S W O O N D: christmas all over again

1.07.2009

christmas all over again

Russian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated today, January 7 (which corresponds to December 25 in the old Julian calendar). The festivities begin on Christmas Eve with a Lenten meal (no meat or dairy products) which is known as "The Holy Supper," although nothing is eaten or drunk until the first star appears in the sky. After dinner, no dishes are washed and Christmas presents are opened. Celebrants go to church for the Christmas Mass which lasts until after midnight. On Christmas morning, more presents are opened, carols are sung and celebrants return to church for the Christmas Day Liturgy. And, presumably, the dishes get washed.

с Рождеством Христовым!

:night city lights at deviant art

the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

- w. b. yeats

sounds travel through space long after their wave patterns have ceased to be detectable by the human ear: some cut right through the ionosphere and barrel on out into the cosmic heartland, while others bounce around, eventually being absorbed into the vibratory fields of earthly barriers, but in neither case does the energy succumb; it goes on forever - which is why we, each of us, should take pains to make sweet notes.

- tom robbins

the same dream returned each night until i dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. i dreamed i had a child, and even in the dream i saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and i ran away. but it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. until i thought, if i could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps i could sleep. and i bent to its broken face, and it was horrible . . . but i kissed it. i think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.

- arthur miller, after the fall

YIN AND JUNG

who looks outside, dreams;

who looks inside, awakes.

everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.

when we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. we wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. but to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.

- carl jung, the stages of life