December 1 - where in the world has this last year gone?!? (rhetorical question... :-)
Actually, I love this season for so many reasons, which I'll share over the course of this very special month - in fact, I'm setting myself up for quite the challenge, as I have vowed to stretch out the holiday theme until January 1...
I spent the day "decorating"... not in the all-out sense I usually do, but substantially more low-key, and therefore less stressful - since my mom's husband Ralph died five years ago, we've traveled north at Christmas to spend time with my family as well as my husband's (and since his father just passed, this year is even more important). It takes a day each way of travel time, and we stay at each place (South Carolina/Georgia) about 2 1/2 days - basically, we're away from home a full week...
In the past, I've scrambled to get all the holiday decorations out of the storage unit, haul them back to the house, box up the existing accessories that reside in my living/dining rooms 11 months of the year and then proceed to deck the halls with a tree and all its accoutrements, my Santa collection (lovingly garnered over the last two decades) and various candles/wall hangings placed just so - all is tasteful and eclectic and cherished, oh my!... but it's also lots of hard work (even with the help of children and spouse).
And this time I just didn't feel like exerting the energy - I believe in the spirit of Christmas, 365 days a year, and I chose instead to use a box of items stored in the garage (Santas purchased post-season, the front door wreath, glass candleholders for the outside posts, the gorgeous holiday afghan my friend Nancy crocheted/gifted me with last year) along with some recently acquired ornaments from my daughter (glittered pinecones, jeweled disco balls, twining poinsiettas) to sprinkle throughout to achieve the same results without the chaos.
It's only just gotten dark and I will light my regular living room candles (they don't have to be red and green to be festive, do they?) to achieve a soft glow - pair that with my favorite Christmas CD (The Roches' We Three Kings) and it's a recipe for magic (aaaahhhh)...
BOOK: A Christmas Filled With Miracles: Inspiring Stories for the Magic of the Season by Mary Ellen (Compiler), G.W. Hardin (Author)
POEM: Mixed Mode by Geoffrey G. O'Brien
POEM: Mixed Mode by Geoffrey G. O'Brien
The experience of leaving
one category for another,
of smooth being colder
than rough and of
that December I suffer
as the experience of leaving
one category for another,
using life that way
that opens and stops
moving, done,
furtively waving
as with one month
that opens and stops
among the others,
waiting and waking
in a place which seems filled
with restrained abilities
that experience that
has never seemed to me
to arrive before night
except as the need
to want to live
and want to be dead,
using a life that way,
face first, name gone,
and coming to
among a rival's things
QUOTE: "Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved." ~ Augusta E. Rundel
one category for another,
of smooth being colder
than rough and of
that December I suffer
as the experience of leaving
one category for another,
using life that way
that opens and stops
moving, done,
furtively waving
as with one month
that opens and stops
among the others,
waiting and waking
in a place which seems filled
with restrained abilities
that experience that
has never seemed to me
to arrive before night
except as the need
to want to live
and want to be dead,
using a life that way,
face first, name gone,
and coming to
among a rival's things
QUOTE: "Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved." ~ Augusta E. Rundel
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