Hi friends. I know regular blogging is not really happening right now. It’s just been a “pause” season for me but I promise to be back soon. In the meantime, here’s something I wrote last year for St Lucia day (13th December) which is still as meaningful to me today as is was then. May you always seek and find the light, even if it’s just a crack in the darkness.
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I got out my bowls and scales on this cold winter afternoon. The blue skies of this morning had disappeared behind heavy grey clouds that promised snow and a few light flakes were blowing around outside the window.
I tied my apron, pulled the ingredients out and went to work, baking the luciabrød, to mark one of the few saints days I am becoming good at remembering.
St Lucia, a woman whose story has been largely lost, truth mingling with legend until who knows what actually happened. There are so many variations, so much sounding like the other saints of the early centuries. But this much I am sure: she was a woman who so astounded people by her life and by her death, that her name was spoken over and over, is still remembered today.
We celebrate her with candles on dark evenings and with soft bread buns made bright yellow with saffron and egg yolks. She is the patron saint of the blind but maybe her story can somehow open eyes again, make sight new. The rumour, however garbled, of her faith, her courage, her confidence in the light she saw.
This is something to celebrate: the perseverance to believe in the light, even when everything about is darkness.
