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The work of Advent
(After Howard Thurman) (From Christmas Eve at the Epsom Circle McDonald’s and Other Poems, Maren Tirabassi, 2020)
When the carols of choirs are stilled,
when so many dear ones are gone
it seems like the stars
have blinked their tears into darkness,
when the year has kept so many home and endangered the homes
of so many others,
when the shepherds of the year
are health care workers,
and, like those flock-keepers long ago, essential but poorly-honored workers,
the work of Advent begins:
to find the grieving, the fearful, the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit
with the story of an unexpected hope in another time of great danger,
to feed, clothe, shelter, employ, those financially insecure,
to release the prisoner – especially those in immigration detention,
to rebuild all the nations,
because the epiphany is
that gifts come
not out of our own chimneys
but from strangers who live far away,
to become stable-makers that shelter peace, health, wisdom
and care for the earth itself,
to sing the carols in our homes
and teach the words and maybe one tune to someone, perhaps a child,
who longs for a new harmony.
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