Missing faces around the table

So many have lost loved ones this year, as has our family.  This isn't great writing but I wrote it years ago while watching another family face Christmas without their loved one.  It seems appropriate today as well.

How to celebrate your birth

       with empty places

               round the table,

missing eyes that once met mine.

Christmas is the family holiday.

Every song, treat, smell, candle

           reminds me…

All the things to be done,

           gifts to buy,

           decorations to put up

                     emphasize the loss…

                     the ragged hole

                     left by my loved one

                                   gone.

Why must I celebrate?

Because Christmas is for me.

You, Holy Father,

             must have felt the aching loneliness I feel

                                    when he left.

Yet You lit the skies with stars

              and music beyond any I can imagine.

Jesus, Holy Child,

              must have known my lostness

                         nakedness

                                   vulnerability

              when you exchanged your oneness with the Father

                          for a long distance relationship.

So I’ll light my candle with you,

              Holy Spirit,

                           here with me

               waiting for Christmas

                           celebrated in completeness

                                         with the Holy Trinity

                                         and

                                         my loved ones

                eternally surrounded

    by the music and the stars

                                         I missed out on so long ago.