An article from the Cathedral Times
by the Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler,
Dean of the Cathedral of
St. Philip
During these lovely twelve days of Christmas, I think of stars. One by
one, the dramatic stars atop our Christmas trees make their departure.
Some fall, others are carefully stored away for next year. The stars on
our houses, on our pageant star costumes, those strewn across our living
rooms, are all likewise put away.
My wife, Boog, and
I spent a few nights outside this past week, out where the sky was cold
and crisp. All we saw were stars, thousands of them, some still, and
others shooting across the horizon. I remembered this strong poem, from
Conrad Aiken (born in Savannah), in which he urges us to be prodigal
with our stars"”with our words and with our gifts.
One star fell and another as we walked.
Lifting his
hand towards the west, he said"”
"”How prodigal that sky is of
its stars!
They fall and fall, and still the sky is sky.
Two more have gone, but heaven is heaven still.
Then let us not be precious of our thought,
Nor of our words, nor hoard them up as though
We
thought our minds a heaven which might change
And lose its
virtue, when the word had fallen.
Let us be prodigal, as
heaven is:
Lose what we lose, and give what we may give,"”
Ourselves are still the same. Lost you a planet"”?
Is
Saturn gone? Then let him take his rings
Into the Limbo of
forgotten things.
O little foplings of the pride of
mind,
Who wrap the phrase in lavender, and keep it
In order to display it: and you, who save our loves
As if we had not worlds of love enough"”!
Let us be reckless of our words and worlds,
And spend them freely as the tree his leaves;
And
give them where the giving is most blest.
What should we save
them for, "”a night of frost? ...
All lost for nothing, and
ourselves a ghost.
(Conrad Aiken,
1931)
At Christmas, we have celebrated giving. May
this Spirit of Christmas giving be with you, and with all of us,
throughout this year. Yes, let us be reckless, lavish, with our gifts of
love, with our "words and worlds, and spend them freely as the tree his
leaves; and give them where the giving is most blest."
The Very Reverend Sam Candler