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Dear Everyone,

Around this time of year I like to revisit this letter and share it with those I love and esteem. It was written on Christmas Eve in 1513 by Franciscan scholar Fra Giovanni Giocondo and addressed to the Most Illustrious the Contessina Allagia degli Aldobrandeschi. From a distance of almost five centuries, Fra Giocondo reminds me of the "radiance and glory in the darkness" evident in the Winter Holidays that we can carry forward into the new year. He writes:

"There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it to-day. Take Heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see; and to see, we have only to look. Contessina I beseech you to look.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the Angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty: believe me, that angel's hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence. Our joys, too: be not content with them as joys, they too conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and of purpose, so full of beauty—beneath its covering—that you will find that earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then to claim it: that is all! But courage you have; and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you; not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem, and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away."


To his beautiful words I can add only my heartfelt wish for health, happiness, and love for you all now and in the coming year.

Yours,
Sarah

1. I love the hush that snowfall spreads over the world, and breathing the cold pure air that sweeps the mind clean as I walk through it.

2. I love my knee-high lace-up boots and the traction their hefty soles provide.

3. I love waking in a big warm bed and emerging from the warren of blankets to touch the ice-cold windowpane.

4. I love soups and stews with winter root vegetables - parsnip, turnip, potato, carrot, squash . . .

5. I love Christmas lights - from the elegant white ones that wind around trees and festoon buildings downtown, to the candy-colored bulbs on the Christmas Tree, to really tacky, garish, over-the-top displays on suburban homes.

6. I love bundling up before I head out the door in wool and leather and furry hats like an exiled Russian Czarina.

7. I love mulled red wine in the evenings.

8. I love how the Moon seems to shine brighter in the rising dark.

9. I love the inward-turning of the season that encourages dreaming, quiet, stillness, and long rest.

10. I love the bare branches of trees that etch their dark calligraphy on the deep blue sky.

That's right, the fella and I will be attending the Faerieworlds Masquerade Ball at the end of January. Since we bought our tickets we've been scheming and shopping and formulating some grand costumes. I'm electing to keep the mythical, magical theme a secret, but I wanted to share my "swatch sheet" because I'm very pleased with the color scheme: crimson cloak, blue gown, and gold bodice. Grant's costume will be shadowier (look, new word!) but no less sumptuous in black and silver. Soon we'll be dancing the nights away with the rest of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts!