Had you given up on me?!? Crazy to think it's been two months since I last posted on my blog. Attempting to get back to at least a once-a-week schedule!
Rather than backtrack in detail, I will encapsulate to say that we resurrected our Thanksgiving tradition and hosted The Usual Suspects, which was joyful and much-needed. Then... dum dum dum dum dum... the Omicron variant (of COVID) hit, and we've all gone back to cautious mode.
I continue to call and text with long-distance family and friends, and I'm still reading like a motherf*cker but, honestly, my main coping mechanism these days is The Caring Community, which I've mentioned previously. We moved Garden Day from Thursdays to Fridays, and there has been so much progress in the few short months I've been involved; in August we were cover-cropping and everything was dormant... then Fall planting the first week of November, and now we are harvesting four or five grocery bags of greens and herbs *weekly*, not to mention papayas, bananas, and black sapotes. Our HOPE Outreach Food Bank Garden even received a Sustainability Award from the Town of Davie a few weeks ago!
And then... the holidays arrived in full force, which have kept me insanely busy (in the best possible way); the house looks so festive with decorations, as opposed to last year, when I, sadly, only displayed my front-door wreath and my doormat... 🎄
It was nice to go off the grid the last two days, joyfully penduluming from peace to chaos and back again: cooking/baking strada and Mexican wedding cookies (other yummies, too!)... fun as well as meaningful text and phone conversations... attending a friend's Christmas Eve party... Christmas Day with the MossFam6... elderflower champagne cocktails... giving and receiving thoughtful presents (and presence)... much laughter... my Spotify playlist (see below) which continues to entertain and inspire... 😍
Hoping you and yours enjoyed many special moments throughout the holidays, connecting with family and friends, and appreciating moments of quiet too. Much love from our tribe to yours... 💖
P.S. Mixtapes are my SuperPower and, having segued from cassettes to CDs over the decades, I am here to say that Spotify playlists rock (thanks for the encouragement, MW!). The Crazy continues but, as long as we have fab music and great friends and books and nature and walking, we can do this; it's 90 minutes because I have a 45-minute walking route in my condo complex; this way, I get two exercise outings for the price of one!
P.P.S. Full Disclosure: I gleaned some of the songs from the cool holiday movies I watched this year: Dash & Lily, LoveHard, Single All the Way... NOT Hallmark, I swear (ha ha ha ha ha!).
POEM: Mistletoe by Walter de la Mare
QUOTE: "If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold ever-more wonders." ~ Andrew Harvey
Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.
Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen—and kissed me there.
QUOTE: "If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold ever-more wonders." ~ Andrew Harvey
