Big Real

Friday, December 27, 2024

As today dawns, one of my hands holds a cup of hot coffee, and my other has a chunk of (homemade) dark bread with a sweet butter slather (both about to disappear). Something missing to improve this pleasant moment is a higher outside temperature. I could perch on the small eastside deck and sip this coffee while appreciating the sunrise.

In writing this, I’m struck by how close we are to nature. I’m thinking about how, even within the confines of my home, the simple act of savoring coffee and bread connects me to the larger natural world. There’s the wheat that nourishes my bread, the bees that pollinate flowers and create my sweetener, and the cows that provide the milk for my butter. All the natural world elements intertwine and create nourishment and contentment moments.

I feel gratitude as this quiet morning’s steam rises from my cup. To put a finger more squarely on it, I am thankful for the intricate web of life that sustains us all. I might dream of sitting outside, warm and sun-sighting, but “inside moments” like these inspire me equally. It’s because of Nature’s multiple and continuous “simple gifts” that assure and comfort us all.

Dear Friends: Here’s a coffee cup salute to y’all! Diana

Double Holiday

Sandra Boynton’s art, from her PB posting

Thursday, December 26, 2024

I don’t know why my brain failed to salute Hanukkah yesterday. Its first day this year was on Christmas Day. I was aware of and tuned into that, but only now offering, “Happy Hanukkah!” I’m letting Sandra Boynton’s art speak more for me.

Sandra speaks through multi-talent channels. Here’s a link to her boogie-woogie style video, with Zooey Deschanel, backed by terrific instrumentalists, singing Boynton’s retro toe-tapper, “I Just Want to Dance With Santa Claus.” https://www.facebook.com/sandraboynton/videos/1327490604947470

As I should have yesterday, today I salute two important holidays. (Thanks to my friend Rachelle for catching my oversight.)

A welcome thing happened yesterday. The ex-manager of the department store where I work part-time, and whom I appreciate and admire, sent me greetings from Colorado, where she manages another of the chain’s stores. She’s talented, kind, and fun, and ahead has a great career. Her message is a Christmas gift that puts us in touch again.

Yesterday was a quiet one at my house. I boinged-out on homemade whole wheat bread while watching sewing videos, to learn how to shorten a jacket’s lined sleeves. That’s a new reach for me–one I had never imagined tackling. This is happening because I fell in love with a corduroy jacket–in the Men’s Department! The jacket is a youth cut but too big, especially the sleeves. I’m gonna fix them!

That evening, I lit a candle for Hanukkah and reflected on my loved ones, distant or deceased.

Dear Friends: However you celebrated, I hope your yesterday was lovely. Diana

Frosty

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Finally, it’s here: Merry Christmas, everyone!

Central Oregon’s pre-Christmas weather was nearly perfect. Yesterday, our temperatures stayed around 40 degrees. There were occasional light rains but no winds.

Mostly, I enjoyed being outside, except that near the barn, lots of sloppy mud covered the chicken coop and horse areas. The mud made for slippery footing, and I managed to navigate and stay upright by dragging my feet. I did lots of mud-skiing through the slush while feeding the outside animals.

Later, it got colder, and by the time I ventured outside to provide final feedings, the ground was slippery with black ice that challenged my boots. Shoot, I’ll take slushy mud any day over black ice. Experience teaches that black ice isn’t always visible, and not noticing introduces a high likelihood of slipping and falling hard.

This Christmas Morning, the frosty local Central Oregon’s western mountains are heavily snow-covered. At this moment, a lovely dawning in the eastern sky hints at a beautiful day ahead.

Dear Friends: Have a wonderful day, and we will meet again on the other side. Diana

Ah, World!

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Twenty-four, twenty-four…Happy Christmas Eve.

The winter chill awakens a familiar yearning in me–the desire to bake bread. Today, with a free day and a well-stocked pantry (after a recent grocery trip), I can grant myself the long-awaited gift.

