A White Christmas... really!

Snow sticking to moss-covered branches - Sequim, WA

 According to the National Weather Service, in order to qualify for the "White Christmas" label, the event must have "one inch or more on the ground, sticking" and so today, Dec. 25, I went in search of my White Christmas.

I found it about half an hour from my home, up on Palo Alto Road in Sequim, WA. Slushy roads and all, there was plenty of snow that was sticking and more was coming down as well.

I liked the deep red of the structure nearly matching the same
color of the branches in contrast to the deeper green of the trees.

My updated Canon EOS Rebel was up to the task of recording this momentous event, but I realized after a brief sojourn in the white stuff that I do not have the same desire I had decades ago for hanging out in it for as long a time as I used to do.

Perhaps I need to do more walking about... but the damp cold made its way into my feet and hands all too quickly and I was more than ready to return to the heated seats of my front-wheel drive vehicle.

The temperature was staying low enough to keep the road
covered and for the precipitation to fall as snow, not rain.

As we go about our lives, on what might appear to be a gloomy day, if we look closely we can see the subtle colors of life making lovely patterns. It is really about how we choose to see things, and the difficulty with folks who are struggling with mental illnesses or brain disorders is that their ability to appreciate is flawed - they are not. If I was a lot younger I think I would try to find a way to help these people divert their brain channels to the prettier and more colorful aspects.

This was a solitary Christmas as all my children were in different places and I used my time well. I did not feel sad or sorry for myself for the time alone. I slept late and made myself a colorful omelet, went out and took some photographs and later was invited to a small gathering.

As the day is winding down, I realize that it has been just what I wanted for Christmas... a day of peace and joy. I hope each of you are finding some of that for yourselves as well.

This last photo seems to sum up my day... surrounded by
other trees, I still am a single, somewhat different version.

United Nations World Day of Peace - Sept. 21

A Chihuly lily in glass in Seattle.

I will make this brief. My grandmother, Elsa, tried to bring about a day of world peace back in the 1930's when she traveled around the world - on her own dollar - to meet the nation's leaders. She also wrote a book of poetry called "Unity in the Spirit," which was never a best seller, and in fact she was self-published and I think, for the most part, gave the book away. But I honor her memory today because she made the effort to stop wars, never knowing that most countries have them as an economic necessity.

Today is the beginning of the Lothlorian Peace Festival in France and a world-wide effort to bring about a three-day moratorium on all news to give people a chance to meditate on the approach of Elenin (September 26 Elenin creates a cosmic convergence by passing between the sun and the earth.) and to focus on hope, not despair, since it is rare for news to report on anything good.

I have an idea -- why not sell the open space in newspapers, like the Emperor's New Clothes?

Tony Burroughs, a founder of the Intenders and the Vision Alignment Project, is one of many leaders of this effort to "be the change you want to see." From the information about the movement: "The critical mass number is 144,000, which concerns the energy of numerology referring to the number 9, as in 1+4+4+000 = 9 and representing completion and Divine Will. Because both the day of the global meditation on peace 9/23/2011, and the Mayan Calendar designating this period the 9th wave, the energy of 3x9s is present. In numerology tripling anything increases its energy exponentially, which is why there is a unique opportunity here."

Please join us in this effort... please.

Around the Lake

This is little Gwen Lake. I have no idea why or how it got
that name, unless an early settler named it after his wife or
daughter or maybe his mother. Who knows?

In order to keep up my commitment-to-exercise plan, I took a little walk around one of the many lakes that are the reason for this location in Florida to be called "Lake City." This one is very close to my home, but I am not blessed with a view. Maybe that's better because it forces me to walk to see it. Anyhow, along the way I noticed that the azaleas are starting to bust out, which means I may miss the Azalea Festival.

The azaleas are starting show their lovely colors already.

And as I was walking, this cat came up to greet me. That in itself is sort of amazing, since most cats tend to be somewhat standoffish. But then look what happened (See photos). This cat dropped right down in the middle of the road, and although this is not a very busy street, nevertheless, I would take this as somewhat risky behavior. While flipping over from side to side, obviously hoping for some tummy scratching, it finally simply just settled down and watched the approaching car without even flinching.

No, this is NOT a dead cat in the
middle of the road. This is a cat in the
 middle of the road with a death wish,
or possibly just showing off
how brave it is.

I watched, too, and in the end it was the car and driver who veered off to avoid the cat. The cat never moved! I saw a smile on the driver's face, and thus concluded that he was accustomed to dealing with this fearless feline as I saw him turning into a nearby driveway. But what about those drivers who are not cat-conscious?

