This will likely be my final post before Christmas so I wanted to make sure and wish you all who celebrate a very Merry Christmas! Also, thanks to everyone who showed their support this year for the Pay It Forward For The Holidays initiative. This was the fourteenth year for this and it hasn’t gotten old yet.
In light of this Holiday season I’d like to share a wonderful poem about Christmas that I just discovered this year. Noel, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem “Noel” is a beautiful, explicitly Christian Christmas meditation celebrating the birth of Christ. Written around 1936 (during the time he was working on The Hobbit), it was published that year in the annual magazine of Our Lady’s School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, alongside another poem (“The Shadow Man”). It remained largely forgotten until rediscovered in 2013 by Tolkien scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. In 2024, it was included in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.
The poem contrasts a grim, dark, wintry world with the sudden joy and light brought by the Nativity, emphasizing Mary’s song and the ringing of heavenly bells.
Noel
Grim was the world and grey last night:
The moon and stars were fled,
The hall was dark without song or light,
The fires were fallen dead.
The wind in the trees was like to the sea,
And over the mountains’ teeth
It whistled bitter-cold and free,
As a sword leapt from its sheath.
The lord of snows upreared his head;
His mantle long and pale
Upon the bitter blast was spread
And hung o’er hill and dale.
The world was blind, the boughs were bent,
All ways and paths were wild:
Then the veil of cloud apart was rent,
And here was born a Child.
The ancient dome of heaven sheer
Was pricked with distant light;
A star came shining white and clear
Alone above the night.
In the dale of dark in that hour of birth
One voice on a sudden sang:
Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth
Together at midnight rang.
Mary sang in this world below:
They heard her song arise
O’er mist and over mountain snow
To the walls of Paradise,
And the tongue of many bells was stirred
In Heaven’s towers to ring
When the voice of mortal maid was heard,
That was mother of Heaven’s King.
Glad is the world and fair this night
With stars about its head,
And the hall is filled with laughter and light,
And fires are burning red.
The bells of Paradise now ring
With bells of Christendom,
And Gloria, Gloria we will sing
That God on earth is come.
I wanted to thank you all for the conversation, friendship, and inspiration you’ve shown me throughout 2025. I close my ninth year on Hive, I'm extremely proud that a place like this still exists. I think those of us who’ve been on this platform for more than a few years can agree Hive is something really special. If you think this place is only about the financial rewards, I feel sorry for you, because you’re really missing out on the greatest gift of this online community.
“All of us, when we travel, look at the places we go, the things we see, through different eyes. And how we see them is shaped by our previous lives, the books we’ve read, the films we’ve seen, the baggage we carry.”
― Anthony Bourdain
As anyone who's ever participated in a meet-up or HiveFest will tell you—this place is about camaraderie, it’s about trading different ideas and perspectives. Hive is about brotherhood and sisterhood that reaches across borders. It’s a way to gain some of the most valuable benefits of travel without ever having to spend a dollar or leave your home.
Reading Hive posts and interacting with others in this community throughout the better part of this last decade have made me see the world through different eyes.
Hive is a way for us all to realize that beyond the hate, division, and disharmony the media is trying to sow 24/7, 365. Despite where in the world we were born each of us humans just want to be happy, raise our families in peace, and enjoy one another and our lives.
What a wild and crazy year it’s been, I think we all are feeling the depth and disruption of this chaos on some level. When the world begins to get me down I remind myself that we’re living through what will probably be deemed in hindsight to be the largest societal and technological transition in human history. I truly believe when we find ourselves on the other side of this transition we’ll realize it was all worth it. To give up hope and give into fear and pessimism is to lose.
As you all celebrate with your families over this next week I wish you all peace, happiness, and good health. Let’s make 2026 an incredible year—together.
All for now. Thanks so much for reading.
