Forget the Mall

This is a much better way to usher in Christmas Eve. It's 10AM, +5 degrees, no wind, and not a cloud in sight. I'm all alone on the trail, and only one person was here before me, judging from the fresh snow in the classic tracks.

I saw Joe Bettendorf (I think it was Joe, haven't seen him since the summer) and a friend of his tearing it up on skate skis. Joe was sans poles, and reports that he separated his shoulder. As fast as they were going, maybe he doesn't really need poles.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good ski!

This scene on the back side of the North Loop made me think of the Christina Rosetti poem "In the Bleak Midwinter" (to which none other than composer Gustav Holst wrote the score):

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.

Luke 2:7 "And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

I pray that there is room in your heart for the Christ Child this Christmas.