Maybe this is the clue that we are coming to the End of Times - when dogs acts more like cats and cats do more dog-like things, when the weather is upside-down with snow falling in places it normally doesn't and isn't coming down in places where it usually does. We are rushing toward the December 21 deadline for Something To Happen, but I am unsure that there is anyone who really has a clue.

The cat just stayed in the road watching the car approach.
It was the car that took evasive action, not the cat.

Suddenly it is nearing the end of January and, according to one of the astrological blogs I follow, the next seven days are critical for World Peace. The writer asks for us to pray until February 4 and hope/intend that no rogue nation does something foolish to upset the delicate balance in place at present.

I see no harm in promoting seven days of conscious prayer and/or intending the world's people can put aside their prejudices and imagine being peaceful. 

The biggest obstacle I have is that most people cannot stop arguing for a day, never mind seven of them, and that seems like an important mental and emotional shift when it comes to political beliefs - and those appear to be the elements of conflict both locally and globally. At any rate, I am willing to suspend my disbelief in this matter for seven days.

Will you join me in this intention? "Intending that everyone, everywhere is having a moment of imagining a world at peace and this imagining is growing every day until peace is the only acceptable solution, for the highest and best good of all concerned, so be it and so it is.... Whooooooo!"

Christmas in Colorado

Denver got enough snow and plenty of cold
weather to hold it for a white Christmas.

If you add in the 11 hours from Florida, plus the 36 or more from Colombia, it has taken me the better part of two days to get here. But it's been well worth it!

First, there is really nothing like a White Christmas to get you into the mood of celebrating if it's what you grew up with, and I did, so snow is good for that.

Second, seeing almost all of my grandchildren is gratifying, and watching them open presents was alternately fun and horrifying.  I think there is some kind of cicada gene that comes out when children are faced with more than one present to open and they rip into the carefully wrapped paper and ribbon like grasshoppers on fresh green leaves, shredding everything within reach in seconds.

Windows dressed in holiday lights... and
lots of white stuff outside as well.

No one said, "Oh, this is what paper from Colombia is like," or. "You brought this all the way from South America for me?" It was: get this one opened, on to the next, what's in that one, and then finally, in the famous song by Peggy Lee, "Is that all there is?"

Then like an addict after the high has passed, the children all collapsed in tearful heaps, exhausted from getting up in the dark to open stockings, jumping on their father, yelling to come down and "Let's open the presents!!" and always, always, someone is disappointed there was no pony under the tree. (This year it was me... LOL!)

Santa Claus reads "T'was the Night Before Christmas" to the crowd of
children of all ages, big and small... not a creature was stirring while he did.

We had an invitation for a Christmas Eve party and enjoyed a huge selection of feast goodies - everything from ham and salmon to mini-quiches, hot spinach dip and hard candies filled with jelly, as reminders of Christmases long ago. Best of all was the arrival of Santa Claus and I got all teary-eyed listening to him read "T'was the Night Before Christmas" because my father used to read that story to us as our go-to-sleep-Santa-will-be-here-soon evening tale. I looked around at all the eager little faces who were creating their own re-membories and thought about how I had read that fable to my children, too.

Santa Claus said he no longer smokes a pipe and he's been
on a diet for the past few years, so no more "jelly belly"
either. He sang a funny song about himself in earlier years
being unable to fit down the chimney - in tune, too!

After all the children had their chance on Santa's knee, some of the adults wanted a photo taken. I was persuaded to step up and have my daughter take mine; she caught me telling him that it had been a long time since I'd been on his knee... and when I said "We are nearly the same age, Santa," he laughed and said, "Well, not really since I am three days younger than God..."

Anyone who might remember the Karcher Mall Santa Claus from Boise, Idaho, will recall a very gentle man who lived like he thought Santa lived during the non-Christmas months. This Santa Claus in Denver, with a real beard, reminded me of those long-ago days of someone who perhaps convinced my girls that Santa was 'real' when their friends were trying to prove he wasn't. I wanted to keep the magic alive for as long as possible. It was wonderful that my daughter's new family found this exceptional representation of the mystical Claus for all the children to see and talk to.

A memorable Christmas by all accounts.

Now it's all over, including the shouting and celebrating, and we move on to another celebration of the incoming year. My grandchildren are growing up and becoming interesting young people, ones I hope I will get to know better in 2012.

But for certain I want to return to Colombia and continue working on my creative projects as well as traveling back to the U.S. for family events. Praying for good health for all my readers and for world events to move toward peace and acceptance of all peoples so we can stop the violence. I know that some people think that's an unrealizable dream, but I am still going to intend that individuals around the world are all beginning to realize that we are all one, that we can change things so that everyone, everywhere has enough of all the life-sustaining elements (water, food, shelter) so that each one, and particularly the children, all have what is needed, for the highest and best good of all concerned, so be it and so it is.... WHOOOOOOO!