On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

Andrew Wyeth

American

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

 

Norman Rockwell

Sky Watch Friday

The pink of the sunrise reflects what we can see of the river from our doorstep. And that is exactly where I was standing on that frosty morning in December. My last SkyWatch shot of last year.

Photographs of international skies can be savored by clicking here and looking for the list of entries

Whatever sky you're looking at, may peace be with you and with yours, whererever you can find it.

Love,

Pagan Sphinx

Holiday Greetings

John Bauer

Peace and love and all groovy things

Best,

Pagan Sphinx

Happy Winter Solstice

artist unatributed

Like a lot of people in the western world, I celebrate Christmas as a secularist. I don't consider myself a neo-pagan. Honestly, I don't consider myself a member of any religion, if Paganism is one. As if by nature, I reflect upon the Winter Solstice as the turning point from which the natural cycles of nature bring us back toward the light. From that perspective, it easy for me to understand and relate to how the pre-Christians celebrated in the way they did and how many of these traditions are still with us.

At Christmas, Christians are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ; a story I find fascinating and humbling, though there appears to be some historical proof that Jesus was not born in winter. Feel free to correct me on this, as I am not aversed to being corrected on these matters. I am, in fact, quite interested to hear various perspectives.

I honor and respect the various ways people celebrate holidays at this time of year. Though I am not Christian, I will, on my blogs, honor Christmas through the art I select. Just as I do with virtually everything else I am thinking about.

Look forward to beautiful madonna and manger scenes depicted by early Renaissance painters, along with images that may show magic, faeries and elves, some picture book art and whatever else I stumble upon.

Happy Winter Solstice

Who Are You?

I owe the following music choice to having recently seen Keith Moon's jacket at the Boston Hard Rock Cafe; among other things... ;-)

It's a terrible picture, and I suggest you leave it as is. I admit to having concentrated more on my daughter than on the picture taking. And then there was the annoying spot light I couldn't get away from.

I took daughter, 20 and her charming friend Camille out for lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe. I wouldn't have chosen it for myself, but I thought the girls would enjoy it.It's very entertaining to be out and about with two boy magnets. Regretfully I forgot to take a photo of the lovely Camille, whom I met for the first time this weekend.






There will be more pics on my Ruby Tuesday post, which I'll put here at The Pagan Sphinx, so please come to Boston (in the winter time...brrrrrrrrr)

For Shadow Shot Sunday - Little Red Flyer

Little Red Flier

(click photos to enlarge)

Taken yesterday at recess

Visit Hey, Harriet, who hosts Shot Shot Sunday, and see the work of other shadow seekers

A Good Day to Visit Blogs

Taken a couple of weeks agon on a blue sky day. I played around with my ancient version of photo shop and found this "ink outline" effect that was sort of fun.

It's a snow day! When I received the call at 5:30 this morning, I had a ferocious headache, so I'm grateful to be very much ensconced in my cozy house while the snow falls...and falls...and falls. It's entirely white out, except the trees that accumulate precarious layers of snow on their gray, bare branches.

I'm not quite ready to dress up in warm layers and go out there and I'm not feeling obligated to post anything in particular. So I'm gonna be a blog whore and visit as many blogs as I can for a while. That is, until it stops snowing and I can take pictures. You really can't see much out there right now.

I hope to see you on your blog today and if I don't make it and you want me to read something, please let me know!

Shadow Shot Sunday

The prayer flags in the front yard, sending out good vibes for peace and freedom

The Baby in the Garden
and assorted other garden shadows

This one is not of my yard but across the river in the town of Gill
taken on the same day as the others.

Later this afternoon, in the family room: the shadow from a carved wooden screen on the closet door in the family room.

Happy Shadow Sunday, thanks to our hostess Tracey at

What's Goin' On / Christmas / Solstice

I'm very slow to recover from this plague, as Dianne calls it. At this point, it's a vicious circle of the physical and psychological; with the physical troubles coming first and going 'round and 'round.