I envision a loaf of whole wheat, texture-fine, crumb-soft, and a delightfully crusty exterior. My vision is inspired by the loaves that, years ago, I crafted and shared with others. Today, I’ll rediscover the rhythm of baking: the measuring, mixing, kneading, and shaping of dough. Soon, the heavenly aroma of fresh bread will fill my home.

And I’m anticipating that first warm slice, all slathered with butter! The simple act of baking bread has a multifaceted appeal. It engages my senses, sparks creativity, and even connects me to something primal in the repetitive motions of kneading and pounding.

Bread-making is a ritual that evokes memories of social traditions and family gatherings. I recall baking beautiful, braided challah loaves, fragrantly reminders of shared meals and cherished moments.

Besides anticipating delicious outcomes, there are therapeutic benefits–the stress relief, the sense of accomplishment, and the quiet satisfaction of creating something lovely and nourishing with my own hands.

Today, I will re-embrace the timeless craft, be reconnected to the joy of baking, and experience the great pleasure of an outcome worthy of my labor.

Dear Friends: Have a wonderful day. Diana

Word Images

Monday, December 23, 2024

This morning, I will answer a question I left open in yesterday’s blog. I wondered if the first day after the winter solstice is ‘the pluperfect shortest day’ of the year.

Saturday was this year’s winter solstice, a year’s shortest day. However, Sunday was the first day after the solstice, an equally unique and equal turning point. Although technically still dark, Sunday significantly marked the return to longer days.

Sunday, as a “pluperfect shortest day,” acknowledges its key position on the threshold between shorter and longer daylights. It marks, as clearly as Saturday (winter solstice), the shortest day of the year.

The pluperfect tense refers to something that “has happened;” or an action that has occurred before another action occurs, equal to, or nearly equal to, the first. In this example, the first day after the solstice is the first day after the shortest day has passed.

In a traditional sense, this might not be grammatically precise. The idea rose playfully as I recognized that a “pluperfect shortest day” equals its preceding day by significantly marking daylights from decreasing to increasing. Shifts in the cycle of light and darkness remind us that gradual changes will bring subtle but noticeable transformations.

Sunday following the winter solstice was technically as dark as the preceding day, lengthening daylight by two minutes, making Sunday pluperfect–an equal and next marker of longer days about to return.

Although Sunday’s daylight was virtually indistinguishable from Saturday’s, Sunday boasted a different energy. The day seemed more hopeful, our reminder of light slowly returning and boosting us from winter’s depths.

Dear Friends: Increasing light minutes will become visible in a few weeks. Diana

Enlightening

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Daylights are starting to lengthen, and we can start seeing that happening shortly into January. Annual transitions into longer-lasting natural light excite the outdoorsy types and those who feed large animals routinely.

Each winter, I re-experience the discomfort of having to navigate among large animals in darkness while depending on an often inadequate, uncomfortable headlamp.

I say, “Come on, longer daylights!”

Would it be correct to refer to today as this year’s pluperfect shortest day?

Dear Friends: I must be at work early and fiddle later for an answer. Diana

Night Lights

Saturday, December 21, 2024

The Winter Solstice arrives today, bringing this year’s shortest day and its longest night. This is a period of darkness that encourages lots of anticipation. We’re doing that in our journey toward next Wednesday, a day that brings the festive cheers of Christmas and the First Day of Hanukkah; those offer light and warmth to the wintery world shrouded in shadows.

We can feel more optimistic while anticipating traditional events and the arrival of a new year. Those increase our hope and our sense of brighter days ahead. Soon, just a week or two after New Year’s Day, we will notice a subtle lengthening of daylight hours.

And so, we embrace deep winter’s festive moments, the recurring traditions and celebrations that offer solace and joy during this stretch of stingy sunlight. This year-end comforting pattern carries us through the darkest days; it gives us hope and promise for the new year.

