Merry Christmas!

 

Dr. M wrote this year's poem, and I would just like to remind everyone that he has a Master of Divinity (with languages) and a Ph.D. in history. 

“Of the logos being forever do men prove to be uncomprehending, both before they hear and once they have heard it.” Heraclitus, as quoted by Sextus Empiricus
 
Surely the one who preached in the wilderness
Understood the failure of men to comprehend.
Neither Christ nor Elijah, no prophet was he,
But he knew things and spoke of them boldly.
The logos, he said, was everlasting, indeed,
The logos was with God in the beginning,
The logos WAS GOD! Heraclitus likely
Would have debated the nature of the Divine
With the man we know as John, but he had
Gotten the gist of the Greek’s ancient memo.
“Jesus is the reason for the season!”
We proclaim. John would likely correct us:
The Christ, he preached, is the logos,
The “word” that gives meaning and order
To everything that was, is, and ever shall be.
The Christ is God become human, accepting
The fragile mantle of flesh and dwelling with us,
The Promised One who joined us here on Earth
To show us the true way, the Lord’s way, and in turn
The errors of our ways, our thoughts and actions.
The Christ, both gift and sacrifice, born of a human
For the sake of all humans, in love made manifest
A new covenant between God and humankind.
The season of God’s love has no beginning, no end.
God’s love is forever. Hallelujah! Celebrate God!
 
Mike & Dana Rhyne
Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas!

 

Housecleaning

I’m supposed to be cleaning my house.

Those shelves won’t dust themselves! 

And I’m kind of afraid to look in the crisper drawer. 

Is this what the Kindom of God is like?

Rooms full of who knows what

that has been accumulating for

who knows how long?

Is this the world that Sweet Baby Jesus

was born to save? Dust. Something

growing in the corner. A woman

writing what purports to be a Christmas poem.

You do know that God loves all the corners, right?

Under the rug. Under the bed. Under the bath mat.

If you lift the corner you can see Sweet Baby Jesus

handing soup to a child sitting in the rubble. 

Go ahead. Lift the corner.

Have some soup.

Dana and Mike Rhyne

Christmas 2024

Dr. M's Christmas Poem

 

It was Dr. M's turn to write the Christmas poem this year, and I have to say that he knocked it out of the ballpark. He is all of us, I think. He didn't try to wrap it up in a bow like I usually do (leaving my poems looking all awkward like they're wearing a smiling mask that doesn't fit). He just expressed our inner angst, which is frankly his spiritual gift. Without further ado - here is poem #32:

Days shorten…we fall back.
Night shadows grow long…we cower.
Is this the end? Will there be enough?
Enough sustenance, strength, time?
Will there be enough light? Hope?
                                          
Days shorten…we look inward.
Squirrels leap from oak to oak,
Leaves raining down as they move.
Like them, we nest, we forage.
We store for the lean times, the cold.
 
The longest night of the year comes.
We pray that our inner fire will,
With faith and love and each other,
Outlast the darkness and give birth
To a new light, a new life, a new hope.
 
We cry out in our despair, lamenting.
Tears fall hot and salty as light fades.
How long, oh Lord? How hard and cruel?
How will we survive the darkness?
We look to the heavens, longingly.
 
And so we wait, in cold, still silence
For Emmanuel…God with us…Advent!
We wait for Messiah, our savior,
Our last best hope. In faith we wait.
Listening for trumpets and angel voices!
 
In the darkness a child cries, afraid.
He will be a refugee, innocent, hunted,
Hated for his mere existence. He will
Keep company with the poor, the sick,
The reviled, and call them family.
 
Jesus wept and so must we, and mourn.
Families are torn asunder, plundered
Like so many temples. In a world where
Bombs, bullets, and hate reign supreme,
Can hope and light still be found?
 
Mike & Dana Rhyne
Christmas 2023

2023 Project 365 – Week Forty-seven

Thanksgiving! It turns out that it’s my favorite holiday because I get to see my family, eat, & then spend two (or three if I’m extra slack like this year) glorious days doing diddly and squat. I mean, I did do laundry & some cleaning, but mostly I sat on my butt and read, crocheted, and played on my iPad. Happy sigh.
Sunday, November 19^th       
I saw this license plate in the drive-through and at first I thought heck yeah I’ll buy Snark Yarn, but then I realized that it was a snarky nurse driving the car and I guess that’s ok too.          
 

I was taking green bean casserole to work on Monday for our holiday meal & I told Dr. M I was afraid I would forget it so he put this helpful hint on the counter.
 

