Advent: a sonnet

Advent: a sonnet

I had the honor and pleasure of teaming up with illustrator Jonny Jimison for The Rabbit Room‘s collaborative Advent project pairing poets and artists. Jonny did a fantastic job illustrating my sonnet: Also, here’s something fun: a podcast I recorded with Joshua Klos of Refracted Reality. It’s an audio version of my essay “In Praise…

A Cup O’ Kindness

Lanier’s note: I met Brian Brown back in October at Hutchmoot–which is one of the few places on earth, I imagine, where you find yourself talking about incarnational theology and Prohibition-throwback speakeasys in one conversation. We’re honored to to feature a couple of his famous festive libations today! Last Saturday, my family threw its annual…

Saint Lucy’s Light

It’s been a beautiful Saint Lucia Day, and just my kind of happy: I’ve been in the kitchen since early morning, baking cookies and wrapping homemade caramels for Christmas gifts, accompanied by various cats vying for the chairs closest to the fire and an Australian shepherd only too willing to clear up the bits of…

Best Christmas Album Ever: “A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra”

Happy Birthday, Frank Sinatra! Born December 12, 1915, the greatest interpreter of modern popular song and arguably the greatest entertainer of the 20th century would’ve turned 101 today. Sinatra, who passed away in 1998, left behind an immense and peerless body of recordings, stretching from the late 1930s to the early 1990s. And his estate…

A Golden Summer Advent

Lanier’s note: Twenty years ago, my best friend Rachel married an Australian and moved 10,000 miles away to that breathtaking Great Southland down under (which she affectionately refers to as “Oz”). In the years since, Rachel and her husband have raised a lively, intelligent and imaginative flock of children, all with a strong sense of…

Oh Tannenbaum!

Lanier’s note: Luke Boggs is not only a talented corporate speech writer, he’s married to our own dear Laura. Here’s a piece he wrote (and the Georgia Public Radio broadcast of it!) on the joys of the manly side of putting up the Christmas tree. Enjoy!    Oh Tannenbaum! A Regular Guy’s Guide to Handling…

Bringing in the Greens

I just love this weekend—it’s so delightfully tangled with the remnants of Thanksgiving and the beginnings of Advent. Gratitude, tradition, anticipation and longing all have their place in these shifting days wherein pumpkins and Christmas trees meet each other in passing and late autumn dusk gives way to twinkle lights. We celebrated Ivester Thanksgiving on…

An Advent Prayer

Every year on the first Sunday in Advent I pull a tattered scrap of paper from last year’s Christmas folder and tape it between my kitchen windows–the one place in all the house where I know I will see something every single day. Perhaps eventually I’ll get around to having this prayer made into a…

In Readiness

We won’t bring our tree home until Sunday–an excursion in which our Australian shepherd, Bonnie, is an invaluable member, and which generally includes the once-a-year fuel-up at Waffle House (followed by a gingerbread latte from Starbucks for me). But that doesn’t mean that the holiday spirit isn’t already stirring in Ruff House. I’ve been bustling…

The End

The End