Occupy/Bethlehem.
Last year, on this day, I was just getting out of the hospital, with a white blood cell count just over 500.
Last year, on this day, I was preparing for Christmas Eve services by making sure my surgical mask fit properly over my nose and mouth.
This year, I am fielding phone calls from families looking for financial assistance, setting up the dais for baby Jesus, praying with other people who are facing cancer treatment, writing liturgy for Christmas Eve.
I am stronger than ever before in my life, physically and otherwise. I am happier. I am calmer than ever before in my life.
Here’s a pic from last Friday’s flash mob—our church staged a little Occupy/Bethlehem fun in Davis Square, the village hub down the street from us.
For prettier pics, go see the gallery posted by our local newspaper, here. Yes, I got to be the Star of Bethlehem, trudging along with a cardboard “No Room at the Inn” sign, and set up the tent housing the Holy Family in full regalia.
We wanted to stop people in their tracks, to disrupt their journey from here to there by giving them a pitstop in Bethlehem. A chance to think about their own power and powerlessness, joy and joylessness, where God might be getting in.
Today, I am cured, of so many things. Not of everything. Fighting a cold and a tummy bug, ironically. Probably with a white blood cell count of about 9,000, as my healthy body fights off an everyday illness. And grateful as all get out. And moving inexorably toward Bethlehem, with the smell of bacon in the air.
How about you? How can you occupy Bethlehem, the village whose name means “house of bread,” a place that implies warmth, good smells, nourishment—no matter WHAT is going on in your life at this moment?
Blessed Christmas, everybody.
recent comments