Monday, November 20^th
In addition to our holiday meal, we had a little mini bridal shower for one of our assistants who was getting married on Friday.
 

Tuesday, November 21^st                      
We watched one of my favorite “comfort food” movies. It makes me smile that it has a baby Rihanna in it (she was 23 or 24 here).
 

Wednesday, November 22^nd                                
A dog in a car will never fail to make me smile. And if I can get a photo I will always text it to Dr. M.
 

Dr. M says Happy Thanksgiving from down in the holler!
 

Thursday, November 23^rd - Thanksgiving!                     

Lots of photos from today. We have our group photo, some candids, and proof that I didn’t eat by myself this year (even though I tried).
 

Also, here I am trying to show folks how to do my craft – a little ‘zine with some of my poems. They were really good sports about it!
 

Dr. M wasn’t able to attend (he took lunch to his father so he wouldn’t be alone – unfortunately bringing his dad to our gathering was not a good idea for many reasons) – but I made sure he got his Thanksgiving feast anyway!
 

Friday, November 24^th                          
No matter how many videos I watch I can never get the seeds out of a pomegranate without it looking like a murder scene. Someone on Instagram said that the cutting board & knife photo looks like the cover of a cozy murder mystery. Ha!
 

Sue gave us this amaryllis. The bulb has wax on it & it’s supposed to not need watering. I’m intrigued to see how it does!
 

Saturday, November 25^th                     
Dr. M says: If those metal patio chairs could talk, what tales they’d tell! Pretty sure they are almost as old as me. That picnic table has some age on it, too, but it’s still strong enough to support a catnap. The wood shop is quiet, the tools covered in dust. My 91 year old loves sitting out there in the sunshine, petting his guard cat and glaring at the falling leaves. Some days he is present, asking significant questions and trying to understand my answers. Today he was lost in memories from well over 70 years ago. And the guard cat slept on.
 

I made a sleeve for my iPad and then decided to frog it. I really liked it, but it was a smidge too small. Unfortunately I think adding a couple of stitches to the width is going to make me lose that excellent accidental color pooling (it will look more like that middle section). We shall see!
 

I ate persimmon pudding, banana pudding, corn pudding – ALL THE PUDDINGS! Also, my family is pretty cool. Did you enjoy your holiday?

2023 Project 365 – Week Forty-six

There was a lot of celebrating this week!
Sunday, November 12^th       
We had a baby shower at church for a young couple. This is their first baby & they had a LOT of questions about how things were going to work. Fortunately we have a lot of mommas in our congregation who can help them (including the one who made the quilt and the little elephant – so talented!). Also, that Tres Leches cake was so good!
 

Monday, November 13^th – Dr. M’s Birthday!!
I gave him a card that had a little pelican Lego kit in it. It was so cute!
 

That evening we went out to eat with family. We had a lovely time – and I got to hold Elliott for a while (not pictured: how quickly I handed him back to his dad when he started squalling. Ha!).
 

This sequence is called My Dad Says Something Outrageous and My Nephew Shoots Right Back with Something MORE Outrageous. Note Sue’s side-eye in that middle photo.
 

Tuesday, November 14^th                     
Dr. M went to his dad’s and did a little leaf photo shoot. I love this one with Mr. Squirrel.
 

Wednesday, November 15^th                               
It’s giving Librarian. Which was my dream job until I almost flunked Library Science in high school. Damn that Dewey Decimal System! (Note: I have an accounting degree that I don’t use so I guess I did ok.)
 

It’s soup & hockey season!  
 

Thursday, November 16^th                            
Dr. M’s breakfast burrito. I love the artful placement of cherry tomatoes.
 

Dillards had an interesting sort of princess display & I had to have my photo taken in front of it. Ha!
 

Friday, November 17^th                          
No photo.
 
Saturday, November 18^th                     
Is it ironic that I had a sandwich for lunch and then found this old poem about making sandwiches?
 

Next week is Thanksgiving. We’ve had a minor turkey crisis (resolved now), but I have a pecan pie on my table ready to go so that’s all I really need. What are you looking forward to eating?

2023 Project 365 – Week Sixteen

April is almost over (what?) and then it will be my favorite month. Hopefully May will live up to its advance billing. We shall see!
Sunday, April 16^th
Went to church, had lunch with the fam, and then came home & tried to wrangle my hair. I look like a samurai. Well, maybe not exactly.
 

Monday, April 17^th            
From Dr. M on National Haiku Day:
 
Spring breezes whisper,
Gently chill, bring blue-sky bliss,
Assuaging the soul.
 

