The Promises of Christmas ~ Trans-Siberia

Happy Christmas Dear Reader,

If you have not taken in the music of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra you are missing out on something beautiful.  Beyond the music there is content.  The stories and message of their music are transcendent and timeless. 

I realize that is a bold claim but I stand by it.  Christmas Eve and Other Stories is the album I would recommend first unless you are the kind to save the best for last.  You can listen to the entire album HERE.  I recommend finding a way to see it live, however. 

The stories they tell deal in the potential of Christmas.  They promote what is best in all of us.  Along with all the music I most cherish they challenge us to be more than we are.  They ask us to see beyond what is common and to believe in the uncommon and the possible. 

The promise of Christmas is the heart of the impossible.  It is impossible for us to cure the world’s ills on our own.  They are varied, virulent, and viable of their own accord.  The world is infected with them and we are too busy being common to see the chance to be better. 

I must embrace the possible.  I must see the promises in this music and live them.  How you ask Dear Reader?   “By helping a neighbor or even a stranger; to know who needs help you need only but ask.”

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The Road to Bethlehem – Promises to Keep

Merry Christmas Dear Reader,

There is hope in Christmas because there are promises in Christmas.  The promise of redemption is there.  The promise that all that is difficult will pass is there.  The promise that things will get back to the good that is the dawn of creation is there.

So many of the traditions of Christmas are meant to remind us of what Christ offers us.  Even if are we are pretending we can become the love, kindness, and generosity of Christmas.  We can be the embodiment of forgiveness and mercy. 

The older I get the more I long for the spirit of Christmas to permeate all of the year.  I yearn for the shores of home and celebrating the birth of Christ with Christ.  The dream is still alive in me.  As another year closes and I draw close to ticking off another journey around the sun I dream the dream more than I did.

Remember Dear Reader that the dreams we find are the ones we seek.  After all, “if we pretend long enough, never giving up, it just might be who we are.”

Promises to Keep - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Christmas time

On a cold December morning

All is calm, and the world is still asleep

Christmas lights that have been caught without warning

Gently glitter on

Stars to wish upon

All the world is at peace

Christmas time and the year will soon be leaving

Cloaked in time till it's just a memory

Christmas stays if we don't forget its meaning

Days go quickly by

Years they multiply

And we go searching for thee

And the dream is still alive

From that first December morning

And it always will survive

As long as we can see

That the dreams we find in life

Are the dreams we tend to seek

And Christmas has its promises to keep

Christmas time

And the moments just beginning

From last night

When we'd wished upon a star

If our kindness

This day is just pretending

If we pretend long enough

Never giving up

It just might be who we are

And so it's good that we remember

Just as soon as we've discovered

That the things we do in life

Will always end up touching others

So from a fading neon star

Somewhere shining in the night

We find a father far away

Now reflecting in its light

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The Road to Bethlehem – This Christmas Day

Merry Christmas Dear Reader,

So from a fading neon star

Somewhere shining in the night

We find a father far away

Now reflecting in its light

Christmas Homecoming -
Norman Rockwell

As we grow closer to Christmas the reunions begin.  Students return from college to parents experiencing a new kind of absence.  Some soldier get to come home to a mother or spouse’s grateful smile.  Reunions will happen.

The third song of our suite is the father knowing his prayer will be answered.  His daughter is coming home.   He asks the question we all ask eventually.   Are we wise to believe in things we never see?  

We forget that believing is seeing.  We forget that nothing exits for us without faith.  Some you see are parted and feel there will never be that homecoming.   Some have died.  Some have been abandoned by lovers they still love.   Not everyone gets his or her homecoming. 

I need to be sure that I acknowledge both the homecomings and the absences.  I need to be praying for those with an empty chair and an empty heart.   I need to celebrate those I see whom I do not often get to see.   I need to cherish the moments with those I love.  Most of all Dear Reader, I need to realize that Christmas stays close to us no matter how far we grow from it.  It is there just waiting for us to remember to believe.

