I’m writing this at 7:30 on Christmas Eve, but you’ll only see this on Christmas day. (Thank you, WordPress’s scheduling feature.) I’m sitting in a recliner in the hospital, and we’re quietly celebrating the birth of our first son.<\/p>\n
I’m going to pretty much leave it at this, with one of my favorite poems\/hymns. It is very much descriptive of how I feel about the world quite often at Christmas!<\/p>\n
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
\nTheir old, familiar carols play,and wild and sweet
\nThe words repeat
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/p>\n
And thought how, as the day had come,
\nThe belfries of all Christendom
\nHad rolled along
\nThe unbroken song
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/p>\n
Till ringing, singing on its way,
\nThe world revolved from night to day,
\nA voice, a chime,
\nA chant sublime
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/p>\n
Then from each black, accursed mouth
\nThe cannon thundered in the South,
\nAnd with the sound
\nThe carols drowned
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/p>\n
It was as if an earthquake rent
\nThe hearth-stones of a continent,
\nAnd made forlorn
\nThe households born
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!<\/p>\n
And in despair I bowed my head;
\n“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
\n“For hate is strong,
\nAnd mocks the song
\nOf peace on earth, good-will to men!”<\/p>\n
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
\n“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
\nThe Wrong shall fail,
\nThe Right prevail,
\nWith peace on earth, good-will to men.”<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m writing this at 7:30 on Christmas Eve, but you’ll only see this on Christmas day. (Thank you, WordPress’s scheduling feature.) I’m sitting in a recliner in the hospital, and we’re quietly celebrating the birth of our first son. I’m … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,21,22],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personalthoughts","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-2013","tag-hymns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p52rlt-dM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingunderduress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}