Last evening was Epiphany and Heidi and I went to sing at church. I love evening services at St. John’s because it’s so gorgeous when it’s dark outside and all the candles are lit and the gold stuff gleaming in the candlelight. The music was gorgeous and even though the service is formal (being High Church), it felt like a family gathering, with all our quirks and wonder. We all know each other very well after years of creating this community.
It does occur to me at moments like these that I’m something of a beauty junkie. I’m very visual and when I pay attention I can really see colors and texture and light. I thought of the time Rudy and I went to Richard’s house before Thanksgiving this year to a Cherokee ritual. We had met many of the people this last summer at the wonderful Gathering of the Elders in Vermont, but didn’t really know what would go on in a ceremony with ten people assembled in Richard’s dining room. He had a friend doing the ceremony with him, and they each had a large basket. Out of each basket came sage and crystals, small colorful rugs and rich yards of material, bowls, feathers and candles. The rugs were spread with the material like a tablecloth on the floor, the pungent sage was lit in a bowl, the artifacts were spread out and the candles were lit. It was so simple and so lovely. You can carry the materials of beauty around with you in a basket.
We take the Christmas tree down tonight. Our living room looked so amazing over the Christmas season. I usually decorate the tree with small white lights, gold and red ornaments , red velvet and gold ribbons. We’ve got a ton of gold angels which live in the room throughout the year, and we bought an amazing candle lamp at a yard sale in Chicago when we were there for $2, which would probably look ridiculous in any room but this one. I have such conflicted feelings about Christmas, that I’m actually glad if we can get the tree down and out in the street without a big to-do, and start playing with our forced bulbs and the really serious business of waiting for spring. (Oh yes, it is a long way away, but there are seed catalogues!) I think if it were up to Rudy, he’d keep the tree up until August, he really loves Christmas.
Over the Christmas break, we had our 19 year old grandson Alex with us, and he turns out to be a great guy. (We don’t see him often, so we didn’t really know.) We all went to church on Christmas Eve and had a great meal afterwards…a potluck feast. On Christmas Day we had friends for dinner, and on Boxing Day went to Ben Zander’s house for his Boxing Day party, where I sang Schubert with him….such a treat, I felt good for days! Alex and Heidi wanted to go see Avatar so we headed out to Waltham to see the film, which surprisingly, I liked very much. On New Year’s Eve we went to Lessons and Carols at Church of the Advent…really gorgeous and we saw lots of old friends, and then to dinner at Pierrot where we had an amazing meal. Definitely something to do next year again. But the real joy of that evening was that it had snowed for most of the day, but slowly enough so that things were plowed and cleared out, and the weather had turned warmer. The snow lay on the ground, and on the trees and gates and houses on Beacon Hill and Charles Street like something in a Victorian postcard. We walked over the Hill, I very slowly because I had to look in everyone’s windows.
I’m still behind on my holiday knitting(!) I did finish Sylvia’s red sweater and sent it to her but I doubt that she got it in time for the arrival of the Kings. But it is the best one yet, and now my sister wants to have one. I’m still working on Heidi’s sweater and a scarf, which I planned to give to Alex, but he’s not a scarf guy, so I think I might give it to Heidi’s friend Nick. (My friend too).
Making things to give to people, gold and candlelight, snow and music, singing Schubert and old friends and family...it seems a very good life for which I am very thankful.
May this decade bring us all a new vision of how to live together without compromising the earth, a good comprehensive health plan for everyone in the USA, young people running for office who have a genuine interest in the welfare of all people, and less of an interest in the "morals" of everyone else. Amen.
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