It’s the moment. That moment of beautiful anticipation. Tomorrow is Christmas! Our Advent Season is coming to completion. It’s a sacred moment, a quiet moment, a hold your breath kind of moment, because even the whisper of breath disturbers the stillness. It is time for Christ’s Candle. the people living in darkness have seen a […]
The First Sunday of Advent: Hope
What is Christmas to you? What does it mean? Does it mean Hope and Peace and Joy and Faith? Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards Men? Is it about Santa and Presents and the Smiling Faces of Children? The candles for the four Sundays of Advent vary in meaning and tradition, but nearly universally the first […]
When A Broken Body Brings Life
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19 As I am sitting here, I am very aware of every hour ahead of me this coming week, aware that my body will be broken. I’m […]
As the World Shakes in Fear, Can I Still Hope?
It hurts, watching the world splintering in fear. It hurts so much, and I grieve over so much pain. I get online and it’s the first thing I see in the morning, more fear: Another shooting. I’m not shocked, I’m horrified and grieved but not shocked. I hate that I’m not shocked. And I feel the […]
When Life Invades
I haven’t really written much this year, I kept meaning to, but life just kept happening! Right at the end of January my Grandmother had a massive heart attack. She survived, initially. But the next week was a draining marathon of the hospital, and arranging for hospice. We brought her home, and she passed not more […]
For Donna
For Donna A Poem in Memory, By Joy Aletheia Stevens ~ I call myself a writer, But sometimes I don’t know what to write. Words seem to falter, Locked inside up tight. ~ There are some people in your life That are not only a part, But something more, deep inside, At the center of […]
Job: Why What We See Is Not What Is
What do you see as you read Job? Do you see pain and loss? Do you see judgment? Do you see hope? It can be hard to read this book. It’s hard to see the pain radiating from Job’s every word, so evident, as is the judgement coming from his supposed friends. If you read […]
Finding Light In A Dark World
The world seems so void of light these days. Another week, another shooting. Is it only me that feels weariness in my very soul? Light seems drowned by darkness. And this one? In my state, not all that near but still in a town where someone I know resides. Close enough that someone I knew […]
Hope in the Face of Evil
Grief grips my heart today, today of all days. On this day we remember the shock, the complete horror, and the death. Do we have Hope in the Face of such Evil? Has the world climbed out of this pit of terror? Or only sunk more deeply? On this day, this anniversary of the falling […]
Found In The Blind Place: A Poem About Trust
Found In The Blind Place A Poem About Trust By Joy Aletheia Stevens ~ Step, Step, Step, One Foot at a time, As my voice chokes out a strangled “help!’ And I reach for the Divine. ~ Sometimes seeing eyes are very blind, And hearts alone can see, And only when our hands are in […]