two for your christmas stocking

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I’m blogging Christmas morning -but I am! It turns out E. and I are alone this day with my sis and her kids having their turn with Mom, and our kids expected tomorrow. All we have on our agenda, then, is Church at 11:00 and other lovely lazy Sunday things like going for a walk (if it ever stops raining) and reading all afternoon.

So, I have time to post a couple of things to add to the Christmas stocking of anyone who has stopped by to read.

First, here’s a year’s worth of writer quotes and links, put together by Mel Boring (ICL* webmaster) and which he sent out in the weekly newsletters of 2005.

And second, a poem "Let the Stable Still Astonish," by Leslie Leyland Fields** (top of page 7 .pdf file***).

My Christmas wish for all who read here is, in the spirit of the poem, that the God of Heaven and Earth be born in the rooms of your heart today.

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* Institute of Children's Literature.

** L. L. Fields is a new writer to me. I found the poem by her in a book, Patches of Godlight - Father Tim’s Favorite Quotes assembled by Jan Karon.

This is a curious book. It is as if the fictional Father Tim got himself a blank journal and filled it up – handwritten – with snippets from all the people he was frequently quoting and referring to. Besides the handwritten format, another curiosity is that there is no copyright notice.

Anyway, I googled Leslie Leyland Fields to make sure she was safely ancient and that I could quote her work with impunity. I discovered she is very much alive right now and thus her work is protected by copyright. I did find a copy of this poem, though, buried in the pdf file of The St. James Scroll, above, where I’m trusting it was printed with her permission.

*** Sorry, the December issue which had the poem was replaced with a January /06 issue so it's no longer there. I've posted a different link in comments.