Advent, Resolutions and Changes

It has been a long time since I have posted and while part of it is my usually laziness and lack of discipline, this time around it is also (perhaps even primarily) because I have been thinking long and hard about the sort of blog I want this to be going forward. I have not come up with a complete "vision" for it yet, though I do know I want it to focus more on three or four ideas: Literature, with an emphasis on poetry; My own poetry and art; and Catholicism and Tradition (as with the Christmas post). I also know I'd like to have a regular schedule of posts, so that at least several times a month, there is something new and good being posted-- and by this, I do not mean lick-and-a-promise posts, but thought,well-crafted content. 

To this end, you will notice that I have started doing a little bit of a redesign of the blog. I would like, ideally, to have tabbed pages for the my poetry and art, so as to make them easier to find, as well as for the Christmas posts. Meanwhile the header has changed to emphasis the more word-crafty bent I intend this blog to take, and there might be some more tinkering going on over the next few weeks.

The Advent season has, traditionally, been considered the Church's New Year-- the liturgically year has rounded back again to the beginning. It is a penitential season, similar to Lent, though, with the end of being the Birth of a Baby, a considerably more joyful penance. It is also a good time to consider the progress (or lack thereof) one has made over the last year, and to assess what changes should occur in the coming year. The first Sunday of that Season, therefore, seemed the best time to dust off the old writerly intentions, and to start as I want to continue, with a proper blog post, about proper things. To that end, therefore, (having expressed my desire for reformation aloud and in public, so far as I have any public) I am posting a Scots Gaelic song to mark the Day and the Season.

Sorchar Nan Reul means Lightener of the Stars and is from the Carmina Gadelica  If you read the translation you will notice that while the tune is completely different, the words bear a striking resemblance to a traditional Advent carol, Creator of the Starry Height, (Or the Stars of Night depending on your translation) which, in turn, is from an old Latin hymn called Conditor Alme Siderum.(I like that this version has "noels" in the refrain.) In spite of considerable digging about, I have not found anything that says specifically that Sorchar Nan Reul is, indeed, a Gaelic translation of the old Latin, but given the strong similarity between them, I would be highly surprised of that were not the case.