Category: Holidays & Happenings - trish hermanson

My 5G Network to Power Me Through Tough Times

1/1/2023

     Brrrrr! As our country is emerging from its deep freeze, I thought of this watercolor my friend Christine Jackson created that she titled “Waiting for the Thaw.” The painting portrays a frozen, barren landscape waiting for spring. It reminds me of other thaws we may be waiting for as we enter this New Year. Like a thaw in a relationship that’s chilled - I have several of those. Or a thaw in a career that’s frozen. Or health that’s on ice. Or the defrosting in national and international events we long for.
     Really, the world is a mess, and in many ways we are, too. As I wait for various thaws, I’m relying on a personal 5G network to power me through. Here are my 5Gs I seek to exercise: I’m GRIEVING over the state of the world and over personal losses; but I’m GRATEFUL to God for all that is good; I’m GROWING in understanding; I’m GIVING however I can toward the welfare of others; And I’m GRINNING as I remember that this tired world is someday going to be remade. Wrongs will be righted. Justice will prevail. Those who hear God beckoning and say “yes” to him will be remade, too.
  Grieving. Grateful. Growing. Giving. Grinning.That will power me through as I wait for the ultimate thaw.

Not a Silent Night

12/22/2022

It was not a silent night with all calm and bright when Jesus was born. It was a war zone! Picture a woman crying in pain as she is about to give birth, and an enormous red dragon standing there waiting to devour her child. That’s what Jesus’ friend John recorded from a frightening vision that some interpret as the behind-the-scenes nativity story.
     Back to the woman and the dragon: God snatched up the newborn to protect him. Then all hell broke loose in heaven. An army of angels fought against the dragon - Satan - and his troops and hurled them down to earth.
     Perhaps it was then that a battle-scarred angel ripped open the curtain between heaven and earth and terrified some sleepy shepherds. A platoon of heavenly warriors burst into a victory chant: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
     And that little town of Bethlehem? “How still we see thee lie?” That didn’t last. King Herod feared that a new king had been born to take his throne, so he ordered the slaughter of babies there. Bethlehem wept with grief for a generation. But God had warned Jesus’ family, and they fled to safety in Egypt.
     “Silent night. All is calm. All is bright?” No way! Jesus’ birth and survival were at the front line of a cosmic battle that spilled onto earth. And God won, giving us a savior who is Christ the Lord!

Deck the Halls with Boughs of "Folly?"

12/6/2022

We didn’t plan to deck the halls with boughs of “folly” this year, but that’s what happened.
     Our oldest grandchildren who usually helped us trim the artificial tree weren’t available. So we tapped three younger, untrained grandkids.
     I turned on Christmas carols, and with more enthusiasm than understanding the kids assembled branches on the tree - but upside down. I hadn’t thought to tell them about that. Then they didn’t quite hear my instructions about color-coded branches, and they positioned the shortest ones on the bottom - an upside down tree. No longer was I calm and bright. One of them had to dive underneath and replace lower branches with longer ones.
     A competition heated up over who would hang the star upon the highest bough. While others placed ornaments, one sneaked up a step stool and set the star. Any joy to the world I’d felt evaporated. I told him, “You got to do that, so the others get to arrange the manger scene.” That was the next big prize in their minds. I thought of a number between one and ten, and the one who came closest went first in the setup, followed by the other.
  Somehow the tree turned out looking better than Charlie Brown’s, and we’d made a good memory. But conflicts and mess-ups reminded me that in everything, even Christmas decorating, we need Jesus to teach us how to love each other. We need a savior.

Where in the World is Orientar?

12/20/2021

   Early morning, I’m in my jammies with Oak, my grandson, and we’re discussing where in the world is Orientar, the country the wise men came from to visit Jesus. He didn’t know, just as I didn’t when I was a child. Only when I could read did I understand the song said, “We three kings from Orient are bearing gifts….”
     Christmas songs can be confusing as a child. I wondered whether round young virgin meant she was fat. No, it’s “round yon virgin” - around the virgin over there. The definition of a virgin? No one explained that to me for years.
     Other kids have wondered why shepherds washed their socks at night, rather than “shepherds watched their flocks at night.”    And during this season, why do some sing about walking in our winter underwear? It’s actually “walking in a winter wonderland.”
     This year another grandchild of mine sang “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, don’t look at me, I’m changing.” It’s actually “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, thy leaves are so unchanging.
     I understand the words of these great songs now, but I don’t think I’ll ever completely understand the mystery of God coming to Earth as a baby to bridge the gap between him and us. It’s a breath-taking story, captured well through questions in this a cappella version of “Mary, Did You Know? Enjoy it to reflect on the wonder of the season.

'Trash Doesn't Lie' but Reveals All

2/1/2021

As we enter Black History month, I recall discovering this pottery shard when Duane and I explored the ruins of a sugar plantation on St. Croix Island in the Caribbean. With the push of a shovel, this piece of history rose to the surface.
     Notice the finely tailored people on this fragment from a dish? They are like the Danish family that once lifted silverware to eat from this plate. But if anything broke, their slaves buried it along with other garbage at the edge of the plantation.
     “Trash doesn’t lie,” archaeologist Michael Prouty says. This particular piece reveals a time when there were ten slaves per each white person on St. Croix. These slaves rebelled in 1848 and gained their freedom, while Southern American whites still maintained their “Gone with the Wind” fantasy of plantations run by “happy” slaves.
We’re more evolved and enlightened now, right? Maybe not. Racism still unearths its ugly head when new fringe groups embrace white supremacy. When anti-Semitics terrorize Jewish neighborhoods. And when some folks label all refugee seekers, including women and children, as crooks. I don’t embrace these beliefs. Yet sometimes to elevate myself, in my mind I subtly put down others who differ from me. Isn’t that the essence of racism?
     Evolution and enlightenment haven’t worked. You’d almost think we have the shards of a broken nature to deal with.