Dear Friends: Our deep-winter traditions are warming despite the freezing chill. Diana

All In

Friday, December 20, 2024

Today is “ugly Christmas sweater day” at work. I’m unprepared because, in the first place, I mistakenly thought this was a day off work for me; in the second place, I wore my only ugly sweater last Friday, mistakenly thinking that was the official ugly sweater day, and wondering why others weren’t wearing noisy sweaters.

My ugly Christmas sweater is from last year’s Christmas selections. It’s a cautious sweater, neither particularly ugly nor attractive, and can sort of fit the bill. Some quick research taught me there is an official Ugly Sweater Day, the third Friday in December.

I searched for how to make my sweater uglier quickly this morning. I’d need a “microstitch gun,” which isn’t handy at home. Somehow, I’ll work this out, and one option would be using my glue gun to attach some of my Cockatoo’s shiny baubles to my not-yet-quite-ugly-enough sweater.

I grew up in a Jewish-oriented family without knowing ugly sweater routines. These days, however, working part-time in a retail store through Christmas has opened up more about this time of year for me.

The weeks leading up to Christmas are becoming tense from timelines for shopping, finding gifts, and selling. Those add up until everybody becomes weary. Ugly Christmas Sweaters are a fun celebration and an unconventional silly letting loose and enjoying the festive season.

Ugly Sweater Day reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously; it lets us express joy with a dose of humor. I will start preparing for next year by ordering a microstitch gun. I will get ready to participate today by taking some baubles from Peaches’ cage and going to look for my glue gun.

Dear Friends: Today, I’ll take photos and salute sweaters with creativity. Diana

Away To Work

Thursday, December 19, 2024

This is a quickie today because I must leave for work very early. Christmas shoppers have been keeping the store busy. My coworkers and I try hard to make hopefully everybody happy. That’s proving a challenge near Christmas because people are stressed and anxious, especially last-minute shoppers who aren’t finding the exact gifts they wish to give.

Seasonal sales began about six weeks ago. The first three weeks were for “Black Friday,” and these three have been for Christmas. By now, most stores are thin on popular sizes and styles.

The lesson is to shop early. One might not want to, which is understandable, but retail has changed and continues to change. Shopping habits, too, are changing constantly.

Dear Friends: Many constant changes in the big world push us daily. Diana

A Life Story

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

One week before Christmas!

Yesterday, at the department store where I work, a woman was purchasing a gift for her mom and told me that her mom is 103 years old. Her mom also is fully cognizant. I stepped away from the cash register, asking if she had some extra moments to tell me more about her mom. The customer seemed pleased.

Her mom was born in 1920 in South Dakota, where she lived until she graduated from high school. In those days, her best bet for self-supporting was to become a secretary. As a young adult, she went to Los Angeles and attended a “secretarial school.” Instead of working long as a secretary, she joined the Military. She became a career WAC, earning both rank and technical skills. On retiring, she returned to SD, married a local farmer, and gave birth to five children. My customer, approximately in her forties, was the youngest of those siblings.

I asked my customer what it was like to grow up with a focused, high-achieving mom in years when women were less outwardly aspirational. She believes her childhood was terrific, and her mom was an expert guide. My customer added that she followed in her mom’s footsteps by marrying and having a child later in life.

She said that until last year, her mom continued to live independently in her South Dakota home, doing all the housework and outside chores. Finally, her failing hearing and eyesight forced her into assisted living. The mom remains amazingly independent and fully aware but benefits from having help. The customer added that, from her mom’s perspective, although she’s relatively healthy, she’s lived for too long.

My customer pointed me to the “feel” of a sleepwear item she was purchasing because her mom’s failing eyesight had turned her into “a toucher” and her way of deciding if she does or doesn’t like an item. The customer and I agreed that the PJ set had a pleasingly lightweight, silky feel and seemed perfect for her mom.

Dear Friends: Most special moments–sharing, learning, and connection. Diana