The Christmas Rose

I grew up with Larry Nelson on KOMO radio. I listened to him from childhood through adult life. Basically from when he started broadcasting to when he retired. He actually went to school with Don Bruneau which added a little more interest to my listening. He loved poetry and would frequently share poems and thoughts he had on the radio in the mornings. One of the poems he sited had to do with the Christmas Rose. I don't remember much about the poem, other than it has given me a special feeling for a flower that can hold on until Christmas. And that is what I have this season. In back of my apartment there are several old roses that have seen little to no care in years, I am sure. But there are two roses that have just opened. One is probably white while the other is a watery yellow, but both are entering full bloom as Christmas also enters full bloom. There is a song "Lo How a Rose Er Blooming" by someone that refers to Christ as that rare rose. I understand that because it is so special and so of notes.

I am glad Christmas is upon us for a myriad of reasons, high on the list is I just enjoy the holiday. But equally as high is the reality that we all invest a lot of time and energy into making it happen, it is nice to play it to fruition. I have had a great deal of fun getting things together this year. It has been a difficult season of my life and I have been hanging on to the beautify and reality of Christmas maybe a little more than a normal year. Though my life has been insane there are good things that are a constant, and Christmas is one of those wonderful constants. Ready or not it is upon us and I celebrate that.

So like my valiant roses we all need to just persevere to the end, enduring so that we might grow to perfection and enjoying the process. Merry Christmas, one and all, know that I celebrate it this day and every day.

Those dang sea gulls

I have spent the last three years of my life watching sea gulls and have arrived at some conclusions as far as they are concerned. I have heard them described as rats with wings, but such nice looking rats they are! At the beach they were out harvesting the tide flats in the morning, picking up clams or whatever to take into the air and drop. They harvested what was there and they fit in their environment perfectly. They were everywhere all winter but were represented by only a few in the summer by comparison. Procreation took precedence over harvest I might observe.

Now I live next to the football field and watch those same birds go through a really different ritual. In the morning I get up to watch them march down the football field to turn around and march back the other way. Where is the gull dignity in this? Gulls were meant for sea food not angle worms or whatever. Robins eat worms, crows eat worms but what is this with the sea gulls?

I will give them a vote for entertainment. It is rather like a slow motion game of football minus the ball and the tackles. I have seen many a high school football game with just about as much organization. But the food is more typical to the species...french fries and the likes...no worms!

In the grand scheme of things the life of a sea gull does not matter much, but they certainly do entertain me!

simplicity

I have been finding myself with a little more time on my hands than I really have desire to fill. And that has caused me to do some looking around for things that make me happy. First of all is conversation, but it is hard to have a conversation alone so that one has to be put on hold until I can cultivate some locals that think and love to talk about thinking. Anyway, it has come to me that I really just prefer simple things.

I have been playing the piano maybe 2 or 3 hours a day. Everyone has heard my harangue on playing vs. practicing. Let it be known I have been playing. I have touched several hundred pieces, some are revisiting things Ihave loved in the past and some are totally new to me. Either way, I have had a lot of fun doing that. It is how I have been spending my evenings. I have Even sat down and mostly worked out a Rachmaninoff Prelude that I have loved for years. It is not performance worthy in any rights, but it is fun and something I have not played ever to performance, but that I have always enjoyed. had even thought about doing some writing but I have not gotten that tired of myself yet. I love to compose and am moderately OK at it, but it is just such a slow process when you do it by hand....haven't gone there.

I thought I would be spending way more time on the sewing machine. I have made a couple of household things I needed. But the big machine probably sounds like a thrashing machine from down stairs so I limit the use of it to small amounts and to the middle of the day. It is so strong and powerful that it vibrates the floor. I will invest time in Christmas things, noise or no, but not there yet. I did yard home a quilt that needs finishing so I think that will be my afternoon entertainment today, after Linda picks up James and Logan and after church. It is donation quilt but it is a particularly nice one with high loft batting, my favorite! Hurts my hands to tie it but I am trying...long live pliers...now if I can find a pair here.

Last great read....2 Nephi 11:5. What a positive thought and how amazing it is offered for free to all of us.

Gossip

Life has allowed me to come to a further understanding that gossip, no matter the circumstance, is always wrong and hurtful. There are no exceptions to that rule. And for the righteous that justify their gossip by saying they need to know so that they can be kind, or help or whatever, one comment....step forward and plant your feet on solid ground rather than quick sand. If you need to know, and does anyone really need to know, then ask the person in question to their face. They will either tell you the information or tell you to move on and stop nosing into things that you have no need to know.

In researching for a talk I read a great story. A Bishop was aware of one particular woman that had the strong need to know things that were of no concern to her. He pulled her into the office and gave her a bag of feathers and asked her to take them to various houses (those that they knew she had gossiped about or with) and deposit several on each porch step until they were gone and then return to the office. She obediently did as instructed, placing the inconsequential feathers on various porches. Upon returned she was asked to go back and collect all the feathers. The woman quickly pointed out that collecting feathers, all the feathers, would be impossible. The wind would have broadcast them and they no longer could be collected. He pointed out that gossip was like those feathers, nothing and no one can undo the damage done by simple gossip. I know I need to be sure to remember that all the time. It is always interesting to know things and sometimes knowing is not the kindest help. Sometimes I drop feathers and then realize I have done so and try to gather them back to know that words can never be taken back.

I thought that was an interesting story and something that applies to all of us, no matter how much we pretend that we never participate in anything as wrong as gossip. I think we all do to various degrees and we all need to remember those feathers.

That said, I am marching slowly towards tomorrow. Tough road right now but I am moving in a direction that I want to go and I know that I can weather the storms. I just get tired of doing so! And my body is telling me this is not a good season with all sorts of not so subtle comments. Stupid body...get on board and help me out here!

royal watching

Prince Charles and his sister (Princess Ann, almost my name if you notice) are pretty much the same age as my brother and I, a fact which my mother commented on occasionally in my growing up year. As I read here and there about the royal wedding coming up I reflect back on my little girl dream that Prince Charles would somehow manage to find me tucked away on the Island. I think it was my mother always commenting on the similarities between her children and the British royal children. All I know is that I harbored a very real dream that somehow fate would find me and I would forever live in grand style, happily ever after. OK, first of all, a title does not a man make as life played out for poor Prince Charles. We each have to make our own little bit of royalty and believe in it for ourselves. I think I lost that vision along the way and substituted something way too common. Life without dreams is barely living and sometimes I think I have walked away from too many dreams. Not dreams that actually can or should become reality, but dreams in the more wonderful grand sense. Dreams make the dull times pass a little more friendly to the soul and dreams do not have to be grounded in reality. That is the wonderful part of dreams. My sweet friend Fred is helping me with one dream....a boat that runs. OK, I did the boat last summer but I didn't do so good on the running part of the equation. Hopefully with his help I did better. Working on this project is almost like working with Lawrence, they are really similar in my mind....with a few years in between. There is so much boy left in Fred and in Lawrence and that is back to the dream thing. They have managed to keep the dream nurtured and alive even when the world has tried to put it out. It is my plan to put them on the boat and send them out to terrorize the salmon population of the Sound. This is the year that the Humpies should be running as they certainly weren't last year! And now I must focus ever so more on the Pita bread I am baking. It takes a lot of fussing to make it turn out right. I have been making humus and pita chips, and making my own pita makes it pretty reasonable in price, it is a fun experiment and I find myself in need of fun these days. Life has gotten way too serious and way to predictable and both are not good for the dreams I am fighting to maintain. If I can't have conversation I can have dreams, and both satisfy the same part of my life.