Now that we have baked our cookies and trimmed our trees,
now that we have wrapped our gifts and planned our dinners,
now that we have hung stockings, sent greetings and set tables,
assembled toys, trimmed wicks, written Santa and hung wreaths,
the time has come to abandon it all,
if only for a moment.
Hallelujah « The Task at Hand.
Today on her blog, Linda Leinen posted her version of Hallelujah. The first stanza is at the top of this post. I find I must have missed it when she posted it in 2010 as A Hidden Hallelujah, I am glad I found it this year. To tell the truth, though it seems as if I’ve been reading the Task At Hand for ever…It was actually probably only after she posted this that I started following her regularly…
I am blessed to have actually spent the time to read the words as k.d. lang sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in the background.
I think the phrase that touched me most was…
Standing in stillness before her window,
Wisdom gazes toward the mystery of Christmas
And smiles at this truth – Christmas needs us not at all.
Since the timing of the arrival of this… I really had just finished baking six batches of cookies… really seemed… Mmmm… Synchronicity? Maybe… Follow one of the links and enjoy a Christmas Blessing…
My family’s 1960 Christmas Card.
Related articles
- Leonard Cohen On “Hallelujah” (theilluminationdilemma.com)
- Hallelujah (shoreacres.wordpress.com)
- A Christmas Dinner Blessing (faithfulprovisions.com)
I’m just so touched you liked it so much. But here’s my confession – I liked it, too. Sometimes you have to mess with these things to get them just right – I call it the Three Bears School of Writing. Sometimes we’re too wordy, sometimes we don’t say enough, and sometimes it comes out just right!
Again, Merry Christmas – and watch that weather front that’s coming!
I have to admit it caught me at the perfect moment…But, yea. I really liked it. I keep meaning to go back and check what you felt like you needed to change. But, truth to tell, I don’t think I will. I like this version.
Merry Christmas to you again, too.
And I am watching the weather the front. I see they are already issuing warnings, mostly for the counties to the north and west. I hope it stays up there, I lost a tree in the last front. The winds snapped it off about 4 ft off the ground.