[Magdalen] My Listgiv ...

[Ann Markle]

And mine arrived just today from Lesley in Australia!  A lovely linen tea
towel (the best kind, and this one is thick and lucious), printed (I
think!) with a duck-billed platypus design.  And a most interesting-looking
book called "Priska goes to the theatre: the evolution of the Gospel of
John by John Gladstone Steele.  It consists of a fictionalized narrative,
which is followed by a scholarly section.  Lesley thoughtfully included
some reader's reviews for me to peruse.  I can't wait to start it!  I chose
this gift as the one I would open on Christmas Eve, because it's the most
"exotic" I'll receive this year!  Thank you so much, Lesley, and how
wonderful to have it on Christmas Eve, just in time!

I've completed 2 services tonight, and have another tomorrow morning.  And
I've gone from feeling terrible about the holiday this year to a real sense
of the awesome holiness of it.  That's grace.

I hope you're all either snuggled in your beds or having the absolute best
of holidays.  I keep pondering the John Lennon carol this year:  "So this
is Christmas; what have we done?"  and "War is over, if we want it."  I'm
thinking of refugees, the people of Aleppo, and all those who live in fear
and/or rough conditions, especially those terrorized by wars and terrorism
this year.  Hope was born tonight, and it's hope that keeps us going.

Much love and gratitude for this online community, of which I've now been a
member for just 20 years this year.

Ann

The Rev. Ann Markle
Buffalo, NY
ann.markle at aya.yale.edu

On Sat, Dec 24, 2016 at 10:30 PM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> ... to All.  Is, a happy Christmas to this list, thanking it for being
> here, and all its denizens for putting up with me all these years.
>