Welcome to December!
“For Christmas is twelve months of the year. It is always with us—the promise, the hope, the salvation, the wonder, and the glory. Christ is born every day, in every month in every year, in any heart which turns to Him in praise, in thanksgiving, and in love.” ~from Face Toward the Spring by Faith Baldwin
This month’s letter is all about Faith Baldwin. She was an American writer who lived from 1893-1978, and is best known for her romance novels. I first found her, however, through Face Toward the Spring, one of her non-fiction books that my mother-in-law handed to me because she thought I might like it. I put it away for years before I actually read it. I’m so glad it didn’t stay hidden on my shelf! Face Toward the Spring takes us from November through the year to the next November. I read only one chapter per month, so it has taken me a year to finish. Her writing reminds me a bit of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea. It is part memoir, part musings on life and God.
“For the Christmas Star is a shining hope, a silver flame which cannot be quenched; not by sorrow or distrust, never by war or rumor of war. This is the month of stars—the month of the Promised Star, which will never fail us who seek it, who experience the healing light.” ~from Face Toward the Spring by Faith Baldwin
A couple of months ago, I found her second non-fiction book, Many Windows: Seasons of the Heart, at an antique store and plan to read one chapter a month as it takes me from December through to the next December. And imagine my delight when I discovered that Faith Baldwin was also a poet! Sign Posts was her first collection of poetry and is available for free on Internet Archive.
A Little Prayer in Winter by Faith Baldwin Now, when the fairy footprints of the snow Mark lace-fine patterns on the frosted pane, When trees, in shrouding ermine, stately go, And winter sunsets sky and earth-roads stain With lovely scarlet; now, when fires flare Red on the hearth, and twisted shadows creep On floor and wall, I make my little prayer That Thou in peace this quiet house will keep, That Thou in mercy will lean down to bless The love and service that walk gently here, And hold our feet on paths of humbleness, And make our eyes to see, divinely clear, The spring that waits on winter. Take, Oh, Lord, Our gratitude, who all these years have spent Gold coins of love, from love’s increasing hoard, And guide us through this winter of content.
As you can see from my pictures, I watercolor in my copy of Face Toward the Spring. My hope is for it to be an heirloom passed on to my daughters. The words themselves are beautiful enough, but there is something special about watercolors adorning an old book, don’t you think? (Or maybe you are appalled that I painted in a book?)
Flame Flowers
by Faith Baldwin
The blinds of day are drawn; and gracious night
With stars, like arrows, in her deep, dark heart,
Drops swiftly down; and elfin snowflakes dance,
To sighing measures of the winter wind,
Soft-thudding, on the pane.
This is the hour
To driftwood fires dedicate. The hearth
Holds ships and gardens prisoned in the logs,
And memories of summer seas and woods.
Here, where the flame burns scarlet-gay and blue,
Great, glowing roses briefly bud and fade,
And tall delphinium, sky-tinted, sways
In sudden, golden showers of small sparks
Like August sunlight. Here is ghostly spring,
As well as summer; tulips, crimson-splashed,
And sober violets, hooded in clear green,
In evanescent beauty, bend and blow.
Oh, who can shrink from winter’s austere ways
Who loves a garden, and who, loving, tends
The fire on his hearth, and who has eyes
To see young summer blossom from the logs
In crimson flame and frail, blue whorls of smoke?
I can’t resist sharing one of my favorite Christmas picture books with you, Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell and Jason Cockcroft, before signing off.
Wishing you the merriest of Decembers,
~Stephanie
This is just beautiful, Stephanie. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family too!🎄❤️
Thanks for these recommendations! And lovely pictures too 💛