JOY.....

          "Christmas is JOY. AN inner LIGHT and PEACE. " -Pope Francis

 Snow came this week. Heavy sticky wonderful snow.

 We're not used to this . We're used to RAIN. 

 It blanketed us in. Poe watched the birds.

 Brought life to a halt. Brought a power outage. Then EVERYTHING stopped. Just the snow twiddling down.

 Swept over us  with great surprise.

 "Joy will shine in your eyes, and in your look, in your conversation and in your countenance.You will be able to hide it, because joy overflows." -Mother Teresa

 Reminded me of the days we lived in the Maritimes, when Christmas was soft and white and blurring cold.

 And  everything was a bit more wonderful when it snowed.

  Christmas came tumbling down through Advent, in one joyous  leap.

 "Joy cannot be pursued.It comes from within." -Billy Graham.

 The last of the grapes  have been smothered with snow. Snow that sticks. Just hanging out of reach.

 And it's finally time to make snow men......

 Snow ladies actually. There's hair and  a HAT involved. .....

 With hair extensions.

 And shoes. Gotta have shoes.

 And three tiers.

 The Snow Ladies  sing out. Warming up at first.

With lips made of grapes. And eyes of cucumbers.

 So they can be heard far and away.

 Smokey the cat from the hill, will brave the cold. Lifting one paw and then the other in time to the music.

 And the snow ladies, in their finery, will finally sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

They sing quite well.  

 "It is not joy that makes us grateful. It is gratitude that makes us JOYFUL." -David Rast (theologian)

 Snow still plummets down. Hiding the juncos . They still sing along with the snow ladies.

 We will dig out. Again and again. And replace the grape lips of the snow ladies, who now look like they've mastered Handel, and have moved onto Carols. Though the one Snow Lady  in the middle  seems to only sing descant...

 "JOY  is prayer, JOY  is strength, JOY is LOVE. JOY is a NET of LOVE, by which you can catch souls." -Mother Teresa.