Open Sesame . . .
Hand your children a treasure hunt clue — to open last — on Christmas Day:
Find the one space in our house
you’ve never discovered;
the next clue is waiting,
under the covers.
Off they run, room to room, upstairs and down . . .
Seeking
that hidden, under-the-eaves place
behind their bedroom wall, where
you knelt, while they were at school,
nailing plywood to joists,
unrolling the red oriental rug
to cushion their small bare feet — that open
space, where you crowned the vent pipe
with twisted, brown-paper limbs
and colored leaves that
tremble, each time the door opens.
A secret room.
With posters for windows.
With a cupboard brimming with books. Wooden houses that nest like Russian dolls. Repainted toys.
Year-round peace, goodwill to all who stoop to enter.
This year I imagine telling our grandkids, again, about no room in the inn.
“But where did the room go?” “Did somebody take it?” “Why didn’t they share? (We always have to.)”
Christmas approaches. I want them to experience hiddenness. Marvel. Creative spaciousness, born of spirit.
So, I’m starting early, by savoring stories, essays, poems, and secret rooms you may not have thought about.
“It takes childlike faith to believe in a reality beyond the grim one we know so well,” Philip Yancey writes, “and to keep celebrating regardless.”
Do you believe we can recover innocence? If so, how do we begin? Can it be sustained? Shared?
Ideas?
P.S. Daniel Taylor says, “A story that still bothers you sixty years after it happened might be a story to pay attention to.”
Friends, thank you for praying! My new poetry collection, House of 49 Doors: entries in a life, will be published by The Poeima Poetry Series, in 2024! Within these linked poems, a family secret—stifled for six decades—unfurls: relived by my preteen self, named Larkin, and revisited in the present-day by Eldergirl. Amid vivid memories of my eccentric childhood home (and the wild creatures living nearby), long overdue healing and gratitude finally rise.
Which reminds me: Happy Thanksgiving!
P.S. About that Advent book I’ve been savoring. Here’s the link.
A Radiant Birth: Advent Readings for a Bright Season. It’s a Christmas treasury and it includes both quotes above. Morning by morning, the pages beckon me toward discovery. Entries read like clues. I step into a fresh dimension, thoughtfully arranged for a seeker, revealing aspects of alternate worlds within our familiar one.
Photo by Leyre Labarga on Unsplash
From the archives: Sometimes the Gift Tears You Open
Oh my goodness, Laurie, I’m just now seeing this. Happy belated Thanksgiving, and warm winter tidings to you, my friend. I LOVE the intrigue and the reasons for celebration here! Hide & Seek & Discovery–Congratulations on the book! I cannot wait to get my copy. 🙂 (And there’s that Advent book! 😉 Looking forward to what’s behind the doors. . .
I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful as well. thank you so much for looking forward with me to the book’s release.
Wishing you doors upon doors, my friend, trusting in the goodness awaiting you . . .
Aw, thank you, Laurie!
Congratulations my friend. I can’t wait to read your book. Lots of blood sweat and tears to birth a book…I would imagine.
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanks for rejoicing with me, Anne. And yes, it’s been a marathon. Long, but healing.
Thanks for your good wishes. Memories of Thanksgivings we’ve share are sweeping over me—like the cat footprint in the pumpkin pie. Thanks for the chuckle first thing this morning. Just what I needed!
Happy Thanksgiving, you two. We love you!
Recover innocence?
Sustained?
Shared?
I find it’s becoming a daily exercise, with age.
Reminding oneself of Isaiah – beholding the new. (Is 43:18-19)
Living, Now.
That covers all 3, for me.
The fight is real.
But it’s a good fight.
Congratulations!!
Rick, first of all, God be praised for the safe arrival of your newest!
Just what I need today, rereading that passage from Isaiah in this context:
Embracing the “daily exercise”:
“beholding the new”—
(especially when reading “the news.”)
Choosing to dwell
in the “secret place of the Most High.”
As ever, you hearten me,
validating the struggle,
gently reminding me
Love’s plumb line holds true,
lifelong.
