December 21, 2004 - From Ms. Mary to friends:
Late Sunday evening, after I had finished all the other _important_ stuff, I remembered the brand new box of colored balls under the tree. I decided to get ready for bed and hang the balls the next day. After I was all comfy in pajamas with face washed and teeth brushed, I remembered the bottle of wine on the kitchen counter. Hmmmm. I opened the wine and poured a glass and carried it into the living room (not a big deal; the apartment is pretty small, but again we are making a short story long) (am I talking to myself now? or are you still with me?) For some reason, I asked myself why I felt the need to do two things at once. (No, I didn't do, like, out loud, like, say, "Self, why are you doing two things at once?") It was just sort of a feeling knowing thing, you know? So I carefully hung the 18 balls one at a time around the tree (with plenty of advice and encouragement from the menagerie, of course). (This is after midnight, and my alarm rings at 6:21 AM.) THEN I put on a CD of Christmas music (instrumental, no voices to distract me with words), turned off all the lights except for the 300 tiny shining _stars_ on my tree, and sat down in the rocking chair with my glass of wine and Joe (new bear, "Joe" is short for Joseph-with-the-coat-of-many-colors). You should have seen the lights reflecting in all the little black eyes up on the bookshelf! They are really making the most of our first Christmas tree. (They can't have wine because it takes DAYS for me to get them all straightened up again on the bookshelf.) We just enjoyed the lights and the music and the peaceful feelings and kind of soaked up the joy of Christmas that had been largely unnoticed in our busy-ness of getting ready.
Last night we skipped the wine and the rocking chair, but tonight we will take time again to appreciate the good things and peaceful things that have come our way this last year.
Wishing all of you good things and peaceful things in the coming year.