All I Want for Christmas (is World Peace) - (Timbuk3)

Fact:  The last time I posted here was August 22, 2022.  

Thought:  I will stop apologizing... to myself, as well as to whomever might be reading this blog.  

Intention:  I have vowed to post more often, starting today, with no obligatory schedule, because I love to write and I miss it when I don't.  So mote it be... 💖

Interesting in that, when I began this blog draft earlier in the week, I had written:  "My life is pretty d*mn amazing right now".  Whew, what a difference three days makes, right?  Yet I am improving my ability to channel my inner Kahlil Gibran, reminding myself that without sorrow we wouldn't know joy.  Family Drama:  normal.  Overwhelmedness (especially at this time of year):  typical.  Disrupted Sleep Patterns:  horrible during the pandemic, evened out, back to sporadic 3 a.m. two-hour bouts of reading until I get tired enough to try again.

However, I appear to uncharacteristically have my sh*t together this Christmas... and it's still 11 days away!  The house is decorated; I actually put out my Santa collection this year (which I hadn't for a few), and am so much enjoying the vibe as well as the stories behind each one.  Season's Greetings cards will go in the mail early next week.  (Most of the) Presents are wrapped.  My Spotify holiday playlist is in process of being created; then I will share.  This all feels too good to be true. Who am I and what have I done with Susan?!?  Will publish this post and read for a few hours until my modus operandi of panic and frenzy creeps back in (ha ha ha ha ha!)... 💞

In the meantime, some specific moments of loveliness (as well as hilarity):

~ We were invited to join Sarah and Colin, along with J (her boyfriend) and his four kids plus his sister and her daughter, as well as both sets of G families at the Oasis Church for their annual holiday lights extravaganza, complete with train ride... fake snow (Colin:  "it's just bubbles, Lala!)... old-school Frosty the Snowman movie projected on the building wall... popcorn/S'Mores/hot chocolate... and Christmas trivia.  Okay, so temps are still in the 70s-80s here; it's the Spirit that counts, right?... and our Caravan of Chaos had plenty of that... 🎄

~ A few nights later we went to Sarah's to assist in decorating her tree; more stories with each ornament:  the glitter-card-lace Taco Bell ashtray (Sarah's Girl Scout Troop creation, when they still allowed smoking in restaurants!)... Dad's Favorite Child (bought at Cracker Barrel decades ago on a trip to Atlanta for Christmas; yes, each of our three received one, and Rob's is black, to differentiate his from Eric's!)... a glass heart with Colin's handprint, which Sarah helped him make during the pandemic/Christmas 2020!.  The final touch was tinsel (which my mom loved and I always hated, because it made such a mess), and we had fun showing Colin how to gently separate two or three strands and place them at the end of a branch (my mom's modus operandi).  And, when we sat down to admire our handiwork, Sarah played two special songs on her phone:  My Way (my mom's all-time favorite), and Silent Night (my husband's dad's favorite carol).  Bliss!

~ My niece's partner is a kindergarten teacher, and she asked on Facebook for donations of books to her 20 students; pick a number and she would assign us a child, and we could choose from a pre-determined Wish List.  I offered up 8, I got Emmett ("a boy's boy", she said); her offerings were sweet abd thoughtful but, reading her description of his personality made me want to introduce him to the story of my favorite pacifist bull (noted below), so I asked L, if she deemed it appropriate, to please add it to her list.  Hard to believe it was published in 1936, 86 years ago!  Still so relevant and, because it's such a classic, I sent the hardcover edition... ☮

~ Hilarious meme:

Speaking of, I haven't yet had my annual viewing of the latter yet (the Joni CD was better than that d*mn garish necklace anyway... right, Emma?); also, did you know about The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later (a Diane Sawyer Special) on Hulu?  I highly recommend!

NR (Now Reading):  Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver; set in Appalachia, it's a modern re-telling of David Copperfield and, although only a third of the way through, I'm captivated!

SONG:  All I Want for Christmas (is World Peace) - (Timbuk3)

BOOK:  The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf (illustrated by Robert Lawson)

POEM:  Nest by Jeffrey Harrison

It wasn’t until we got the Christmas tree

into the house and up on the stand

that our daughter discovered a small bird’s nest

tucked among its needled branches.