The ear pain is gone but my ear is still fuzzy. I'm taking the damned antibiotics, even though I strongly suspect this is viral. I wonder if it's the medication that's making me feel so queezy and headachy and otherwise out of sorts. Today is the last day I take the stuff, as it appears not to be doing much to help me. I have very little appetite and I'm now facing a return to work tomorrow, which I would be looking forward to except that I still don't feel up to par.

I've tried today to shake off the psychological piece of this plague by getting dressed in something other than sleep clothes. I paid some bills; I'm contemplating a load of laundry.

I've yet to step outside since my visit to the doctor's on Thursday. The thought just makes me feel sicker. Some of this low-level depression is due to the weather's most devastating consequence: The Winter Blues or as the shrinks call it: SAD. There was a hint of sun when I awoke not-so-early this afternoon. Yes. I woke up at 2:30 p.m. after having been awake from 2:00 to 5:3o a.m. I feel totally useless and almost lifeless. But not hopeless. Just impatient for this thing to go away so that I can feel normal and get about the business of decorating the house for Solstice. Or Yule.

These terms for the holidays don't exactly roll off the tongue. I was raised with Christmas because of both my mother and my culture; the latter of which is highly Roman Catholic. When I was a little girl in Portugal; where I was born and lived for the first six years of my life, Christmas was exactly that: a religious holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. My father, being an atheist, was willing to go along with some of the traditions that my mother tried to uphold. I don't recall that we had a tree every year; I don't think we did. But I do remember one Christmas where my father found a bare tree branch and stuck it into a tin pail full of sand. We had these little clay knick-knacks around the house: little jugs with tiny hand-painted flowers (I have since bought a whole collection of these on visits to Portugal and we hang them on our family tree) and a few small, plastic toys that we strung with yarn and decorated the tree with.

This was in the early 60's when neither consumerism nor democracy had yet arrived in Portugal. Regular, working people went to church and prepared a slightly more special dinner and desserts than usual. I remember baked chicken, rice pudding in small saucers, with cinnamon designs sprinkled on top. My brother and I got to choose what type of design we wanted for our individual pudding and my mother would sprinkle a start or a spiral with cinnamon.

People went to church for midnight mass but we did not. My father didn't believe in it and though my mother was free to go if she wished, she chose to stay at home with us. One religious custom I recall is that my mother would have my brother and me each fetch one of our boots to leave out for the Baby Jesus to put something special into. It was always something very humble by American standards; even of the early to mid 60's: a couple of clementines, walnuts or a sweet treat. Purchased presents were largely unheard of in our family, though other relatives who were more affluent would get a few toys. We got sweaters that my mother hand-knitted for us or new winter boots, socks; practical things.

I'm not wanting to call the holiday Christmas anymore because I'm not a Christian, firstly. And if I were, why would I want to celebrate the birth of Jesus in December? What I'm really celebrating is The Winter Solstice. Let's face it, the darkest time of the year deserves some merriment; a celebration that the days will soon become a bit longer and we will gradually see the return of the sun and all the life and light it brings. This I can wrap my mind and soul around.

We've given up on the consumerism of the season almost altogether. We give very small, inexpensive gifts to one-another. Our children understand and appreciate that they're fortunate to have the gift of $2oo, 000 educations. At least that's what the full "retail" price of it is. The Girls have worked hard and benefited from much private merit and needs-based help. The government gives us very little, as we are not "poor" enough. That's okay. I don't think it's unfair that the uber-rich parents of their college mates are helping to foot the bill through endowment contributions. Thank you very much.

My contribution to The Season is to decorate the house with those Pagan touches: a tree with a lifetime's worth of two families' respective ornament collections, lots of table-top decorations and lots of indoor lights and real candles, greenery and touches of red everywhere. We also make a wonderful meal and stuff stockings with practical items and candy. We enjoy it. We don't make ourselves crazy and stressed.