This Christmas Day – Trans Siberian Orchestra

So, tell me Christmas

Are we wise

To believe in things we never see

Are prayers just wishes in disguise

And are these wishes being granted me

For now I see

The answering

To every prayer I've prayed

She's coming home this Christmas Day

So tell me Christmas

Are we kind

More this day than any other day

Or is it only in our mind

And must it leave when you have gone away

It's different now

It's changed somehow

And now you're here to stay

She's coming home this Christmas Day

And all at once the world

It doesn't seem the same

And in a single night

You know it all has changed

And everything is now as it should be

I have the ornament

I have the perfect tree

I have a string of lights

I have a chance to see

Everything that my heart thought could be

For of all the dreams

You were the first I knew

And every other one

Was a charade of You

You stayed close when I was far away

In the darkest night

You always were the star

That always took us in

No matter who we are

And so she's coming home this

Christmas Day

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The Road to Bethlehem – Old City Bar

Merry Christmas Dear Reader,

After he had heard the prayer

The angel gently set it free

And followed it to the father's child

In a faraway city

And there the girl in desperation

Was searching through the sky

For a star that she could wish upon

But stars were in short supply

And the only light that she could see

There shining all alone

Was a neon sign on an old bar

And so on this, she wished she was home

The idea of home is one that it took me a long time to define.  Growing up my abode never felt like home.  There was no fun in the dysfunction.  I live alone now and the place I live is an abode but not a home. 

It is not lost on me that we call those who live in our parks and bus stops homeless.  Those people have great need for shelter and care but there are many who have shelter who are still homeless.  There is something about being “home” that holds promise.  There is something about not feeling at home that is always present.

The needs of those without a home is vital to our participation in Christmas.  We can help those in need if we choose to do so.  We can help neighbors and strangers.  We can keep the promise of Christmas as we are meant to do.  We can change this world even though it is not our home.

The other piece of this is that we think too much of this world as home.  We are sojourners.  We are strangers passing through on our way back to God.  We have something in us that constantly seeks home.   Home is only with God.  It is, therefore, reasonable that Christmas is when we yearn for home the most.  It is in this day that God is the most with us.

Se today we share the story of the subject of the father’s prayer.  The lost “ornament” wants to go home.  It is Christmas Eve.  Inside of this night it is easier to believe. 

Old City Bar - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Now every light can be a star

Just depends on where you are

And the distance that you're looking

Past the places you have been

And the dreams you’ve left behind

And the dreams you’ve left within

In an old city bar

That is never too far

From the places that gather

The dreams that have been

In the safety of night

With its old neon light

It beckons to strangers

And they always come in

And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

The music was low

And the night

Christmas Eve

And here was the danger

That even with strangers

Inside of this night

It's easier to believe

Then the door opened wide

And a child came inside

That no one in the bar

Had seen there before

And he asked did we know

That outside in the snow

That someone was lost

Standing outside our door

Then the bartender gazed

Through the smoke and the haze

Through the window and ice

To a corner streetlight

Where standing alone

By a broken pay phone

Was a girl the child said

Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

The bartender turned

And said, “Not that I care

But how would you know this?”

The child said “I've noticed

If one could be home

They'd be all ready there”

Then the bartender came out from behind the bar

And in all of his life he was never that far

And he did something else that he thought no one saw

When he took all the cash from the register draw

Then he followed the child to the girl ‘cross the street

And we watched from the bar as they started to speak

Then he called for a cab and he said, “J.F.K.”

Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away

And we saw in his hand

That the cash was all gone

From the light that she had

Wished upon

If you want to arrange it

This world you can change it

If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor

Or even a stranger

And to know who needs help

You need only just ask

Then he looked for the child

But the child wasn't there

Just the wind and the snow

Waltzing dreams through the air

So he walked back inside

Somehow different I think

For the rest of the night

No one paid for a drink

And the cynics will say

That some neighborhood kid

Wandered in on some bums

In the world where they hid

But they weren't there

So they couldn't see

By an old neon star

On that, night, Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

And in case you should wonder

In case you should care

Why we're on our own

Never went home

On that night of all nights

We were already there

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The Road to Bethlehem - Ornaments

Merry Christmas Dear Reader,

I sit beside the tree with all my favorite ornaments on it as I write this.  There is a story to most of the ornaments.  I should probably collect them in writing before they elude me.  Each day a different one will catch my eye and I will remember why that ornament is precious to me.

