Christmas Magic

I have spent the past few days baking and making candy in preparation for next week's festivities. I love baking and making sweets, but this is the only time of year I truly allow myself to indulge in doing so. I am joined in the kitchen sporadically by my eldest son, who seems to believe that every step of making these things is endlessly fascinating.
This awe and curiosity reminds me of being a child and watching my mother bake cookies and getting in her way in an attempt to understand how she was doing it. I was convinced my mother worked magic at one point. She was a sorceress of the kitchen, magically taking things like flour and butter and sugar and making beautiful, scrumptious things! It was amazing!
Of course, now I know what is going on in the theater of my childhood magic show. I am the sorceress, transforming and entrancing. I had forgotten how fantastic it all is until I watched Caleb learn to mix dough, decorate a cookie, melt butterscotch, and sample the product of his work and diligence. This is my Christmas magic moment.
So, here is a brief poem that I composed to attempt to convey that feeling, the warmth and affection, involved in cooking in the kitchen in preparation for Christmas fun.


Magic

Sugar and vanilla.
Peppermint and chocolate.
Flour and butter.
Childhood memories,
Kitchen magic.
Warmth and laughter.

Messy hands.
Ruffled aprons.
Christmas carols.
Baking smells.
Smiling eyes.
Laughing smiles.
Kitchen magic.
Christmas magic.
Love's magic.
-Constance

The Humble

I know, it has been ages!!! Shame upon me! I've been without motivation and stuck in a funk of angst, creatively that is. I'm generally put out with the world and general idiocy of societal sheep and have suffered for it. I don't want to be the angry poet lady who rages at the world from her quiet corner of the blogger universe all of the time. I know that there are good things going on, merely overlooked by most or simply not given the praise it deserves.
In honor of the humble humans out there who give to others, lend a helping hand, or go beyond the call of duty in the name of kindness with no expectations of praise or acknowledgement in any form, this is for you. I wrote this several weeks ago, and now seems an apt time to drag it out of my journal and onto my blog.
I pray you enjoy it and that it inspires you to say thank you to the quiet humanitarian in your life and maybe commit an act of altruism yourself. It wouldn't hurt the world if we all did a little something for someone else anonymously here and there.

The Humble
The grandest humans
Are seldom the greatest.
The loudest champions
Are seldom true heroes.
The most generous
Are often without.
The unfailingly kind
Are often sorely used.

No parades thrown
Honoring their glory.
Few songs sung
Telling their story.
The rewards unseen,
A spiritual glory.
In other's shadows
Moving mighty mountains.
True gifts to humanity,
These ceaseless fountains.

-Constance

There you have it. God bless you all and may you all give a little to others in this season of giving.