Christmas Blessing in Troubled Times: The Gift of Attention

Last updated on: December 22, 2025 at 5:29 am by Tricia Gates Brown

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Christmas Blessing in Troubled Times: The Gift of Attention 2025-12-22T05:29:22-08:00 Tricia Gates Brown

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Christmas blessing in troubled times

{Photo by Andrii Omelnytskyi for Scopio}

The Subversive Witness of Christmas

Often at Christmas I share a series of articles about how the Christmas stories (birth narratives) in the gospels subvert the dominating powers of their day. Never in my lifetime has the subversive challenge of those accounts been more salient for Americans—as an inept leader empowers his administration to attempt overthrow of our democracy. Anyone interested in reading those articles can find them HERE and HERE.

Weary Nation, Weary Soul

What I instead want to share this Christmas is a blessing. In most cases, our souls are so weary. We have endured a year characterized by unspeakable cruelty, torrents of lies from the top centers of power, disregard for law and constitutional protections, and a stink of grift and rot that won’t wash out of our clothes, our hair, for decades. For many, the authoritarian power grab is always in the back of our minds, playing out in more outlandish and disgusting ways each day. (Did the president reach bottom with his recent narcissistic post about Rob Reiner’s death? Probably not.)

Offering an Alternative

A poem I recently published in Relief Journal came out of my own weary heart. One morning, walking along a wooded path, I realized how preoccupied with worry I was. It was as if the beauty around me was blurred to my eyes that could not see past the news and my fear for those under threat. I share it with you as a Christmas gift. It is what I wish for all as we endure and resist. Eyes to see the beauty around us. Grounding to stay in the moment instead of playing out future scenarios. Courage to speak the truth like the gospel writers did. Ears to hear the messages of the natural world pointing us to God. A blessing.

Christmas blessing in troubled times

Christmas Blessing in Troubled Times

Matins

“We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life” —from Matins/Morning Prayer, Book of Common Prayer

This morning, may we bear witness

to vine maple leaves

bejeweling every surface

of these cliffs we pass.

Bows of sword fern,

drapes of ivy vines,

glittering costumery under this scatter

of sequins, vermillion to brilliant yolk.

May we be caught aware

as geese call out to one another: notice,

shifting their angle of migration,

drawing our gaze upward

from plodding rehearsals

for all that we fear.

May we notice the sky sheening

toward taffeta, light cresting the horizon,

gentle and full of promise.

Committees of junco, robin,

rifling leaf-rot—

silently intoning:

never care, never care.

May today’s worries be enough for today.

May we take this life less seriously, and more.

Merry Christmas to all, with Love.

Tricia

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Wren, winner of a 2022 Independent Publishers Award Bronze Medal

Winner of the 2022 Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal for Regional Fiction; Finalist for the 2022 National Indie Excellence Awards. (2021) Paperback publication of Wren , a novel. “Insightful novel tackles questions of parenthood, marriage, and friendship with finesse and empathy … with striking descriptions of Oregon topography.” —Kirkus Reviews (2018) Audiobook publication of Wren.

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About Tricia Gates Brown

Tricia Gates Brown works as a writer, freelance editor, and poet in Oregon's Willamette Valley. She holds a PhD in theology from the University of St. Andrews and is an Ordained Deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. Read more at https://triciagatesbrown.net . You can read more about the author here.

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