Note to self:
You don’t always have to be “on.”
You don’t always have to be doing.
You don’t always have to be pursuing
some goal or ambition.
There are times when it’s enough
to sit in your chair
and drink your tea
and think
and be.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Last sunset of twenty twenty-two
rotates into first sunrise of twenty-three
connecting yesteryear to a year that’s new
and what we were to what we’ll be.
I pull off the road to take this year’s
first photo and a man stops his car
to check if I need help and gives me
my first kind smile of the year.
I thank him and tell him I’m fine –
just taking in my first sunrise of a new time.
He laughs and says he understands
and watches with me as a swan lands
and we wish each other a good year.
And so it begins.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Love is the only source;
the only cause; the only effect;
the only power; the only presence;
the only creator. Love is All.
We come from Love;
we are the effect of Love;
we manifest the power of Love;
we express the presence of Love;
we reflect the perfection of Love;
we are the image and likeness of our creator;
we are the ideas and children of Love.
Anything that would keep us
from being the reflection of perfect Love
is a lie
for we are Love being Love.
Love is omnipotent, omnipresent, glorious All.
And we are Her children.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
It’s a humble holiday, tucked in between
Christmas and New Year’s, but it’s really keen.
Things look a little bedraggled, it’s true.
The tree’s a little droopy and no longer new.
The movies and music of the Christmas season
are getting on our nerves now, and we’re seeing no reason
to eat even one more sugary oversweet sweet.
It’s time for broccoli and carrots (maybe hold on the beets).
The pressure for perfection comes off on this day,
the toys have been opened, and it’s come time to play.
And if before we were wearing faux holiday cheer
to blend in with the others and not Scroogey appear –
it’s time now to be genuine, and honest and real –
the food banks are empty, people still need a warm meal.
The homeless and hungry and jobless and alone
still need love and caring, still need a home.
So maybe we can celebrate the day after Christmas
by keeping the spirit of hope alive,
we might make that our business.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book
It’s 3:00 in the morning when I awake
to find it arrived while I slept!
Christmas has landed in my heart!
I slip out of the bedroom
and go downstairs and the cats
greet me in the hall.
I think they feel it, too.
I plug in the Christmas lights
above the mantel and settle
into my chair near the woodstove.
Black cat rubs his head against my hand.
Calico cat jumps up in the chair
next to mine and tucks her paws
underneath her and closes her eyes –
we are enjoying each other’s company.
The Christmas lights sparkle off
the smooth surfaces around me.
I sing “Silent Night” to the cats
and they turn to me and listen.
Magic is here! Incredible good beyond
imagining is here and more on its way!
Peace! Joy! Love! Hope!
It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
The sons are no longer toddlers
bopping and skipping around the home –
they’re grown now
and making traditions
and lives of their very own.
Mom and Dad have passed on –
they’ve moved on to their next chapter –
and I guess we’re moving on, too,
and finding the new adventures
that await us in our “after.”
Whatever the future holds –
I’m grateful for the Christmases that have been –
for the love and the memories
that will be with me forever –
for the love of my family and friends.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
separated and alone
isolated in a cold, dark season
yearning for what was
and looking for a reason
to go forward
it will take courage
to move into the next chapter
to step forward and adapt to
whatever comes next
but trust that Love is there, too,
waiting for yours, waiting for you
the light will soon return
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
T’was ten days afore Christmas and all o’er the Earth
human kinds were scrambling to find Christmassy mirth.
We looked under our beds and up to the North Pole,
looked in our attics and in our cookie dough bowls.
We looked to see if we could order the spirit online
or find it at the supermarket or in a Christmassy pine.
We looked in the fridge and under our car seats,
looked for it in old movies and in peppermint treats.
And then we stopped and settled our searching thoughts,
and it occurred to us that Christmas couldn’t be bought,
and that it wasn’t hiding from us here or there –
Christmas was in this moment, in our hearts, and everywhere!
And the Christmas joy spilled out of us, joining the joy of the Cosmos,
reaching out with love to the darkest, farthest outpost.
And hope filled our hearts, and love broke down the walls.
And we heard the Cosmos proclaim: “On earth peace, good will to all!”
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
frost on the ground and
fire dances in the wood stove
the calico sleeps
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/karen-molenaar-terrell/episodes/Twas-Two-Weeks-Afore-Christmas-e1bdl5l/a-a726m1a
T’was Two Weeks Afore Christmas
T’was two weeks afore Christmas and all through Eff Bee
not a creature was stirring – not a they, she, or he.
We were prostrate and spent from the holiday bustle
not a twitch could be seen from the teeniest muscle.
We lay all unblinking in our respective beds
while visions of gift-wrapping swirled through our heads.
And clad in our jammies and our way cool madcaps
we had the vague hopeful hope our bodies would take naps.
Holiday jangles and jingles pinged through our brains –
Presley, Crosby, and Mathis taking us down memory lanes –
and would we remember every member to be gifted?
We mentally went through our lists, hoping none were omitted.
There were homes to be decorated and cards to be sent;
parties, caroling, and cookie-making, and we hadn’t made a dent.
But with a collective sigh we remembered there and then
that it’s really about good will to all creatures, women, and men.
And so our thoughts finally settled and our bodies relaxed
as we thought of those we love and a world festooned in pax.
With our hearts wrapped in kindness and the world as our ‘hood
We’re all brethren and sistren – and verily, It’s all good!
– Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book and A Poem Lives on My Windowsill
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 