clouds of busyness

Take Time to be Aware     Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196

Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.

An old abbot was fond of saying, ‘The devil is always the most active on the highest feast days.’

The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all.

still waiting, waiting still

"Life is a constant Advent season: we are continually waiting to become, to discover, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment are all part of our Advent experience."

from a church newsletter, 1993 

 

blessings, daily

another dime found!

Thanksgiving dinner being a far-distant memory,  the perfect pizza was created.

Camellias are blooming at the Arboretum, which is nice as the vibrant leaves are now goopy brown piles of slime.

A true Seattle curb.

and the season's first piece of lefse being rolled out.

poetry for Friday

Still celebrating my birth month, so decided to post this favorite.  Despite it's rhyming, I've enjoyed reading this Christina Rosetti poem over the years.

A Birthday

MY heart is like a singing bird

  Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

  Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

  That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these,

  Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;

  Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

  And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

  In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

  Is come, my love is come to me.

ten top

In honor of the dime I found this morning and the day of thanks tomorrow, decided to list the top ten things for which I am grateful today:

1.  continually finding coinage
2.  a cool climate
3.  vibrant colleagues with whom to work
4.  a furry funny pet
5.  a room of my own in an eclectic neighborhood
6.  a delicious menu for tomorrow

7.  health--in particular my eyesight and my ability to walk.  (I know this is weird but for years if I'm having a truly horrific day, I use the handicap toilet stall and it always puts things into perspective for me.  Yes, I'm having a bad day, but I am fully mobile and able to get around on my own.)

8.  continuity of decades long friendships and the email/im ability to stay in constant contact

9.  new friends and new paths

10. pumpkin cheesecake bars that are cooling on my counter as I type

more cents

two cents found to accompany my two funny post-it gifts....once again, the blurriness ruins a good shot.  The captions are "Put your big girl panties on and deal with it!" and "Bring coffee and no one gets hurt!"

the shoe fund grows

by a finding of $.11

I got shoes. You got shoes?

Birthday shoes!  Buy one pair, get two pairs free.  What a happy deal.

poetic Friday

Diagnosis

by Sharon Olds

By the time I was six months old, she knew something
was wrong with me. I got looks on my face
she had not seen on any child
in the family, or the extended family,
or the neighborhood. My mother took me in
to the pediatrician with the kind hands,
a doctor with a name like a suit size for a wheel:
Hub Long. My mom did not tell him
what she thought in truth, that I was Possessed.
It was just these strange looks on my face—
he held me, and conversed with me,
chatting as one does with a baby, and my mother
said, She’s doing it now! Look!
She’s doing it now! and the doctor said,
What your daughter has
is called a sense
of humor. Ohhh, she said, and took me
back to the house where that sense would be tested
and found to be incurable.

(Met this poet several times in Princeton at Labyrinth.  She has stunning silvery hair and is an amusing person with whom to chat.)

forty and fabulous

Iconic things occurred in 1969:  Woodstock, Apollo 11 moon-landing, Sesame Street launched, petrol was $0.37 per gallon (!), Golda Meir became Prime Minister,  PBS was created, Chappaquiddick,  the Concorde's first flight, first ATM installed, the 747 made it's debut flight from Seattle to NYC, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was playing, and the precursor to the internet and personal computers was invented.

An auspicious year to join the planet; the year of the Rooster.  I've posted this poem before, but I love it deeply and it resonates each year, so am reposting it.

I Am Running into a New Year

Lucille Clifton 

i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twenty-six and thirty-six
even thirty-six but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me

from Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980

 

So, lift a glass and toast to a new decade.

Who knows what adventures lie ahead?

But the year ahead looks fabulous. 

Not in 1969, but another auspicious event on the 19th of November was the Gettysburg Address in 1863.

serendipity

morning vista

staff meeting surprise!

my view for part of the afternoon

a broader view

Are these just not the most adorable little robes possible?  Makes my heart happy to see miniature Anglicans running around my choir room.  And these singers like to wear their robes to rehearse.

But the true blessing of today was this jacket.  I need a waterproof casual jacket to live around here and when I poke around online, the run in the hundred$.  I randomly decided to pop into our thrift shop after work and found this.  Not only was the initial price inexpensive, it was 75% off.  And it fits.  And it's a decent colour.

$4.11 was my grand total.

squinting at the day

Think my pupils are quickly losing their ability to contract, so went out into the sunny world this morning, squinting like a little mole.  Here are the sights that I saw....

the holly with no ivy

 one of the beautiful rock walls on my walk

trying to capture the cross atop this chi-chi girls' school

almost...

success, of sorts

bright rosemary blooms

whimsical planters

beautiful, and deadly

where I need to live

and, true to my centsitive days, found a penny.

blustery blessings

This day of icy-rain and billowing branches was a good time for cosy coffee and spicy noodles.  And a penny mailed to me and a penny found!

cents, scents and senses

a truly crisp day for an autumnal stroll....

out-of-focus moss

brilliant fuschias--I love how colours pop on grey days

The Conservatory at Volunteer Park

I was trying to catch the fish via the lens, but actually like the tree reflections that showed up.

Some of the rare trees that still have their leaves.  The contrast with the stark, rather Gothic house, is nice.

Again with the bluriness, sorry.  This was a delightful basement window box; there are gourds tucked behind the cabbage blossom things.

Was disappointed that I hadn't found any coins on my extended walk today and voila!  A dime in my lobby was waiting for me.

Stay tuned for bagpiping and kilts....although, I know for some of my readers, that is not an enticement!