Douce nuit, sainte nuit

This entry will probably be a little lengthy, but hold onto your time machines because going this far back in history merits such words.
In the fall season of 480 BC there is a story recorded of the Battle of Thermopylae which was between the civilizations of Greece and the Persian Empire. Essentially, Sparta had received news of two million Persian soldiers marching towards Thermopylae's gates and had to choose a mere 300 trained soldiers to hold off the incredible army for as long as they possibly could. These Spartan warriors had been trained their entire lives and waiting for a moment such as this, and the hopelessness of the situation was not beyond them. In desperate need of time King Leonidas led the Spartans to battle to save his people. Knowing the risk that the Spartans were facing the Persians sent a negotiation party telling Leonidas to forefit the country and leave while he could. To this day, in the ancient stone of Greece lies these famous words which translated mean much more than the small phrase Μολὼν λἀβε. "Come and get them" conveying the message of- if you want us to lay down our arms, you will take these weapons from our arms yourselves. The Persian embassy, willing to pardon the King's words said again in warning essentially- our army is such that we have so many archers that our arrows will block out the sun
To this the king replied
Good, then we will have battle in the shade.

The Spartan army held off the Persians for seven epic days (sustaining the minority of the losses.) until they were betrayed by a man who knew the only road leading behind Greek lines.

The idea from this story is something like this:
We may work our entire lives to do one singular thing and be successful,
even if it is different from what others expect us to do
we must continue to live the life we have chosen and say
come and get me.
Come what may, and I am going to do the best that I can with it.
I am so blessed to have people who surround my life with encouragement and nobility. They motivate me to continue pursuing greatness at every opportunity I can seize- even the small ones. They inspire me to conquer battles that I would not have found capacity in me to fight.

In contrast,
there are stagnant times in a person's life when your mind seems to be on auto pilot. The sound of your thoughts becomes an echo and repeats itself over and over again. It is during those times, ironically enough that you may stumble upon the thoughts and ideas of others who have gone before you or perhaps they travel by your side, still in this time of the earth. These words become the new thought and concept that your mind has been traveling towards and you find yourself at home in the destination of a new discovery. Tonight has been one of those revealing moments in my life- the tangent of my thoughts came together in the following quote which prefaced a new book I received as well as the translation of the french Silent Night. Enjoy them and have a merry Christmas.





You don't need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.

Don't even listen, simply wait.
Don't even wait.

Be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked,
it has no choice.

It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
-Franz Kafka
Tom Robbins' Still Life With Woodpecker

Douce nuit, sainte nuit !

Dans les cieux ! L'astre luit.

Le mystère annoncé s'accomplit.

Cet enfant sur la paille endormit,

C'est l'amour infini,

C'est l'amour infini

which means:


Sweet night, holy night

In the heavens the star shines.

The foretold mystery comes true.

This child sleeping on the hay,

Is infinite love,

Is infinite love!