This year, December 2022, three years after the world was turned upside down, The Grief of Life and The Trouble of Christmas are practically members of our family.
Erin Em says: “It’s been a year since I’ve seen my father. Just from thinking critically and standing up for freedom of choice as to what I’m allowing into my body, I probably won’t see him alive again.” You can listen to her entire story in the podcast The Night Shift.
A Mother remembers her son, Guy
“December is a heavy month for me and my daughter. We will not be celebrating Christmas this year – maybe never. My son’s official date of death was Dec. 21, 2021, Winter Solstice Day. It’s when they stopped his heart medication with my consent. But I think he “died” on December 5th.” You can hear her own words in the podcast, 31 days in 2021. “Do what’s in your heart,” she told me.
And so we dedicate this podcast to this young man who left the earth too early. And to his mother and sister, who must live without him.
Guy’s favourite bumper sticker:`“Beam me up, Scottie, there is no intelligent life down here.” One of his favourite quotes by Clarence Darrow:
“As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.”
What has not changed:
the sun dips into the horizon at 4.16 in the afternoon. As the night deepens, we gather together around the light. Here’s a story to celebrate all of us at this time of year.
Christmas in Cornucopia was inspired by a real town named Cornucopia on the south shore of Lake Superior where my little family and I spent a magical November and December when our son was just two. We were broke, but so gobsmacked by the beauty, the pristine quality of nature and the warmth of the community in that town, that this tale practically wrote itself. I especially treasure the story because it is an ode to creativity. Christmas in Cornucopia shines a light on the distant hologram of childhood; a portrait of what we all want: love, a place to call home, inspiration, joy, belonging.
This December, we offer our special temporary broadcast on Monday, December 19th through Boxing Day, 2022, here, and wherever podcasts are found.
Beautiful four-part harmonies by After Hours, a vintage Sunshine Coast vocal jazz quartet are featured singing Christmas favourites: ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’.
You can find other seasonal stories on this podcast, Rachel is Born, My First Christmas with Rachel, The Christmas Monster of Ripple Rock & the Introduction to the Podcasts with Read Island Santa. These are the earliest podcasts recorded in November and December of 2019 – just before the world broke apart with COVID.
The best of SUNSHINE COAST MUSICIANS
Local flavour comes in and out of the stories in song, by After Hours, a vocal jazz quartet, singing Christmas favourites in four-part harmony: ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘The Little Drummer Boy’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’.
Shelley Dillon sings Bach/Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’ with jazz pianist Ken Dalgleish. Original music with Blaine Dunaway on mandolin/violin and the late Shari Pandit on keyboards, creates and records two tunes for the podcast Read Island Santa Claus. Seacoast Players, classical string quartet plays ‘La Rejouissance’ ( flute solo) from Handel’s Fireworks Suite.Ken Dalgleish plays a haunting jazz melody on the grand piano at The Sunshine Coast Arts Centre to go with the podcast The Christmas Monster of Ripple Rock.
REALLY GOOD NEWS on an altogether different topic:
This past year my audiobook of A Theory of Expanded Love won ‘Distinguished Favorite’ in the New York City BIG BOOK AWARD:
And unexpectedly, the title made it to
Book Riot’s list of 100 Best Books about Women and Religion,
a list shared by amazing well-known writers Arundhati Roy, Alice Hoffman, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Walker, Ann Patchett, Margaret Atwood and more for books such as The God of Small Things, The Dovekeeper, The Poisonwood Bible, The Color Purple, the Patron Saint of Liars and The Handmaid’s Tale.
I said O M G.
This is what they said: “Below, you’ll find 100 titles in which women take creative, inquisitive, constructive and critical postures toward religious traditions: those of their birth: those that belong to others, and which they encounter with an open spirit; those that they work to reform; those that they adopt. No two books are the same. All are vibrant; all hold the potential to illumine.”
https://bookriot.com/100-must-read-books-about-women-religion/