Amazing, that the nest had made it

all the way from Nova Scotia on a truck

mashed together with hundreds of other trees

without being dislodged or crushed.

 

And now it made the tree feel wilder,

a balsam fir growing in our living room,

as though at any moment a bird might flutter

through the house and return to the nest.

And yet, because we’d brought the tree indoors,

we’d turned the nest into the first ornament.

So we wound the tree with strings of lights,

draped it with strands of red beads,

and added the other ornaments, then dropped

two small brass bells into the nest, like eggs

containing music, and hung a painted goldfinch

from the branch above, as if to keep them warm.

QUOTE:  "Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come." ~ Chinese proverb

All I Want for Christmas (is World Peace) - (Timbuk3)

CREDO AT CHRISTMAS by Daniel Roselle

At Christmas time I believe the things that children do.

I believe with English children that holly placed in windows will protect our homes from evil.

I believe with Swiss children that the touch of edelweiss will charm a person with love.

I believe with Italian children that La Befana is not an ugly doll but a good fairy who will gladden the heart of all.

I believe with Greek children that coins concealed in freshly baked loaves of bread will bring good luck to anyone who finds them.

I believe with German children that the sight of a Christmas tree will lessen hostility among adults.

I believe with French children that lentils soaked and planted in a bowl will rekindle life in people who have lost hope.

I believe with Dutch children that the horse Sleipner will fly through the sky and fill the earth with joy.

I believe with Swedish children that Jultomte will come and deliver gifts to the poor as well as to the rich.

I believe with Finnish children that parties held on St. Stephen's Day will erase sorrow.

I believe with Danish children that the music of a band playing from a church tower will strengthen humankind.

I believe with Bulgarian children that sparks from a Christmas log will create warmth in human souls.

I believe with American children that the sending of Christmas cards will build friendships.

I believe with all children that there will be peace on earth.

SONG: All I Want for Christmas (is World Peace) by Timbuk3

BOOK: Holidays Around The World: Celebrate Christmas with Carols, Presents and Peace by Deborah Heiligman

POEM: December 2, 2002 by Juliana Spahr

As it happens every night, beloveds, while we turned in the night
sleeping uneasily the world went on without us.

We live in our own time zone and there are only a small million of
us in this time zone and the world as a result has a tendency to
begin and end without us.

While we turned sleeping uneasily at least ten were injured in a
bomb blast in Bombay and four killed in Palestine.

While we turned sleeping uneasily a warehouse of food aid was
destroyed, stocks on upbeat sales soared, Australia threatened first
strikes, there was heavy gunfire in the city of Man, the Belarus
ambassador to Japan went missing, a cruise ship caught fire, on yet
another cruise ship many got sick, and the pope made a statement
against xenophobia.

While we turned sleeping uneasily perhaps J Lo gave Ben a
prenuptial demand for sex four times a week.

While we turned sleeping uneasily Liam Gallagher brawled and
irate fans complained that "Popstars: The Rivals" was fixed.

While we turned sleeping uneasily the Supreme Court agreed to
hear the case of whether university admissions may favor racial
minorities.

While we turned sleeping uneasily poachers caught sturgeon in the
reed-filled Caspian, which shelters boar and wolves, and some of
the residents on the space shuttle planned a return flight to the US.
Beloveds, our world is small and isolated.

We live our lives in six hundred square feet about a quarter mile
from the shore on land that is seven hundred square miles and five
thousand miles from the nearest land mass.

Despite our isolation, there is no escape from the news of how
many days are left in the Iraq inspections.

The news poll for today was should we invade Iraq now or should
we wait until the inspections are complete and we tried to laugh
together at this question but our laughter was uneasy and we just
decided to turn off the television that arrives to us from those
other time zones.

Beloveds, we do not know how to live our lives with any agency
outside of our bed.

It makes me angry that how we live in our bed—full of connected
loving and full of isolated sleep and dreaming also—has no
relevance to the rest of the world.

How can the power of our combination of intimacy and isolation
have so little power outside the space of our bed?

Beloveds, the shuttle is set to return home and out the window of
the shuttle one can see the earth.

"How massive the earth is; how minute the atmosphere," one of
the astronauts notes.

Beloveds, what do we do but keep breathing as best we can this
minute atmosphere?

QUOTE: "We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds. Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names. Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood." ~ Maud van Buren