Amazing Peace; A Christmas Poem

By Maya Angelou

(‘Guest Blogger’)

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses. Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche over unprotected villages. The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.

Come and fill us and our world with your majesty. We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian, implore you to stay awhile with us so we may learn by your shimmering light how to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time. On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ Into the great religions of the world. We jubilate the precious advent of trust. We shout with glorious tongues the coming of hope. All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices to celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Nonbelievers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace.

We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace.

We look at each other, then into ourselves,
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation:

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul

I haven’t been blogging because I don’t want to belabor my Wyatt-story, but really, what else is there to say right now?  Wyatt continues to be seizure-free and I have moved from incredulous and fearful to happy yet still mesmerized.  Part of me is fixated on keeping his current seizure-freedom intact (as if there was anything I could really do about it) and the other part of me is starting to have this strange experience that I call ‘walking in a miracle’.

I am walking in a miracle and it might as well be an alternate universe.  There is not a lot of noise in this universe. It’s exalted, but quiet—like walking on air or on a thickly padded dojo.  There is an interesting mind space too.  Every time my undisciplined mind tries to complain, find fault or become disappointed, I am reminded that I am in the midst of an answered prayer and I am realigned with peace.  To realize I even fell into the trap of negativity again, causes momentary shame.  How could I possibly have anything negative to say or think? Old bad habits can’t be left to live on; they are so painfully obvious right now.  

“Language follows breakthrough”, my mentor used to say.  So when language makes a re-entry, I’ll let you know. For now, I’ll be in my alternate reality considering if it should be alternate at all.  I’d like it to be mainstream all the way, every day, common and expected.