The song I ponder today uses ornament as a metaphor for a lost daughter.  As one who has lost a daughter I understand the pain expressed in the prayer the father prays.  This is part of a suite in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra album Christmas Eve and Other Stories. 

When I listen to this piece it tugs at my heart for all my children and their needs.  I pray for the children of friends who are lost in some way.  I pray for former students who come to mind.  I also express gratitude for how safe my children are compared to some other situations.

And so we begin our suite with a father asking the Father to care for his child…

Then he reached for the song

And he held it in his hand

(It was something that he did

Because you see, angels can)

And he wondered to himself

"Is this the answer that I sought?"

But something was still missing

Or at least, so he still thought

And so he journeyed on

Through the midnight winter air

When all at once our angel

Felt the touch of a man's prayer

And looking once more to the Earth

To determine whence it came

He felt a million souls below

But one was not the same

For there he saw a man alone

Though he was walking in a crowd

And though this man had rarely prayed

Tonight his head was bowed

For even in a crowd, you see

A heart can feel alone

When the night is Christmas Eve

A child is not at home

So from a father to the Lord

A prayer did swiftly race

But the angel saw it first

And he listened to its case

Ornament – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

There is an ornament

Lost inside the night

There on a Christmas tree

With a thousand lights

No one can see her

She's standing all alone

Somewhere she glistens where no one can see

I don't believe I can say what had happened

All of those words that we put into play

No longer matter, I should have known that then

I just know you're far away

On this Christmas Day

On this Christmas Day

On this Christmas

Somewhere the wind

Carves moments in the snow

And if he sees her

He never lets it show

He just drifts behind her

Erasing every step

Tinsel and garland are whispered through trees

I don't believe I can say what had happened

All of those words that we put into play

No longer matter, I should have known that then

I just know you're far away

On this Christmas Day

On this Christmas Day

On this Christmas

Come Christmas, stay Christmas

Watch over her this day

Keep her, protect her

From harm now in every way

Shelter her gently

There in your arms she'll be

Until the day

When you bring her back home to me

There is an ornament lost inside the night

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The Road to Bethlehem – An Angel Came Down

Merry Christmas Dear Reader,

So many stories within the story clamor for my attention.  I even have the boldness to craft a few of my own.  Those will hopefully be available by Christmas next.   One of my favorites of the modern era is that of the Angle of Christmas Eve as told by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  Christmas Eve and Other Stories is the first of several works that asks us to look at Christmas in our modern world and still see the magic in it.

This music tells the story of an angel assigned by God to discover what man has done with the gift given on the first Christmas Eve.  Since God is omniscient it is obvious from the outset that part of the learning is for the angel.   In the opening narration the story is set in an old city bar and as it unfolds we are reminded that contained in the music of Christmas is the story of hope that we all need to embrace.