Tuesday, April 18^th                  
I got an extra egg in my breakfast sandwich today! Which meant that it didn’t actually get warm in the usual amount of time in the microwave. Did I go back & nuke it a toot more? I did not. So we can all be jointly disgusted by me eating lukewarm egg & turkey sausage.
 

Wednesday, April 19^th                           
You know it’s time to step away from the Cheetos when you start having to fish them out of your bra (WHICH AT MY AGE IS NOT AS SEXY AS IT SOUNDS). (These are the Mexican Street Corn version - yum!)
 

Afternoon visitation from The Roy.
 

Thursday, April 20^th                  
I had my second shingles vaccine Wednesday on my way home from work and woke up feeling terrible. Went to work, but only stayed a few hours and came home & baked on the deck. Where I noticed life finding a way in our bee waterer (specifically maple trees, so I don’t think that’s going to work out for them). Oh – and about 1:00 a.m. I finally took my temperature (100.6) & took some Tylenol and I was fine. I don’t know why someone who is a hypochondriac doesn’t pay better attention to fever symptoms (in my defense, my forehead felt cool all day).
 

Friday, April 21^st                   
Stopped by dad & Sue’s on my way home from work and noticed how gorgeous their orchids are. I kept asking them, “are you sure they’re real?” Ha!
 

Saturday, April 22^nd – Earth Day         
Ms. Rita has been so happy to be out of the bathtub! She’s just going to town.
 

I feel like this coming week will be really crazy at work. If so, you will hear all about it next week. How’s your week looking where you are?

Merry Christmas!!

This is our 30th annual Christmas poem. This year it was Dr. M's turn and I must say that he outdid himself. Enjoy!

The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light
If only we're brave enough to see it,
If only we're brave enough to be it.
Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

Christmas comes again in a season
Of uncertainty. Can it be that we
Will ever be free of it? I think not.

“The gloom my doom it is to see”
A lesser poet once wrote, though
Even he imagined a season of hope.

Christmas comes to us, a birthday
Amidst festivals that celebrate light:
A star born to show us the way home.

“What is it like to dream of future days?”
The lesser poet asked, caught up
In a long, bleak midwinter moment.

Christmas comes to us, usurped
From those who lit fires and awaited
Dawn on the year’s longest night.

If the ancestors had hope then, even
In a season of darkness and dearth,
Why on earth can’t I now? I can.

Christmas comes to us, borne
On wings of light, not shadow!
Advent, the arrival of a new dawn.

A light perpetual and eternal.
A star to illuminate a path to hope.
A bold beacon of love everlasting.

J. Michael Rhyne, Christmas 2021

Those Trees...

 

Those trees are wearing
mighty fancy dresses
as they sway to their
slumberous rhythm.
My summer was torpor
and sweat running
between middle-aged breasts.
I waited without patience
for the zing of cool
(which just now as I
write this makes me think
of Greatnanny’s Noxzema).
This morning I shivered
and felt a great awakening
readiness stir within me.
But those trees,
tarted up like ladies
on a street corner,
say your money
isn’t good here –
we’re ready for bed.

DWR 9/26/12
 
(The poem is from the “vault” but the photos are recent – I just used the Waterlogue app to “paint” them.)

Merry Christmas!

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! For glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.
Edmund H. Sears, It Came upon
the Midnight Clear
 

Aging is sly and brutal

and I am unamused
by my body’s betrayal:
Healthy, but flawed
in the way of most things,
it wants more care
than I care to give it.

My spirit is the same.

It waits, impatient,
while I feed it bonbons.

I sit in mindful stillness.
Breathe out (the weary world).
Breathe in (the babe to come).

Listen! The groaning of

this broken world is
being drowned out by
songs of jubilation!
 
The babe has arrived;
he brings peace on earth
again as he always does.

Shall we follow him?

 
Dana & Mike Rhyne
Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas!

My head is buried in my

yarn basket (ok, one of
my yarn baskets because
I am pretty much just
made of yarn at this point).
I am muttering about colors
and color sequences
and do I have enough time.
Christmas, despite all the hype,
sneaks up on a crafter
like one of those thieves
in the night.
 
And into my head
(the one in the yarn basket)
comes the image of the babe.
I know he comes to
set the prisoner free,
but right now I want to
take a squishy skein
of Bernat Baby yarn
and swaddle him safe
from danger.
If I could, I would
swaddle us all.

Come, let’s sit by

the Christmas tree

underneath this blanket

that I made, and sing

songs about the babe

until we feel peace again.

Let’s sing songs about the babe

until we feel joy.

Dana & Mike Rhyne

Christmas 2019