With You

With you there is a love
that fills the air we breathe:
a gentle understanding,
a common thread we weave.

With you I’m not afraid
to show the essence that is me:
the good, the bad, the ugly.
For, through all, your love I see.

With you my heart’s desires,
treasured dreams that I hold dear,
are safe from scorn and laughter
so I trust and freely share.

With you I have a friend
who ever seeks to understand
the hopes and joys and challenges
which make me who I am.

And though it may be hard
to believe what I now say:
“I love you more than ever
on this precious Christmas day!”

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2005

What Will I Give You This Christmas?

I searched my mind and thought real hard of presents that I’d give you.
And nothing spoke directly. Nothing screamed “It’s me! I’ll do!”
I tried the shopping frenzy, read the ads and checked the sales.
And still I came up empty. I knew stores would surely fail.

And so I stopped to wonder why, with retail options plenty,
nothing was the perfect gift for my dear loving family.
Ah! “That was it!” my heart replied. The gift that was to suit you
must be created in the love that every day does fill you.

And then I listed all the ways you’ve shared what’s in your heart:
homemade cards and salsa, photographs were just a start.
And then the royal feast, creations tasty and so vast!
I saw that you had filled each one with love so sure to last …

until we’d meet again — maybe not for months to come.
For each of you is busy being love in your home town.
So back unto the task at hand, to find a way to say,
“Thank you for the love you are today and every day.”

And then I knew my gift must speak directly to your soul.
And I know only one way — it’s the music that I mold
within my heart and soul which asks that you now look inside
and find the hidden splendor that you are this Christmastide.

Yes, you are a treasure. You are love and you are light.
You are the gift of Christmas — I see it as your life.
So please receive the gift you are, so holy and so rare,
the blessing you give others as yourself you freely share.

The Reason For The Season

Christmas comes with caroling and children’s cherished smiles,
colored lights and visitors who venture ‘cross the miles.
The morning of the twenty-fifth we eagerly await.
Presents wrapped in red and green we so anticipate.

For some, believing in the gift that oh so long ago
was born into a manger makes the heart intensely glow.
Yet you, like me, may pause each year as holidays approach
and touch within an emptiness as memories encroach.

The reason for the season we’re not able to embrace.
Instead of joy and merriment, with dread it is we face
the shopping and the baking, Christmas cards and letters too.
Even parties hold no fun when just a “gotta-do”.

How, we ask sincerely, can we know the season’s joy?
What’s the secret buried deep within each girl and boy?
No doubt it is the essence of the generous Spirit true
that lives within each child, man, and woman, in us too!

Giving always, ever, oh so freely to us all:
Spirit unencumbered is the reason we are called
to take time out each Christmas to remember once again
the child born in a manger: Love and Joy our next of kin.

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2007

God’s Bright Shining Star

If I hide my light so no one can see
then no one can be enlightened through me.
If God walks the Earth as you and as me,
then God’s ways are known only as we …

model to all Love’s goodness and light
throughout every day and into the night.
Rest then. In dreams more Truth will be told.
Waken to new days, aware that we hold …

the gift of a lifetime in vessels of flesh:
ever renewed, ever refreshed.
Shine now Love’s light on all that we are
Be for the world God’s bright shining star!

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2007

Christmas

The story of the infant
born of Love in yonder cave
was heralded by angels
on that blessed Christmas day!

When shepherds heard the news,
they joined the angel chorus
and visited the stable;
went to see the child glorious.

Bearers, too, of many gifts
journeyed ‘cross the land
to see the child wrapped in Love:
God’s call to understand.

Today as we create anew
the story of the Christ’s birth,
we sing again as angels did.
We herald our own birth.

For the child born in Bethlehem
is nestled in our hearts.
As one, this Love and we shall be.
And never shall we part.

Our lives will be transformed
by Love burning in our soul.
We’ll place this Light before us:
seek Love’s message as our goal.

Our friends, the folks who love us,
are the shepherds. And we know
they encourage and support us:
sing our Truth as we do grow.

Gifts of plenty shower all
when Jesus’ Truth bursts forth
as love and peace and joy from
our own hearts on Christmas morn!

By Jeanne Loehnis, 2003