Borderlines: Sketches from the Empty Quarter: Christmas Eve: Recycled, Renewed, and Remembered

Another year has come and now is nearly gone, I am older, but little (if any) wiser, so once again I have chosen to recycle the last few years’ Christmas missive. Creativity is lagging behind ambition, but the message remains the same. Although I will admit, this year’s holidays are a little less bright with the loss of far too many friends and relatives. I still wish each and every one of you the best that Christmas can be and the blessings of the Season!

Merry Christmas to all from those of us fortunate to be up at altitude!

The wind has stopped, the mountains are softly wrapped in the deep quiet of snowy moonlight and in the fireplace hearth burns a memory of Christmas past, a well-aged juniper post cut from a mesa above the Huerfano River, first felled by my father sometime in the 1970’s and salvaged from his meadow fence.

Now is the time for us to remember, the shortest day of the year is not followed by the longest night. It’s followed by the celebration of the everlasting light of a 2000-year-old dawn.

Christmas is many things, but first and foremost it is recollections of our times that were, the re-living of them and of course the anticipation of that which will come again. Whether it lives on in the words of Luke, Matthew or our own remembrances, the gift of Christmas stays with us throughout all our days and carries us from the old year into the new, and from this life into the next.

Wherever you might be and whomever you may be with, embrace this night and let this ageless time be your gift to one another.

And if you will excuse my prejudice, I find it easier to be close to the Spirit of Christmas here in the cold, clear air above this high valley, nestled in forests of the Sangre de Cristo’s and under these sparkling stars that are only a breath away from Heaven.