First Christmas post of the year. Well, at least I made it past Halloween.

[wordplay]

So most of you know that I have a prickly relationship with religion, but the whole OMGbaybee! aspect of the Christmas story gets me every time, and that's an expression of the sacred that I can completely appreciate. I guess this makes some kind of sense, since my personal spiritual growth right now (yes, I have some!) is largely centered around my experience of parenting - being a really good parent does not come easily for me, and I work so hard to give them enough of myself. My spiritual worldview is closest to scientific pantheism, with a nice healthy dose of secular humanism, and a lot of that tingly feeling of the divine comes from appreciating the working of the universe and humanity, but also from loving these tiny, imperfect people, whose bodies and personalities change and grow so quickly. So that image of perfect quiet and stillness, of that uniquely delicious heartache of desperately loving a small child in the dark of a winter night, is one that I find deeply moving. It moves me enough that I can listen to Amy Grant Christmas music, y'all - that's some powerful stuff.

So why am I going on about this right now? Because I bought the Sarah McLachlan Christmas album today, and I love her version of "What Child is This". That's all. Enjoy.

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If all had gone according to plan, we would have been arriving in MA right about now for UFC, but this autumn is knocking all of us out. We're all STILL a little sick and, as it was, I napped for four hours this afternoon. I HATE that we ended up not being able to go, but I covet every moment of my free time right now, and I'm so tired of being sick and tired, and I WILL be using this weekend to catch up on my sleep. Sleep is boring and really just an enormous waste of my time, but fatigue is just killing me.

Comments

[old-enough.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is one inspired version of "What Child is This"! Thanks for sharing it. I'm off to see if I can find her album for sale here in Denmark.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's nice.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

You know, my relationship to Christianity is essentially Not, but I'll tell you something: I really don't care for the modern secular Christmas songs of a chestnuts roasting, holly jolly, beginning to look a lot like, dreaming of a white, let it snow sort of ilk. (I make two exceptions: "I'll Be Home for Christmas", as sung by Victor Garber, which is to say in a way that correctly communicates that the song is incredibly wistful and sad; and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", sung in a similar quiet and contemplative way, because I often confuse it with the first one. [g]) But Christmas carols, whether they're sacred or just traditional secular songs ("Here We Come A-Wassailing", anyone?), they get me right where I live. (I had a longish post not long ago about sacred music and prayer, and of course the Christmas repertoire fits nicely into that thought process.) And my favorite of Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" is No. 4B, "Balulalow", which I think is exactly what you're saying about the desperate love for a small child. Yay.

[dizzledee.livejournal.com]

You know, it's weird. This time of the year gets to me too. I just saw Jesus Christ Superstar and the part where Judas sings "I don't know how to love him" had me WEEPING. It was crazy how emotional I was.

OMG, AND THANKS FOR THE SARAH HOOKUP!