Get behind me, Santa!

Our cat Fennel is sitting on my lap right now, purring furiously. She is calm for once because she got worn out chasing the vacuum cleaner and mop. It's amazing how easily entertained she is- she will run around for hours after a piece of string or paper.
I don't quite understand it, but having Fennel curled up purring in my lap is one of the best antidotes to the winter blues that I have found so far. Second only to sitting in my best beloved's arms.
Listening to Sufjan's Christmas albums twice through in one day doesn't hurt, either.

those winter sundays

We read a Robert Hayden poem today in class that ended with these lines:

"What did I know, what did I know

Of love's austere and lonely offices?"

Love's offices can indeed be unlovely, but we undertake them with glad hearts because they are for a beloved. This is the quieter side of parenthood. This is inconvenient services rendered to loved ones. This is the side of love I do not truly know yet.

I hope that God cannot get lonely, because if he could he would certainly have cause to. His offices are both austere and lonely much of the time- or at least to our human minds they must seem so.