{"id":247,"date":"2017-12-26T10:08:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T15:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=247"},"modified":"2018-01-06T18:30:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T23:30:38","slug":"meditations-on-the-12-days-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Meditations on the 12 days of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most people who celebrate any part of the Christmas season, it\u2019s a mad rush of house cleaning, cookie baking, present purchasing and wrapping, decorating and being around family. By the end of the day on the 25th<\/sup>, people are worn out, tired and ready to forget the holidays.<\/p>\n

And most people do. The wrapping gets thrown away, the tree comes down, and there is no more celebration or contemplation until we are reminded again of the holidays for a few hours on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

For many people, the Twelve Days of Christmas in the song have ended on the 25th, and there is now a depression and a darkness that hits.<\/p>\n

But Christmas Day is the first day of Christmas, and the 12 days follow it.\u00a0 I wanted to spend some time during this time of quiet after the rush of the holidays just meditating on aspects of life that the holidays brought up, one for each day of celebration. And I finally decided to just write meditations on the Song— it was already set up for the 12 days, and each part of the memory game could mean something particular.<\/p>\n

So this year, I am sharing my Meditations on the 12 days of Christmas, so you can join me if you also need a chance to breathe and think over this holiday.<\/p>\n

Starting with the First Day of Christmas: A Partridge in a Pear Tree<\/a>.
\nThe Second Day: Two Turtle Doves.\u00a0<\/a>
\nThe Third Day: Three French Hens<\/a>.
\nThe Fourth Day: Four Calling Birds<\/a>
\nThe Fifth Day: Five Golden Rings<\/a>
\nThe Sixth Day: Six Geese a-Laying<\/a>
\nThe Seventh Day: Seven Swans a-Swimming<\/a>
\nThe Eight Day: Eight Maids a-Milking<\/a>
\nThe Ninth Day: Nine Ladies Dancing<\/a>
\nThe Tenth Day: Ten Lords a-Leaping<\/a>
\nThe Eleventh Day: Eleven Pipers Piping<\/a>
\nThe Twelfth Day: Twelve Drummers Drumming<\/a>
\nEpiphany<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most people who celebrate any part of the Christmas season, it\u2019s a mad rush of house cleaning, cookie baking, present purchasing and wrapping, decorating and being around family. By the end of the day on the 25th, people are worn out, tired and ready to forget the holidays. And most people do. The wrapping … Continue reading Meditations on the 12 days of Christmas<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"1","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"2","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"2","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"2","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[45,44],"tags":[46,47,48],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-meditation","tag-christmas","tag-meditation","tag-twelve-days"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5HEA6-3Z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":311,"url":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=311","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":0},"title":"The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Twelve Drummers Drumming","author":"Gina Kleinmartin","date":"January 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This last day of Christmas has me thinking about the drummers, and how important it is to follow a rhythm. For many of us, we spend our time chasing emergencies and urgent things that have to be done right now, leaving us little time to breathe let alone get the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "health"","block_context":{"text":"health","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/drum-drum-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":307,"url":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=307","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":1},"title":"The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Eleven Pipers Piping","author":"Gina Kleinmartin","date":"January 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Finally the musicians have arrived at the party! And it ought to be a great party, with twice as many musicians as dancers. While thinking about writing these meditations, I found this article and video about seals in a hospital in Cornwall being \u2018treated\u2019 with music to calm them.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"12 days of Christmas\"","block_context":{"text":"12 days of Christmas","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?tag=12-days-of-christmas"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/pipe-pipe-207x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=297","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":2},"title":"The Ninth Day of Christmas: Nine Ladies Dancing","author":"Gina Kleinmartin","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 When I was little, my mind always pictured the last four gifts being more of a party than individual gifts. The maids-a-milking were the only humans who weren\u2019t acceptable at a ball. I did, however, always wonder why there were more musicians than there were dancers. Anyway, it\u2019s not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "health"","block_context":{"text":"health","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ladies-dance-233x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=303","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":3},"title":"The Tenth Day of Christmas: Ten Lords a-Leaping","author":"Gina Kleinmartin","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I could talk again about the wonderful party I imagined as a child the lords and ladies, pipers and drummers were having over the last few days of Christmas. But there is no need to talk about healthy movement just a day later. So instead of thinking of ballet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "health"","block_context":{"text":"health","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/lord-leap-300x211.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":287,"url":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=287","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":4},"title":"The Seventh Day of Christmas: Seven Swans a-Swimming","author":"Gina Kleinmartin","date":"January 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The other day, I was driving our son through a nice Christmas snow so he could volunteer at the museum, and he said, \u2018you know, mom, everything is pretty with snow on it.\u2019 I agreed. The world is so beautiful when covered with snow. And I have to think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "health"","block_context":{"text":"health","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/swans-300x223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?p=314","url_meta":{"origin":247,"position":5},"title":"Epiphany","author":"Gina Kleinmartin","date":"January 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is not one of the days in the carol, but it is the final day of the holiday season. Last night was Twelfth Night (which yes, Shakespeare named a play after, and was supposed to be performed on the last night of Christmas) \u00a0and we spent it with friends,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "health"","block_context":{"text":"health","link":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/?cat=45"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteadinginthecity.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}