. I say it over, trying it out on my tongue. It sounds strange, for now. Growing up, I couldn't imagine ever reaching the year 2000 and decided by the time I did, I'd be too old to care. As it turned out, I wasn't even forty yet so I did care.

Although the new year is a time for celebration and making merry one more time before settling into often drab January, it's a change. I never was much of a party animal and I'll ring in 2024 at home, quietly. On New Year's Day, I'll follow tradition and cook pork (bacon for breakfast, a nice pork loin roast for midday dinner) for prosperity, black-eyed peas for luck, and a green vegetable to bring money my direction.

I'll think and maybe even sing the classic "Auld Lang Syne", based on a poem written by Scots poet Robert Burns, Burns wrote down the immortal lines in 1788 but didn't appear in print until soon after Burns' death in 1796. Burns claimed to have gotten some of the lyrics from "an old man". Mentions of auld lange syne and bits of the poem appeared even earlier. The tune most of us recognize and the anglicized words didn't appear until 1799.

The original was written in a broad Scots dialect. The classic first stanza and chorus originally were:

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Today, we're more familiar with this version, changed little (although if you read or sing the rest of the song, there are many differences!):

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll drink a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of auld lang syne.

Auld Lang Syne means "old long since" or as we translate it today, for old times' sake.

In January, named for the two-faced god Janus, god of gates and transition. Janus is shown facing two directions at once, back and forward. It's the perfect name for the month where most of us do both.

 

One of my Christmas gifts this year is a new planner along with a set of markers in various bright colors. My son bought a much finer version than the plain one I suggested but I love it. A planner helps me keep track of upcoming dates and events. I often also write a few notes to remember the days as they unfold.

 

The cold of January seems to seep deep into the bone. After the hustle

and bustle of the holiday season, January always slows things down. Winter

seems to set in to stay awhile. Spring looms far ahead and most of us struggle

to recreate our ordinary patterns, to get back into the swing of things. Days

move with slow certainty.

January can be capricious. The frigid weather that makes us shiver can shift to warmer temperatures and even an occasional thunderstorm.

As I write and work, I gaze out across a barren winter landscape and gaze at all the brown hues.

It’s also a period of time as I prepare for what I have coming ahead this year as a writer and continue to move forward. A few years ago, January just meant a time to get things back on track but my life shifted in many ways.

This January marks five years since my husband, Roy Murphy, passed away on January 12. I lost my dad on January 10, 2009. My three children have grown up so the one-time wife, mother, writer, and author has become a widowed author with adult children.

During my husband’s illness, my fiction slowed and then stopped. I carried on as a reporter, columnist, then editor for the local newspaper as well as one for another nearby city. After Roy’s death, it took time to return to writing novels. After accepting a severance buyout offer from Gannett/Gatehouse Media in December 2020, I became a full-time author.

After the publication of Still Waters Run Deeper (Evernight Publishing) in October 2017 (when Roy’s health took a nosedive and my life shifted), it wasn’t until 2021 I saw my next work appear. Since then, counting my latest release in November 2023, I’ve had twelve new titles appear.

These include Scrooge And Marlee, By Any Other Name, The Cowboy Gladiator, Where Dreams Come True, and A Cure for Love among others.

In 2023, I had four new releases:

For 2024, I already have six under contract and more submitted so I expect the number to grow:

The lower right bottom square is for Gray's Good Samaritan, scheduled to release on February 5, 2024, my first release of the year. A reprise of an earlier work, it's been improved, tightened, and updated. I don't have a cover yet but will share one as soon as I do.

There will be more in the Laredo series from World Castle in addition to The Legacy of Boone Wilson and The Endurance of Moses Wilson shown above. There will be a Christmas 2024 release and much more is in the works.

I've also dipped a toe into the editing field. Here are three titles I had the pleasure of editing:

For the coming year, I hope to live happier and healthier. I pray for peace, prosperity, health and more for my loved ones. I pray for the 27 youth I have the privilege of leading toward Confirmation. I don't know what 2024 will bring but we will see.

Happy New Year and all the best for each of you. Look for my works forthcoming from The Wild Rose Press, World Castle Publishing, Champagne Books, and Evernight Publishing.

Christ - The Light of Christmas

 

 

 

Night arrives early this time of year.  Near the winter solstice, dusk creeps into the afternoon and claims it.   The sun has been absent for much of December and its’ rare appearances have been brief.  Recent days have been drab and dark, the skies filled with gray clouds.  The stark bare branches of trees increase the gloomy appearance.  With the holidays looming, our hands are busy and our hearts which should be full are often occupied with things other than merriment.   We’re haunted by tragic events reported by the news but despite it all, we strive to keep our old customs and to honor our traditions.  We want to laugh and sing, to savor someone else’s smile, and be merry even on the longest night of the year, just past.

At this darkest time of the year, our bright, colorful Christmas lights cut into the gloom and lift our spirits.  Whether it’s the twinkling lights of our own tree or the brilliant displays down the street, we’re cheered by the lights.  A candle in the light or flickering on the table, a fire burning bright in the fireplace, or the familiar sounds of carols on the stereo give us light and hope.   We allow the light to banish the shadows, to make them recede as we celebrate the greatest Light of all, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Scholars agree Christ wasn’t born in December but most likely in the spring and setting the date to celebrate his birth on December 25th wasn’t an arbitrary decision.  Long before the world received His light, they celebrated hope during the same season.   The ancient Nordic tradition of the Yule log (Yule meaning the winter solstice) dates to pagan times but was adapted to mark the holiest season of all.  The winter solstice, Yule, the Roman festival of Saturnalia, and other ancient feasts all were celebrated at the darkest part of the year with hope for the return of the sun and warmer seasons.  The celebration of Christmas (Christ’s Mass) in December evolved from many of these pagan traditions and elements of them were incorporated into the observance.  It wasn’t the only holiday that the early Church used as a focal point to make the transition into Christianity easier by not taking away long-standing customs but giving them new meaning.

The evergreen we associate with Christmas stands for eternal life.  Mistletoe and holly had their place in early observances as well.  Santa Claus, while based on an actual saint, St. Nicholas, evolved over the centuries into a kind, benevolent soul who brings gifts.  He wasn’t alone in history.  Other personalities, some female like Italy’s La Befana and others, dark like Krampus, also exist but have been overridden in our culture by Santa.

 

 

Although the season is now celebrated with incredible commercialism and perhaps more than a little touch of the wild abandon of Saturnalia for some, in our hearts, for most, we keep Christmas for its’ true meaning.  We celebrate the Light of the world by letting light banish darkness as we open our hearts and homes to others.  We give, whether it’s to things like our local Food Basket Brigade or to one another.  We sit by quiet candlelight and remember the reason for the season.  We fill church pews and let bright poinsettias give more color to our everyday houses of worship.  We sing the carols we’ve known since childhood with happiness and reverence.  And somewhere between the cookies we bake, the gifts we wrap, the colorful lights and bright trees, our hearts soar with the joy of the season, with the wonder and eternal gift of Christ’s birth in a humble stable long ago.  Merry Christmas!