The Notes: Week of December 22 - December 26, 2025

Hello, Neighbors!  Happy almost Christmas!  This week in City of Appleton government is a Committee Meetings Week... but with no committee meetings scheduled due to the holiday.  

So instead of your regular run-down of what to expect in city government meetings, I thought I would share with you the text of the poem I delivered for an invocation for last week's Full Council Meeting:

 

A Christmas Prayer (by Maureen Killoran)

 

Not gold, nor myrrh, nor even frankincense 

would I have for you this season,

but simple gifts, the ones that are hardest to find,

the ones that are perfect,

even for those who have everything (if such there be).

I would (if I could)

have for you the gift of courage,

the strength to face the gauntlets only you can name,

and the firmness in your heart to know

that you (yes, you!) can be a bearer of the quiet dignity

that is the human glorified.

I would (if by my intention I could make it happen)

have for you the gift of connection,

the sense of standing on the hinge of time,

touching past and future

standing with certainty that you (yes, you!)

are the point where it all comes together.

I would (if wishing could make it so)

have for you the gift of community,

a nucleus of love and challenge,

to convince you in your soul

that you (yes, you!) are a source of light

in a world too long believing in the dark.

Not gold, nor myrrh, nor even frankincense,

would I have for you this season,

but simple gifts, the ones that are hardest to find,

the ones that are perfect,

even for those who have everything (if such there be)."

I wish all of you the most blessed Christmas.  I hope you have a safe holiday, a happy holiday, a joyous holiday, and if it suits you better.. simply a peaceful holiday.  Merry Christmas, Neighbors!