A small Unitarian Universalist church choir in Black Mountain, North Carolina (The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley) began making videos for their online services as a response to the Covid pandemic in April of 2020. Their choir director, Annelinde Metzner, used her experience as a compose and arranger to make videos using Garage Band and I-Movies, with rehearsals and recordings on Zoom. “We Are Lights” (The Chanukah Song) is a song for Chanukah that their choir performed in December 2021, with lyrics by Steve Young, music by Stephen Schwartz, and a 2006 arrangement by Mac Huff. They have added their own photographs symbolizing “Light” which give the words poignancy. . .and inspired the rest of this blog post celebrating Chanukah with Christmas just 13 days away.   .   .

It is THE Season of Lights.           .           .
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
L          I          G          H          T    
is    always    in    Season.
I   love   stories,
especially ones that start out:
THE      STORY      IS      TOLD.       .       .
that there were six people trapped by pure Chance in the darkest of darks and the coldest of colds– but not without a
G  R  E  A  T      S  O  L  U  T  I  O  N
Each person, all six of them, had a stick of wood.      .      .
SO THE STORY IS TOLD.        .        .
Their dying fire needed just one thing as they huddled around it:
L            O            G            S  !

One woman who had a stick wasn’t about to give hers up.  As she shivered and huddled around that dying fire, that dimming light, she was able to see the faces huddled/shivering being illuminated and because one of those faces was black, there’s no way she was going to give up her stick to warm THAT face up.

There was another sitting around that dying fire and saw the face of the one who’s mouth talked about a God he didn’t quite believe, there’s no way he was going to give up his stick to warm THAT face who’s mouth talked of a different belief.

The third one sat there around that dying fire in tattered clothes and pulled the well worn coat closer and more secure around him as he muttered under his breath, “There ain’t no way I’m giving my stick to this fire to warm these highfalutin rich folks.”

There was a rich man who just sat and thought of the wealth he had in store, and how to keep what he had earned from all of these lazy, shiftless poor; he would not be giving up the stick he had rightly earned.

The black man’s face was frowned all up in revenge as he held on to his stick even while the fire was flickering its very last flame; no way he was giving up that stick to people who had oppressed and kept he and his ancestors down.  It was the spite that made him hold that stick almost as a weapon; serves these white folks right to die of cold.

The last man in this group, shivering harder now in the barely glowing embers, firmly believed you give ONLY IF FIRST GIVEN TO, so his cold hands held his even colder stick and would stay that way since no one else was going to offer up their sticks.

THE STORY IS TOLD.        .        .

S        I        X            L        O        G        S .          .          . 

Six Logs held by six different
UN-SHARING
people who died.        .        .
w            h            o
WOULD   RATHER   DIE
than      to      
S       H       A       R       E.         .         .         

The Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of the Season
is that they died not from the
Cold and the Dark
but something the much,
much worse:
The Cold and The Dark
I            N            S            I            D            E
It      is      the      Season      of      Lights.       .       .
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
L     I     G     H     T  
is     always     in     Season
A single little ember can Light a miracle.          .          .

There   are   many 
CANDLE    BLOWERS
OUT    AND    IN
T            H            E            R            E
Keep an inner Candle lit
so that the Miracle in your life
can find its way home again and not only
E N L I G T E N.           .           .
b  u  t
W   A   R   M         O  T  H  E  R  S
along the way.          .          .
Eliminate
B R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
from      ever      having      a      Season.           .           . 

A n y
L I G H T
that Shines
not only illuminates a path
.      .      .It Warms a Heart

BE A SEASON OF LIGHT
(if not always–o f t e n)
(BETTER STILL: ONE THAT NEVER ENDS!)

BE AN EVERLASTING
 LIFESTYLE OF
L                   I                    G                    H                    T