As the second of Advent approaches, I'm sharing my one of my favorite Christmas poems.

Chris wrote it for me a few years ago, and it's called:

Things Unseen

I’ve never seen a night sky
ablaze with angels in full voice
shouting ‘Glory to God in the highest!’ But once I passed a field
of sunflowers washed in slanted
light and watched as white-winged
waves of gold-crowned cockatoos
crashed upon the haloed stalks
and thought I caught
‘in excelsis Deo!’
between ecstatic squawks.

We arrived in Australia 20 years ago today, on the back of the Millennial Drought.

As we climbed into smaller & smaller planes & looked onto brown plains, empty dams, wildfires & dead cattle, I clutched my 10-week-old son & promised him we wouldn't stay long....(a thread) For the first decade, I resented everything about this place: the capricious weather, the endless flies, the absence of old friends, the searing heat & wind. I let the dust storms & empty water tanks & brittle grass seep into my soul & fester there.

Sure, there were moments....

I accompanied my Year 12 British Literature students to Moree, NSW, today, in an attempt to find the final resting place of Edward Bulwar Lytton "Plorn" Dickens, the youngest and 10th child of Charles and Catherine Dickens.

Come join us on our journey...a 🧵 We drove 2 hrs west through cotton & sorghum fields, pecan plantations, & numerous hamlets including Gravesend (where dreams go to die?).

Dickens sent several of his characters & two of his sons to Australia to make a better life for themselves. Edward settled in the Moree area.

We're expecting a significant number of crash-grazers in our backyard today, so I'm putting a wild pork roast in the camp oven for a couple of hours.

Most Aussies don't eat feral pork, but we enjoy the tenderness & flavor of organic, grass-fed pigs.

First step: light a fire. While your fire is settling in, rough-cut a hearty pile of carrots, celery, onions, & rosemary. (I start with the rosemary so the fragance is infused throughout the board, knife, subsequent vegetables, & home.)

OK, here goes. Am so happy to be able to gather y'all in my kitchen & share my mom's Maple-cinnamon Rolls:

In a large bowl combine & stir gently:

1 cup hot water
1 cup milk
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp honey or sugar
2 chunks butter Now get some bread flour and salt handy.