Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky

Reflections on a year past

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The Year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The Year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Excerpt from “In Memoriam” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Welcome, friends. I’m Kristin: a Pacific Northwest artist, mom, & farmer offering support for seasonal, local, liturgical living. Together, we’ll explore the agrarian heritage of the Church calendar and ideas of sacred time & sacred place.

Subscribe for free to receive reflections about once a month. If you’d like to go deeper, delve into all my posts here, gather for live online events, and access my entire library of printables, please consider joining our community!

Dear liturgical kindred,

Medieval illuminators took the sacred texts that they received from scribes and made them glow: adding decorative flourishes, painting domestic scenes and illustrating sacred scripture, depicting the beauty and mystery of both the natural & the supernatural. The text became amplified through the visual arts, with both words and imagery working together to communicate a message.

My approach has been backwards: I’ve been painting my way through the Church calendar - a process of personal catechesis, really - using plants, animals, and Medieval agrarian tradition as my foil for years now. When I started writing on Substack in June of 2023, though, I started putting words to my art (which I had always assumed was perhaps a tad bit on the obscure side.)¹

And, in sharing about all of this with you - in getting to learn from you & alongside you - an alchemy started to happen in my thinking: I realized how boxed-in my concepts of both “art” & “liturgical living” really were. I started not just putting words to my liturgical art, but started enfleshing this ongoing art-based catechesis with community gatherings, donation drives, meals, history, books, hikes. I started seeing all of this, halting and imperfect though it all was, as part & parcel with worship, not separate from it.

In all that, I found that what I had thought was obscure was, in fact, a bridge for so many of us.

So, thank you - for nourishing my growth & learning this year, and for all of your impactful support.

If I could, I’d send you an Arctic Fox bearing a clove-studded orange pomander to ring in the new year - alas, this missive will have to do.

Here’s a retrospective on 2024 in the Hearthstone Fables studio:

• I moved into my new art studio - a cozy little cottage here on the farm, with cedar plank walls and a front porch facing the river.
  

• I started & finished a transformative year-long art mentorship - Kilnfolk - with my dear friend & mentor Krista Coons. I had developed a lot of rigidity in my thinking with art, and Krista helped me to become freed from that…seeing art in a more holistic way.
  

• I launched the Hearthstone Book Club with Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker (and we got to have a Q&A with Eleanor! We’re currently reading Jesus Through Medieval Eyes by Grace Hamman, and will be joined by the author in January…)
  

• In the spring, I had the great pleasure of getting to chat with

  Katie Marquette
  on her Born of Wonder podcast (which is essentially an inspirational Bingo-card filled with all the things I love): “Finding Our Rhythm in the Liturgical Year.”
  

• I also got to have a conversation with the wonderfully witty

  Meagan Francis
  on her comforting podcast, The Tea’s Made: “What is the liturgical calendar and how is it relevant today?”
  

• I was honored (and totally flabbergasted) to receive a Substack Bestseller badge in November. It’s a real privilege to be entrusted with your support of the work I do - thank you.
  

• We hosted Liturgical Life Group gatherings once a month for an entire year (!), and I shared about many of our gatherings here on Substack. (For a retrospective on our year of Liturgical Ladies, visit my St. Lucy post!)
  

• I wrote a wee ebook (free to all subscribers!) to support you as you think about hosting your own Liturgical Life Group
  

• Signs + Seasons - the liturgical living guild that I founded in 2023 - had its one-year anniversary, having featured a plethora of incredible writing over the past year.
  

• I created lots of new printables for the Scriptorium! And wrote a bunch of articles!
  

• I got to know so many of you, sharing in friendships across the globe.

…and more. All of this was woven into a year of both beauty & suffering, but little by little, I’m learning how to keep my eye on the horizon throughout it all.

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BENEDICTION

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

“In Memoriam” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Thank you for inviting me into your email-boxes to share the journey with you - I’m grateful for each one of you.

Wishing you the deep peace of Christ here at the edge of a new year, dear friends.

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

P.S. Paid subscribers - keep an eye on the Substack Chat for a survey, so that we can chat more about what sorts of printables you’d like to see in the coming year!

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• If you’d like to make a one-time donation, I have a PayPal Tip Jar - please know that I’m so grateful for your monetary support, which really does help me continue to do this work that I’m so passionate about!

• For those who are able to support a monthly or annual paid subscription, I offer new printables, extra posts, live online gatherings, and access to my whole library of printables: the Scriptorium. I’m so grateful for your generosity, which helps to support my work through the purchase of additional books for research, art supplies, funds for guest speakers, and more!

• For more reflections and perspectives on the liturgical year, please visit Signs + Seasons: a liturgical living guild!

1. When local friends find out I’m an artist and ask what sort of art I create, my go-to answer has become “Medieval-adjacent liturgical critters.” It’s a passion I can’t totally explain, but there it is!