Snapshots from a mid-December

I feel a bit fragmented, but in a good way, the kind of fragmented that comes from doing a variety of tasks, being interrupted, going back to tasks, and through this weaving accomplishing what must be done.

Let me record some reflections, however fleeting:

--We need to light the third candle on the Advent wreath that sits on our dining room table.  We need to do that before the 4th Sunday in Advent.

--The color blue is invading my sleep.  Last night I dreamed I was sewing by hand, sifting through a variety of beautiful blue cloth.  This morning, I used that image in a poem.  The dream was lovely, but the poem is dark:  an older woman, sewing in a besieged city.  Aleppo is very much on my mind this week.

--The Holocaust is also on my brain because I finished reading Timothy Snyder's Black Earth:  Holocaust as History and Warning.   As a younger woman, I couldn't fathom why people didn't work harder to rescue the Jews and others in danger.  This week, I'm fairly sure that future generations will wonder the same thing about Syria.

--I don't have a good answer.

--In lighter news, I have proposed a soup and sweets supper between the two earliest Christmas Eve services.  I'm willing to provide soup, if others provide the crock pots.   I envision a time of fellowship, especially for those of us who are participating in 2 services and live too far away to go back home in between.  People can come and go as they like.  Even if we find out no one wants soup, I'm willing to spearhead this--it gives me somewhere to hang out between services, after all.

--Hard to believe that we are not that far away from Christmas.  How quickly time is zooming by.