Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas


This post is a little late in the day, but I am going to wish you all a very Merry Christmas anyway. I want to draw your attention to this very interesting site concerning Christmas constellations. I have not had a chance to look for any of these constellation, because snow has been falling here, snow on snow, which is very Christmasy, and lovely, but very bad for sky watching. Besides, much to my own dissatisfaction, I am not much of an astronomer. I can find Orion, as well as the Great Bear (aka, the Big Dipper.) and I can use the Great Bear to find the North Star, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. Still, once the weather clears up a wee, I think I might see if I can go out and become better acquainted with the night sky.

Here is a beautiful poem by G. K. Chesterton, and here also is a picture I painted several years ago as an illustration for it.


A Christmas Carol

by G. K. Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all alright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.







2 comments:

Rose said...

Merry Christmas to you too! I have a pressing question: are you Scottish? This occurs to me only now, having noted your profile picture which appears to include bagpipes. That's a lovely little painting and I like the poem. You are incredibly lucky about the snow!

Mahri said...

Hi Rose! I'm glad you liked the picture. I hope you had a great Christmas and that your clever plan for getting to sleep on Christmas Eve worked.

I'm not strictly Scottish. I'm an American with Irish and Scots roots from my Nona. There's also Italian and German there. I do play pipes, though, and I'm very interested in Scottish history and culture.

I *love* snow, so I consider myself incredibly lucky to live where there is a lot of it.