Hosted by Dorothy Tubman we had a literally full house of listeners and tellers for an evening of seasonal stories.
Pat, accompanying herself on the guitar, led off with the sung ballad "Christmas in the Trenches", recapturing the true story of a brief time when soldiers from both sides of the warring countries in World War One called an unofficial truce. They shared Christmas songs, the small luxuries of chocolates, 'smokes' and a soccer game before again taking up their positions behind the guns they were required to fire against one another. Listeners reflected on the 'folly of war' in similar ongoing conflicts to-day.
After which Su-Su jollied us up with a fun, participartory story of "Jack and the Three Robbers". We became highly vocal Cats, Dogs, Bulls, Goats and Roosters to frighten the Robbers enough for them to abandon their gold and flee the scene, leaving Jack and the animals to share the loot.
Shirley, a newer member and first time teller, told us of her 13-year-old self as a girl who loved hospitals because they 'embody the whole of life from birth to death". As a member of St. John's brigade at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Montreal, she recounted a touching story of conflicting loyalties to family and the needs of the Children's Ward on Christmas Day that highlighted the true meaning of the Christmas message - care for one another.
Shoshana wowed us all with a Hannukah version of that old favourite "The Gingerbread Man" by turning that runaway gingerbread man into runaway latkes, that seasonal treat of nummy potato pancakes fried in oil. Such fun we had as we followed them breathlessly on their adventures !!
Lee took us to the Babe in the Manger who was much too wakeful with all that was going on around him and in need of a lullaby. Adapted from a Polish folk tale by Josephine Bernard, it tells of the other animals' unsuccessful efforts to quiet the Babe until the cat - who is always washing itself - settles him happily down.
Peg told us a cautionary tale of how to make good choices when rewarded for good deeds. Scrub and Spare, two destitute cobblers with only a field of barley and a field of cabbage to their names, are offered, by the cuckoo they save from burning in his log nest, a leaf made of gold or a green leaf renwed each Spring that will make the owner merry and wise. Scrub seizes the gold leaf which brings him wordly wealth but trouble too, while Spare comes to live at the court of the Lord of the Manor in real contentment as he spreads peace and joy around.
Lavanna's story was of Elinor, a woman spending her late years in a care home, who does not speak despite all efforts to include her in daily life. Only when a sensitive soul is willing to share her silence does she volunteer that as she looks endlessly out of the window she is "looking at the light".
Margo led into her story featuring the age-old wisdom that in order to receive, we have first to give, with the mystical music of her Tang drum. The story of a little girl who dreams of having a doll with dark skin, rather than conventional coloring, for Christmas. Finding such a doll on his travels, her father brings one home for her, they share the joy of the gift before he dies in his sleep that very night making that doll doubly cherished as a memory of her father.
Charles told a Japanese folk tale about the keeper of bad dreams, the bad dream demon, and how a cherry tree - who knew a thing or two - saved the Samurai's daughter from a dreadful fate, and to end the evening...............
Twelve of us joined in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" translated into "The Twelve Days of Christmas North" with "a blue grouse in a spruce tree, two porcupines, three bull moose, four grizzly bears, five mountain goats, six beavers swimming, seven salmon leaping, eight wolves a'howling, nine eagles soaring, ten ravens calling, eleven foxes frisking and twelve whales a'playing" that left us maybe a little breathless but full of the joy of the season.
submitted by Janna
