During a songwriting challenge in October, I was given the assignment of writing a holiday song, choosing five of ten words from a list. Two words that were randomly placed together stuck out to me: “silent” and “light.” I love Christmas, everything Christmas, but what I love most is the universal peace at its core. Putting those two words together gave me a novel image on the familiar manger scene. I could just feel the hush of the people gathered under quiet starlight, in awe of this new born baby, whispering their excitement as would happen with any birth. How very human, and how very divine! And what a cool juxtaposition, the lights and experience of our contemporary Christmas in general being so noisy, crowded and celebratory. As I continued to picture the scene, I thought about the joy that crossed cultural, socioeconomic and I guess “earthly” boundaries- native, grimy shepherds in from a long day in the fields, and wealthy, educated “wisemen”/kings from afar who were probably exhausted from their travels, and heavenly angels, all sharing this love for an infant and his impoverished family who also were tired travelers. Truly a magical sight. So I wove into this vision both a reminder and an inspiration, a humanitarian message that in our quiet times and in our celebrations of life, at OUR core, we really are one in this world. “Love is Born.” (p.s. the other words were “joy,” “melts” and “magical…” :))