Good Morning!

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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings.
This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning
a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

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“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.
A magical thing. And sweet to remember.
We are nearer to Spring than we were in September.
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.”

― Oliver Herford

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I found a small item of irony in my ongoing studies of women’s history — a sweet carol for Christmas made by a composer putting music to the words of a poet, both of whom are only remembered now for work of a very different nature.

December 5, 1830 – Christina Rossetti born, English poet and author; noted for her best-known poem, Goblin Market, and the poetry collection where it first appeared, Goblin Market and Other Poems, lauded by Gerald Manley Hopkins, Algernon Swinburne, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson; she was also outspoken against slavery, the exploitation of underage girls in prostitution, and cruelty to animals

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

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While it’s been many years since I was a believer in any of the dogmas of the Christian religions, I still find the lovely lyrics and music which Jesus has inspired to be a far truer expression of the peace and good will that he tried to teach the world.

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Happy Winter Solstice Week!