Category: ART

St.Stephen’s Day

Yesterday was St. Stephen’s Day, also known as Boxing Day.  Have no idea why it’s one of my favorite days of the season. Perhaps it’s because I like to believe and practice that there really are 12 Days of Christmas beginning with the big day and leading up to the beautiful Feast of the Epiphany, or Little Christmas.

Molly and I drove up to Vermont yesterday to join old friends and family for hugs, visiting and good cheer. We’ve woken up to a gorgeous snowstorm, albeit we must take care in it.

Wonder, magic and love swirl around us amidst the twinkling, drifting flakes falling softly around us.

Nollaig Shona

I heard Bono was busking on Grafton Street in Dublin yesterday…how cool is that?

We enjoyed long walks, a quiet evening watching Joyeux Noel about the WWI Christmas truce in 1914, and then sitting by candlelight before bed for reading and rest. I love this quiet low-key Christmas. Today was a leisurely day visiting both sides of the family, and tomorrow I’m off to Vermont with Molly for more visits with family and old friends. ‘Tis the season to make time to spend with the ones we love.

Still

Still reading all the Squam posts…2 weeks since the day of arrival and what I wouldn’t give to create some of that magic here today. The well’s been drying up lately and I can’t wait for NBOS this coming weekend. I really should be writing vintage bathing suit descriptions, and a gazillion other things in preparation for a big event this coming weekend and our upcoming move to a gritty whaling port of yesteryear, in its heyday the wealthiest city in the world.

Exciting but also overwhelming. So I escape back to Holderness by reading the journal entries of others. Love it, because they all capture so many different aspects of it that together recreate the entire experience for me.

What I did for my birthday week

yep, the older I get it moves from my birth DAY, to my birthday WEEKEND, and now it’s slowly creeping up to birthday WEEK, I imagine MONTH is what follows…I love that the September Squam falls around my birthday, and now that I’ve finally gone, there is no doubt it will become an annual pilgrimage for me. As the wise woman says, it is not a luxury, it is a need.

The last time I went to a retreat was when I was 16. It was called ECHO and was at the Craigville Conference Center. And while there were girls there I knew, there were also those there I didn’t. And while it was a Christ-centered retreat, it involved much storytelling, art, creativity and all around sharing as does SAW. Which makes me wonder — spirit, God, art, nature, creation…isn’t it all the same? I know the message of Squam was the same as the message of ECHO — whether we knew each other or not when we arrived, we felt the same thing when we left — one LOVE. Mmmmm, blessed synchronicity.

Wild Women

…don’t get the blues. Bullshit. For this wild woman anyway. Because I am a wild woman, I get the blues. Always have. This revelation hit me this morning on my walk to the beach with Bob. For the first time I realized, hey the blues ain’t so bad. There a good thing for me as I prefer myself in my wild state.