In an old city bar, that is never too far

From the places that gather the dreams that have been

In the safety of night with its old neon light

It beckons to strangers and they always come in

And the snow it was falling, the neon was calling

The music was low, and the night Christmas Eve

And here was the danger that even with strangers

Inside of this night it was easier to believe

For it was into this bar that I happened to wander

To stare into a glass and my universe ponder

So I walked up to the counter shook the snow off my coat

Then I ordered a whiskey that I used like a moat

But an old man soon joined me and asked if I knew the time

One word led to another and somehow I didn't mind

Then he offered a drink from a bottle 'neath his coat

And he smiled a little smile as it trickled down my throat

And I felt myself relaxing here among the ghosts that failed

Then the old man topped my glass off and began this little tale

In the moments of our lives both the joyous and the tragic

If the truth is to be told, we are all pursuing magic

And the magic that we seek as we're sure you have discovered

Can be found in certain places far more easily than others

In the sand beneath the Sphinx in the dreams of candlelight

But the surest place of all is in the forgiving world of night

And of all the nights throughout the year that come and gently leave

None hold the dream of magic like the evening, Christmas Eve

And so, it's on this night with its promise deep within

As the snow now starts to fall our story does begin

This story is worth the hour to hear it.  We need reminding that in sight and inside of this night there is always hope.  There is always a way to find the life and love that is Christmas.  We are a short ten days out from Christmas eve.  I will share further parts of this story as we draw closer to the night. 

For now Dear Reader, please remember that whether you believe or not it is possible if we are honest that we are all seeking a little magic. 

An Angle Came Down – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

An angel came down

One night to the Earth

A mission from God

To find out the worth

Of everything that

His children had done

Since that winter night

The birth of His son

And then a sound filled the night

In the cold winter air

And in the midst of his flight

It was holding him there

And as he looked toward the Earth

For the source of this sound

On that cold winter night

It was pulling him down

To bring something back

This angel was told

That no one could touch

But angels could hold

So on that night

When the sky had cleared

Among all the stars

An angel appeared

And then a sound filled the night

In the cold winter air

And in the midst of his flight

It was holding him there

And as he looked towards the Earth

For the source of this sound

On that cold winter night

It was pulling him down

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Impossible Dreams - Christmas

Greetings Dear Reader,

You know that I think about Christmas almost every day.  It is one of my most cherished impossible dreams.  As I slog through the most humid morning of the season thus far I long for the cold and the snow.  I have dreams and visions that are possible concerning my favorite time of year.

I dream of seeing my grandsons as they awaken on Christmas morning whilst there is still magic in it for them.   I dream of finding just the right gifts for my children so that they feel known and loved.  I dream of a good bowl of Black Cavendish and a hot drink on the porch in the snow.

I have impossible Christmas dreams as well.  Most of them I keep to myself.  I do dream of a Christmas in a beautiful place with all of my family together.  I dream of filling a huge room with gifts for everyone that communicate the gift of Christ in a perfect harmony of love and respect.

My dreams include things that can never be.  They are not pipe dreams and they could be but people have hard hearts and we make choices that truncate dreams.  We give away what is precious for what we think we want and sometimes it cannot be undone.  My impossible dreams include finding a way to undo those things.

I believe in things I cannot see.  I believe in the impossible dream of Christmas with peace on earth and good will toward all men.  As I step into the humidity today I will do so with a Christmas song in my broken heart.  Christmas heals things in me because of Christ.  He is the joy in my journey more than anything else.  He stays close when I am far away from my impossible Christmas dreams.  Dear Reader, there is always time for another Christmas song.

This Christmas Day – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

So, tell me Christmas

Are we wise

To believe in things we never see

Are prayers just wishes in disguise

And are these wishes being granted me

For now I see

The answering

To every prayer I've prayed

She's coming home this

Christmas Day

So tell me Christmas

Are we kind

More this day than any other day

Or is it only in our mind

And must it leave when you have gone away

It's different now

It's changed somehow

And now you're here to stay

She's coming home this

Christmas Day

All at once the world

It doesn't seem the same

And in a single night

You know it all has changed

And everything is now as it should be

I have the ornament

I have the perfect tree

I have a string of lights

I have a chance to see

Everything that my heart thought could be

For of all the dreams

You were the first I knew

And every other one

Was a charade of you

You stayed close when I was far away

In the darkest night

You always were the star

You always took us in

No matter who we are

And so she's coming home this

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Merry, merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry, merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry, merry Christmas

Night

She's coming home

She's coming home

She's coming home

This Christmas Day

She's coming home this

Christmas Day...

SO THE GIRL HAD REACHED HER HOME

AND THE BAR WAS CLOSING DOWN

AS THE ANGEL STARTED BACK

TO BRING HIS LORD WHAT HE HAD FOUND

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)