At the Time of the Winter Solstice

 

Holy one of blessing, God of many names

at this time of the winter solstice
at this time of the crescent moon
  At this darkest time of the year

we light lights and give thanks, in our overlapping traditions.

Strangely and sweetly

we greet each other in fellowship and friendship

with wishes for health, merriment, good food, good company and Peace on Earth.

Strangely and sweetly

we come together and pray to you 

with thanks for miracles noticed and remembered
  At this darkest time of the year:

for the miracle of the return of the sun

for the miracle of victories over tyrants

for the miracle of a small crucible of oil that burned for eight days
and for the miracle of the birth of a baby who brought illumination into the world.

Holy one of blessing, God of many names

as we light lights
  At this darkest time of the year
generation after generation, year after year

we ask again for Your help Your love Your comfort Your support

that we may be partners with You and with each other

to bring our greatest hope our most desired wish our highest need: Peace on Earth.

Holy one of blessing, God of many names
May it be so. May it be so.

           

Photograph taken by Nicole Y-C (from Unsplash.com)

Prayer inspired by “Hanukkah Lights” in the Unitarian Universalist Hymn Book, Singing the Living Tradition. 

You are welcome to print this prayer and/or copy it into a file and share it. 

This is my holiday gift to all. 

Betsy Fuchs

betsywfuchs@gmail.com 

And a friendly reminder, my book (an imagined memoir) Twista and Turns There Once Was a Dream is now availabe through your local bookstore or at Bookshop.org

The Spaciousness of Books (in the time of Covid)

Twenty-first century clutter traps me

fills my time and in a daze my days disappear

What with Facebook and Messenger and FaceTime, Twitter Email YouTube Wikipedia Blogs Podcasts Texting Internet Research and now due to Covid Zoom Gatherings and Facebook Events 

Twentieth century paper clutter is still around still abounds 
mail delivered daily: donation pleas, advertising come-ons

-- tossed out

magazines mailed monthly: AARP, Consumer Reports and more

-- kept in baskets

handouts printouts notes from classes, events, workshops, all on Zoom!

-- kept in files and piles (like my emails, maybe to read or to need later)

Yet in my house there are books

  on shelves

    on tables

      on night-stands

many old 
a few new

some purchased

-- before my library re-opened

now thankfully some from my library

some from friends

 -- cautiously carefully borrowed

Books with their solid feel

and their sometimes temporary status

I read them now

(unlike my Kindle long gone, its electronic books unread)

Books in the twenty-first century are

unique      a treat      rare

and when I curl up in a chair
  and hold a book

    and feel the paper

      and turn its pages

when I read and reread and mark parts I love

  with sticky notes or paperclips or highlighting

      or when I underline

my life is spacious and slow

in the old-fashioned twentieth century way

This poem published November 2018 at https://www.poetsandpatrons.net/

Revised Summer 2020 to reflect changes brought on by the Covid Sequester

Chicago: Lawn Chair Winter Duties

White on white - White on black

White on white:

lawn chairs waiting patiently for their guard-chair duties.

White on black:

lawn chairs bravely-firmly-doggedly holding parking spaces

wrestled from the snow by hard-shoveling Chicagoans.

In Memoriam: 1960-2013 The Purple Hotel Lincolnwood, Illinois

In 1960 the “Purple Hyatt” was built

on Touhy

in Lincolnwood

in the state of Illinois

The bricks were blue purple

a mistake some claim

in truth

the architect protested

but the owners wanted purple 

and so the hotel was built

and called by all the Purple Hyatt

The vertical structural beams

were outside

white in contrast to the purple bricks

We loved this building

for its simplicity
for its beauty

It was our landmark and held our stories
from the 1960's and 1970's 

our stories of NOW conferences, weddings, first dates,

bar mitzvah parties and New Year’s eve events

In the 1980’s the gangsters took over

In 1983 there was a murder in the parking lot

We no longer went there

most of us were too old for NOW conferences and first dates

and we went elsewhere for weddings and bar mitzvah parties and events

In 2004 a red neon sign appeared on the roof
PURPLE HOTEL

Red is not purple!

The sign was so wrong, so very wrong

The purple hotel stayed open

and a friend attended a New Year’s Eve party there

a good party, she said

"but we could tell, there were not many more years left for the hotel”

In 2007 mold was found in 208 of 225 rooms

at the former Purple Hyatt, the renamed Purple Hotel

and it was condemned

closed

Still it was my touchstone

it was our landmark
when we drove down Touhy
past the building with the vertical white beams and the purple bricks
it told us where we were and who we were

In 2013 it ended

In August at the Lincolnwood Fest
and a few purple bricks were available for a donation of five dollars

people lined up around the block to get a purple brick

to remind them of the stories of their lives

I don’t have a brick

a brick is not my touchstone
a brick cannot contain my stories

a brick doesn't recall my memories

September 2013 demolition started and I mourned and took photographs week by week

September 25: No Trespassing No Bricks Available

Bricks carefully removed panel by panel - perhaps for sale or reuse?

 October 12: East end intact - west end coming down

November 1: Severe mourning as more bricks come down

View from east end at Lincoln Avenue, a few purple bricks remain, white structure the last to go

Smaller and smaller, going, gone, almost gone

My heart is broken: it is only a building but oh how it hurts

W for Wilma

W the initial of my middle name Wilma. A name young Betsy thought ugly and kept secret.

W for Willa Cather, the Great Plaines novelist. My middle namesake. My parents modified it because the name Betsy Willa Fuchs was dangerous if you changed two letters.

W the initial my grandfather Henry W. Fuchs took. He had no middle name and said “W” stood for Hard Work.

W an initial I now embrace and Wilma a name I proudly claim. 

Full Sweet Circle (on growing older)

Pleasant nostalgia

And completely new experiences.

Her spirit soars

She breathes the soft morning air and hums Hallelujah.

In the 60's, college

after years of curled caged hair and straight skirts and matching outfits

FREEDOM

Long hair worn lose, blue jeans and t-shirts.

Opening the tent to green colors, green nature smells in the soft sweet mornings

Hippie living, hippie camping, rules out the window.

In her 60's, retirement

after years of presentableness, dressing up (or down) for work

FREEDOM AGAIN

Long silver hair in a pony tail, blue jeans, cargo pants, colors as she chooses

Dressing up (or down) when she wants to.

Walking the path at the Sculpture Garden, in the same soft sweet green mornings

Pseudo hippie, pseudo hiking, minutes from home

Pleasant nostalgia

And completely new experiences.

Her spirit soars

She breathes the soft morning air and hums Hallelujah.

6/1/12