Never could shinny up a rope
in gym class. All those watching
eyes. The snickers. The teacher
with her clipboard. Next time
my proverbial grip starts slipping,
may I look for “the new thing.”
May Grace hold us all steady,
set our hopes to singing . . .
Laurie – congratulations on House of 49 Doors! How exciting and wonderful! I can’t wait to read it! I love those secret things, too.
Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Linda Jo, thank you! Wishing you and yours a most wonderful day of Thanksgiving!
First of all, I would have LOVED a secret room–as you described–when I was a child! Nothing like a pretty and cozy spot for reading, writing, and creating. Second: Yes, I believe we can recover our innocence! It’s surely the way God wants us to live–with child-like faith as Philip Yancey recommends. Christmastime seems the perfect time to start, and your ideas, Laurie, offer practices that will surely augment the process: savoring stories, essays, poems, and secret rooms that conjure up the wonder and joy of our faith. (Savoring the theology-rich carols might also open our hearts to wonder and worship.) But a Christmas corner in my office may have to suffice in place of a secret room!
Nancy, I would have loved one, too.
I DID have a secret drawer—more about that one day in a post, perhaps . . . (You’ve made me smile in remembrance. Thank you!)
I draw strength from your conviction we can freshly inhabit (re-inhabit?) child-like trust—with renewed innocence — amid so many global tidings that seem fatally grim.
I love your suggestion to delve into the stories behind carols we love. You’ve explored many hymn stories on your blog. (https://nancyaruegg.com/ for those who’d love to drop in.)
Would you recommend a trusted title or two for those who’d love to discover the personal makings and shakings behind-and-within beloved Christmas songs?
Thank you for your gracious invitation, Laurie. Last year I enjoyed journaling through the lyrics of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!” The contemplations became three posts in December, starting on the first with “Glory to the Newborn King” (https://nancyaruegg.com/2022/12/01/glory-to-the-newborn-king/). You’ll find a link there to another post telling the story about how this beloved carol came to be.
Dear Nancy, I hope your Thanksgiving was grand!
Thank you for so generously sharing these links.
I look forward to reading the stories behind the carols . . .
I am so looking forward to your newest poetry collection, House of 49 Doors(!) The premise sounds intriguing, as told in your inimitably imaginative way! Can’t wait!
Pacia, your creative, ever-youthful spirit, faith, and encouragement have blessed me so much, for so many years. I give thanks for our friendship, again and again.
Oh, Laurie–finally! the ‘official’ news about your new collection–I am fascinated with the weaving of your words and so look forward to sharing it.
And~thank you for reminding me about this edited volume of Leslie’s. I am no longer on social media and it fell off my radar–wow–it looks amazing.
Thank you for the recommendation and the heavenly nudge to center myself and slow myself down in the coming season.
Thanks for rejoicing with me, friend. I’d put it in a heart here but have never figured out how to do it on the blog.
I predict you will savor A Radiant Birth.
An added note to readers here who love poems and enjoy reading comments left by this beautiful community:
Let me commend another friend and author with a collection of poems prayerfully expressive of a seeker’s heart, newly released. “Mining the Bright Birds” is now in the world as well as Jody’s 2022 Advent book, titled Living the Season Well.
Learn more here https://jodyleecollins.com/books-2/
Cheers!
Laurie, we did clues with our kids and now we do them with our grandkids.
Lucky kiddos! And grandkids. What a powerful, generous, enchanting legacy. Thanks for telling me, Tim. Sending a cyber hug to you and Angela.
Hi Laurie, Thanks for this lovely reflection, and thanks for the Advent collectin recommendation. I’ve just published. Big congratulations on your upcoming book publication. Woo-hoo!
Judith, you’re so welcome.
Three cheers for you latest book!
For those who love poems and who also enjoy perusing the comments here, I recommend Judith’s work: compelling, keenly observant, spirited. A wordsmith par excellence.
See her complete list of titles here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/2941940.Judith_Sornberger wordsmith
Read endorsements for her latest here: The Book of Muses. https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-book-of-muses-by-judith-sornberger/
P.S. “Angel Chimes” would make a lovely Christmas gift . . . just sayin’ : )