Light and Darkness

Of course we a seeing lots of grandson pictures. Of course they are beautiful. Does anyone not think their grandchildren are beautiful? What a tragedy that must be. Today was a bumper photo day. Both of them laughing; both of them hungry for life, delighted by it. Above all - MrsM put her finger on it - both of them secure. The supreme gift-for-life that parents can give

On the same day, we heard a story among hundreds of thousands. A child of Gaza - 4 years old - bombed, burned, orphaned, passed from stranger to stranger, conveyed to a hospital where there is no treatment. Who knows if the child will survive - probably odds against. If they do, the lesson they have learned now is that when the worst happens to you, the ones you love and need are not there, and never will be. What dark hell does that lead a person, a people and a land into?

We all know about the feast of Christmas. Many of us know about Epiphany, celebrating the coming of the Magi (/kings/wise men), on January 6. But what about Childermas? It is not much mentioned; the Christian church describes the 'feast' of Childermas being 'celebrated' on 28 December. I suppose those are religious technical terms. It is a day set aside to remember the legend of the Slaughter of the Innocents, when paranoid King Herod is said to have ordered the murder of every Jewish child under two years old, hoping to eliminate the threat of the 'king' that the Magi told him was prophesied. I suppose there has always been darkness

MrsM spent the morning doing good for Ukraine in a cold church. I prepared warming soup. The low sun provided a convenient spotlamp to ensure that peeling the squash was bloodless. In a picture, the effect is some pleasing chiaroscuro