Honestly, in preparing my gift list for WP, I came to the conclusion that I don't really want anything. Actually, that's not true. I want a new Imac to replace the ancient, heavy HP laptop that sits on my desk. But I don't need it. This one will do me for some time to come. SG1 will soon need a new computer to replace the one she's had since freshman year. That will be the priority before she starts graduate school in 2010. I want but don't need an Ipod. I had one briefly that WP found on the sidewalk in San Francisco but it only worked for a month before the battery went dead. Neither the battery nor the gadget will be replaced any time soon. I want but don't need a couple of gorgeous sweaters and tops that I've been ogling in online catalogs.

What I wanted most is almost finished: a new floor for a huge area of my house. It's replacing the oldest, ugliest linoleum you have ever seen; dating back to 1952. I kid you not. I'm grateful for the kindness and generosity of my loving partner who knows how much "home" matters to me. And even though the long process of this renovation project has been exasperating at times, it's taught me that our relationship is more important than the instant gratification of a new floor; presto. And so I've learned to be patient throughout the long ordeal of WP trying to fit in doing the floor work with his own job and other matters that come up routinely. If I'd had my druthers, I would have had someone install it in a day but WP is a thrifty man and he insisted on buying the flooring from the least expensive outlet he could find and putting it in himself, saving us about $2,000 in the process.

Oh and a few days ago, I knew even more certainly that I'd found the right man when he came home from the library with a John Lennon biography for me to read. Sometimes I think he's not paid attention to what floats my boat and it's only five years for us; but he is proving that he does indeed listen and care about what matters to me.

I think it was Betmo (sorry, Bet, but I can't find the exact post) who said in a recent post that the best gift is the gift of time. I can honestly say that I have that from WP. We are inseparable. We can spend an entire day going about our respective tasks, in the same house, hardly speak to each other until dinner and still feel connected. Of course, we do find each other frequently throughout the day and we give each other a squeeze or a kiss or a touch on the shoulder. This so works for me! And then there are other times when we spend an entire weekend day watching movies together; snuggling and feeling very lucky and contented.

Time is a gift indeed and I don't intend to miss out on it just because the rest of the world is going holiday-crazy. Time spent also brings the gifts of understanding, acceptance and unconditional love. You can't have those things if you don't invest the time in the people you love.

Namaste, my friends.

P.S. I want to thank my friend Bobbie at Almost There for this post, which inspired a few of my own Christmas (as it was then) memories.

An Ear Infection & a New Blog

I've been home sick for three days with a bad cold which has led to an ear infection and I'm bored beyond belief. I can't seem to concentrate on anything for very long; having tried to start a John Lennon biography, began and deleted two new blogs and attempted to write at least five posts which I've trashed.

Today was actually not a sick day as school was canceled due to an early morning icy rain. We were just peering out through a window at the bare trees completely glazed in ice. Tomorrow's health and weather forecasts don't look much brighter.

My ear is fuzzy as an itchy sweater, aching and ringing and popping and my cough gets worse at night. I'm a small train wreck of a woman! You would think that the fertility gods would take pity on me in this state but to add to the misery, I'm also menstruating. Ugh. I know. I'm not usually this forthcoming with the private information but what the hell. A woman can only be so miserable before she has to get it off her chest.

But, hark! I've put the finishing touches on what I hope is a blog I will not trash - The Pagan's Eye, which I will devote to the photo memes I participate in such as Ruby Tuesday and Sky Watch. That way I will have more room here to post about art and perhaps more personal things, who knows. I can't make any promises about my writing, since I have a life-long writer's block. I've tried unsuccessfully for years to journal but the inspiration always seems to be lacking. I'm working on trying a few different prompts to get me warmed up but so far all I have is a bushel full of blogger drafts. Any words of encouragement, advise and critique will be greatly appreciated.

Namaste, my friends.

P.S. Don't forget to check my post on Susan's art work here. You are guaranteed to love it! :-)