Tuesday, December 21, 2021

celebrate the sun

 Two more seconds lost today, but hurrah, it’s solstice and we’ll gain them back tomorrow and so the march to long days begins, second by second, minute by minute.


It was beautiful today so we ventured out in the car with a few destinations in mind. First stop, a tiny lcbo hidden in a corner store. From there we went to the vet to drop off the blanket that they sent Spike home in. Carm went in without me - I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have been able to keep it together.


I didn’t feel like it but made myself go outside to cut a few spruce boughs for the table. Adia ran like a maniac, which made us laugh and lifted our spirits somewhat, while I chopped 2 giant boughs about as long as I am tall.



Once inside I started laying them out... melting snow dripped everywhere and gosh, who knew how much detris would be tangled up amongst the needles. The table is not as epic as last year but is still covered with too much greenery. It would take some rearranging to get a guest wedged in but I think we could do it. However, with Christmas looming and omicron spreading we are keeping to ourselves.



Yesterday I thought I’d do something proactive to push the tendrils of doom away so I googled mantras. Surely there’d be something that resonated that I could repeat when depressed ruminations tried to take over my brain. Unfortunately the whole process had me in a puddle of tears before I could choose anything. Each phrase was a reminder of why I was doing this… do you have a mantra to help you through bad times?


Messy smears of pink icing globbed onto the counter as I dribbled the goo onto gingerbread cookies. The tremor in my right hand was in full force so icing flew everywhere. They aren’t pretty cookies but do have icing and jujubes. 



I took “clip Spike’s nails” off my to do list today :-(


Awesome!


“hoar frost glinting in the low morning sun”

“just enough snow to cover the grass”

“leftover soup was even better than the day it was made”

“onion rings straight out of the oven”

“vdrinks”

“dorky looking gingerbread trees”

“gorgeous red sunset”



“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.”

― Milan Kundera


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