Snowman garden

I tried to type in"Snowmageddon" for the title to this post, but auto correct changed it to the above.  I often wonder about auto correct and the trouble it gets us in and out.  I need it in other areas of my life, a Super Ego energy that knows what will keep me on track:

Me At work:  I find your thinking flawed and antideluvian.
Auto correct:  I find your thinking flawless on the Arctic.

Me at home:  I need one person to do any chore, ever
Auto correct:  I need one person to eat Anchovies.

Me with WCE:  We need an end date for the bathroom to be completed.
Auto correct:  we need a date.

So I may be cultivating an internal auto correct and see if it does not smooth out some of the edges.
As for Snowmageddon?  It's coming and I think we may get a few snowman gardens out of the deal.

Happy birthday to the the guy who is riding along with me on this great adventure.  He ordered his own birthday present after I broke his last pair.....ski poles....by darting in front of him to catch the view on a beautiful mountain in Vermont.

One gift we have given each other is our mutual love of gnomes.  It started when some dear friends brought back a genuine gnome from Switzerland that cost more than my wedding ring.  It continued with our wedding cake, topped by Snow White and a gnome.  Here is the latest:

This card was not cheap.  However, my little gnome helper and I had the following exchange in
the store:

Me:  8.00 is too much to spend on a card
GH:  Daddy has to have this card
Me:  It is really the principle of the thing
GH: (with stone hard stare) If we don't buy this card, we will regret it for the rest of our lives.

And so, my love, my greatest gift to you is the protector of what you need walking right by our sides.

That kind of day

The present, the past, and the future all walked into a bar.

It was tense.

*thank you Margaret

Snow day

We are doing some good work on this found day.  New England Snow days are the most glorious thing in the world.  Growing up in Texas, I missed out.  They allow us all a chance to catch up on the important things, like animal triage:

Huggy has been operated on several times but today's situation was dire:  he needed minor surgery on his stomach, neck and ear but when we got in, we discovered that he needed a "stuffingectomy".  He seems to be holding his own, but we are quiet in the living room, to give him some peace and allow him to recover (genius mom move). 

 



 These are the moments we all miss...I have decreed no room cleaning, no laundry, no chores.  This is a day for sledding, fort making, a bit of knitting, and anything that touches that part of us that doesn't see the light of day.  I may paint little stars on my toenails, or read some Walt Whitman.  It does seem like a day made for poetry.

Right Intentions

Happy New Year to you all.  I hope your holiday break was filled with fun, family, and a little piece of peace:)  All in all, I think '12 was a pretty good year.  We lost Nana and Uncle Roy but Amy is expecting a little girl.  Emma is beyond excited as she is eagerly awaiting I'm-not-the-littlest-one-in-the-family status.

I get a little contemplative this time of year.  Probably because heading back to work feels cumbersome.  Staying home wouldn't work but writing a book or a travel column would, I think.  I also had my 49th birthday and realized I am past middle age...I'm skiing down the mountain, as it were.  Which, as a skier, you know that is where one always get injured.  The light is flat and your legs give out.  So be it, you still keep skiing.

Here are some things I'm going to do/not do this year:

1.  I'm going to stop listening to idiots.....FoxNews, you are out (have been for awhile but it doesn't hurt to confirm right intentions) as is afternoon talk radio.  I'm afraid ET and TMZ are going to have to go, as well. 

2.  I'm going to have more patience with my kids and meet them where they are.  I think the biggest mistake parents make is to try and mold their children into a being that will not be wounded by the world.  I talked a lot this week about "mental toughness" with my kids.  I don't think it worked and I think they are probably a lot tougher than I know...and if not, stay open and be tough in that way.

3.  Weirdly enough, I'm going to try and eat less sugar.  I think it might be poisoning me.

4.  I need to relax about time......and most things, really.  One of my favorite students told me I was really uptight for a Hippie.  True.  Really true.

5.  I gave a little talk on gratitude.  Each day I'm going to start with a meditation on the things I'm grateful for......got to keep that glass half full.

6.  Meditate more, read more, more yoga....stay balanced as the center continues to look, alarmingly, like it will not hold.

Have a blessed year, all of you and I will see you on the slopes:)

Rock On little elves

My children are helping me get in the holiday mood by doing this:

Merry Christmas to you and all your elves:)

Starlings in Winter

Each year, I send out a Winter Solstice package to some neighborhood friends, reminding me that on the shortest day of the year, we have to hold onto the hope of light returning.  This year, light and hope seem particularly relevant as we all struggle to come to terms with recent events.  As usual, the poets say it best:

 

 

Starlings in Winter

By Mary Oliver

　

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.

Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings. 
































as though I had wings.