Lisa'a Yule

Once there was a little girl named Lisa who lived with her mother and father and her older brother Brendan in a little house in a big wood.



One day in December, Lisa’s mother said to her, “Soon it will be Yule, when we celebrate the birth of the Sun God.  It is a holiday of light and greenery, so we will decorate the house with candles and evergreens.



Lisa was excited.  She remembered last year at Yule she and her brother had gotten to stay up as late as they wanted and listen to Daddy tell stories while they burned the Yule log.



The next day, Lisa and Brendan went out into the forest to collect greenery to decorate the house.  They picked up branches of evergreen trees that had fallen onto the ground and put them into baskets to take back.



When they had to cut a branch off a tree, they would always ask the tree’s permission first and then Lisa would leave a bit of break at the foot of the tree in thanks.



Soon they had enough greenery to decorate the whole house, but they could not find the perfect Yule log.  There were lots of logs in the forest, but they were all too skinny or too fat; too long or too short.



Lisa and Brendan ran back to the house to tell mother and father that they couldn’t find the right Yule log.  “Hmmm…” Father said thoughtfully after he listened to their story. 



“Hmmm…” said Mother as well.  “Tomorrow I will go out with you and we can look together for a Yule log.



The next day after decorating the house with all the greenery that they had collected, Lisa and Brendan and Mother went out into the woods to look for the perfect Yule log. 



Before long, Mother saw a big branch that had fallen off an old Poplar tree.  “How about that one?” she asked Lisa. 

“No,” Lisa said.  “It’s too skinny.”

“Oh,” said Mother, and they kept walking.



Soon, Mother pointed to the trunk of an Oak tree lying on the ground.  “How about this one?” she asked.

“No,” Lisa said.  “It’s the right size, but it’s too ugly.”

“Oh,” said Mother, and they kept walking.



And so they went on.  Mother would point as logs and branches, but they just weren’t perfect.  They walked and searched all morning, and then at noon they sat down on the ground to rest.



While they were sitting, Mother said to them.  “You know, every tree is special and different from all the other trees.  What we see as faults are parts of what make each tree unique.”



“Even a skinny tree?” Lisa asked.

“Skinny trees are just young trees that haven’t had time to grow big round trunks yet,” Mother answered.



“Even trees with ugly bark?” Brendan asked.

“Tree bark has blemishes when the tree is injured, but inside the wood is strong and beautiful,” Mother answered.  “Any tree that we pick will be special,” Mother told them.  “It won’t look like any other tree in the forest.” 



And so Lisa and Brendan and Mother picked up a big fallen Elm branch and dragged it back to the house.  It was a little too wide to fit in the fireplace, so Father cut it to fit.  It wasn’t quite perfect; but it was not like any other tree, and so the whole family fell in love with it.



That year at Yule, Lisa lit their perfect Yule log with the piece from last year’s Yule log that she had saved in her room all year.  The whole family sat together in the living room drinking hot chocolate and listening to Father’s stories until the last of the Yule fire had gone out.



Lisa gripped the leftover piece of her perfect Yule log tightly in her hand as Father carried her upstairs.  She was so tired and happy from such a long Yule celebration that she was asleep before Father even laid her down in her bed.