Monday Mix Tape [bleak-midwinter edition]

The weeks following Epiphany and before Easter sit icy on impenetrable earth.  I am tempted to only endure rather than live these weeks. But, if I determine to find the pockets of warm comfort subverting the cracking darkness, I find joys that feel almost pagan to the dry religiosity of my years.
Shimmering under cover of hoarfrost, winter settled-in does not demand our affection.   It's very indolence toward our opinion places all the burden of relationship on our bundled selves.  Winter is not for those who wish painless romance, easy amenity.  You have to sit with winter, in it -- embracing the beauty of its blanketed melancholy.  Slice into the crust of it to discover its inherent delights.

In that spirit, all week long I'll be sharing bits and pieces of  assorted comforts.
Monday is for music: 

the prelude

Lyrics (seriously, have you ever paid attention to these lyrics?  past the Christmas-y verse about the Wisemen?  Verse three on its own is a graduate level lesson on the theology of Incarnation!)

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a manger full of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Music for wintertime:  what's your favorite? 

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