Lighting the Bayberry Candle
Here’s to a blessed new year! Join me in one of my traditions on this last day of the year — lighting a bayberry candle and spending quiet time with God.
I also want to take this time to thank you once again for being part of Old Stone Well Farm! I am looking forward to so many more God moments with you in 2022.
Blessings to you!
A Christmastide Thank You
I will be taking some downtime during these 12 days of Christmas, but before I dim the glow of Facebook and hush the alerts on my email, I want to thank you for making Old Stone Well Farm such a blessing in 2021. May you, too, take this time in Christmas to hush the noise of the world so that you can keep hearing the angels sing that beautiful melody in your lives: Glory to God in the highest!!!
See you at the farm in 2022.
Blessings,
Donna
Christmas Eve 2021: A Very Holy Night
An early Christmas treat. I’ve decided to share Old Stone Well Farm’s Christmas Eve’s video a day earlier, as I know December 24 and 25 can be quite busy with last-minute preparations.
I wanted to share this holy night with you, inviting you into my home and onto the snowy paths in Vermont to explore the Christmas story once again. And get a candle ready to light as we will be singing “Silent Night” in the snowy back pasture of the farm together. Old Stone Well Farm will return in 2022, as I will be taking some downtime during the Christmas season.
Till then, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I can’t thank you enough for making Old Stone Well Farm Media & Ministry what it is today.
Remember to like on YouTube, subscribe and share with those who might be blessed by a Vermont Christmas.
Living the Christmas Story
It’s a snowy fourth Sunday of Advent here in Vermont at Old Stone Well Farm, and as I get the manger out in preparation of Christmas Eve, I share how nativities came to be part of our Christmas decorations and how the first living nativity was the brainchild of a certain saint who loved not only animals, but the Babe of Bethlehem. (Can you guess who that is?)
So how about doing something special today as you take time to sit back and enjoy our time at the farm together. Why not mull some cider? Or perhaps add a cinnamon stick to your steaming cup of coffee? Or if you are feeling really decedent, whip up some homemade hot coco and don’t hold back on the whip cream.
Treat both your tastebuds and your soul. And share the special message of striving to live Christmas with all you know and love.
Blessings!
Donna
The Holiness of Hiraeth (Longing for Home)
Where is the season of Advent going? This morning I woke up feeling the holiday pressure to get Christmas done, and then I remembered to breathe, slow down and be in the moment of this holy season. And so, I began to putz around my old 18th-century house and was struck by the memories that came flooding back when I looked at my dollhouse. There’s a Welsh word — hiraeth — which means a longing for home. I think this longing grows stronger in the month of December. Yet as we long, we take comfort in our memories. What memories of “home” do you hold in your heart? Enjoy this midweek time together at Old Stone Well Farm! Blessings!
Always Rejoice — Always
It’s joy Sunday, the day we light the pink candle around the Advent wreath and hear Scripture’s call to “rejoice, always!” It is also a day known as “Gaudete Sunday,” taking its name from the first line of an ancient hymn that was sung on this day that begins with the words “rejoice.”
But what is joy, and how do we find it even when life seems anything but joyful? And why the pink color for Advent? We will answer these questions here at the farm. (I will even explain that pink rose ornament that you see in the preview.)
And if you are curious as to what that ancient hymn sounds like, listen to the end for a snippet of it.
As always, thanks for spending this season of Advent with me here in Vermont.
Share with others!
Blessings — and joy,
Donna
The Holiness of a Candlelit Breakfast
We continue our quest to have a holier holiday season. Today at the farm, join me for a candlelit breakfast, some thoughts about the joys of simplicity and the blessing of “my daily egg.”
These midweek gatherings are my gift to you and your loved ones — a gift that reminds us all to slow down and savor the God moments all around.
Blessings!
A Fragrant Offering
What is that goodly fragrance flowing…and so goes the 17th-century French carol, “Whence is that Goodly Fragrance Flowing?”
If you are not familiar with it, then I have a treat for you here at Old Stone Well Farm. I invite you to join me at my little home built in the 1700s, the oldest house here in my Vermont village, as I make Colonial pomanders to trim the hearth and share with you the use of fragrance in Scripture and its power to hearken back to a memory and tug at your heartstrings.
So light a candle, make some tea or coffee, and allow yourself a break right now. Step back from the crazy modern world and reconnect with a simpler time here at Old Stone Well Farm, where I pray you will find rest and be renewed.
As always, thank you for joining me! Share this gift this Advent with others. A subscribe button has been added in the video, so subscribe anytime.
Blessings! Donna
The Holiness of the First Snow
A midweek time to breathe and recenter so that you can truly have a holier holiday season this year. I would love for more people to enter into Christ’s birth with peace, not stress; with hope, not discouragement; and with the beauty of realizing joy is not bought…we really do have all we need already around us. Enjoy!
Pastor Donna
accidental country pastor 