advent conspiracy 12

Today some words from one of Chris’s friends, Yvonne Lyon, multi-talented artist/musician and star of TV and stage across the land. She has ten studio albums to her name, and has that poetic gift of framing things in words and music in such a way as to take you deeper into yourself.
If you do not know her music, you really should. Check out her website, or Youtube, or all the good things on bandcamp.

Today she reflects on an old Christmas song and how music can connect us to deep memories, particularly during this time of year.

This song is now ten years old. It was my tiny, and fairly gentle protest against a certain coffee conglomerate in the West End of Glasgow. The 'red cups' were eagerly anticipated and it was them that seemed to now herald in Christmas. The song was also inspired by my Dad who would call this 'the silly season'. For some reason, we both found Christmas difficult. Ironically, we would get together and go shopping on Christmas eve (or thereabouts) in an attempt to enter in to the spirit and no doubt to buy a last-minute present for Mum. We would end up sitting in the aforementioned coffee conglomerate wondering what it was all about. Dad never had the answers. That used to trouble me. But looking back I'm glad that Dad didn't pretend to have them. No platitudes but quite often a humble nod to the mystery of it all.

Christmas is even harder now. Dad passed away on 18th Dec 2020 in the heart of Covid restrictions, when so-called politicians broke the rules to become celebrities that now broker book deals and when we could only have 20 people at his funeral. I wonder how many similar stories there are (the grieving families that is, not the politician/celebrities).

Despite the pain and grief, I still believe in Christmas. I also believe Dad does.
Richard Rohr in his Centre For Action and Contemplation devotionals wrote:
You don't die into the kingdom of God, you awaken into it.
I like this.
After all… what is Christmas if it is not all about life, life, life?