I started. Don’t say a word. I know it’s early, but it just felt right. I plugged my little vintage fireplace in, with the crackling snapping tinsel twirling on a shish-ka-bob skewer, and hauled the tree onto the porch…..and then....Ta! Dah! Years of mardis gras beads dangle from her fronds, and tethered there, like winter wind chimes….our ornaments…..plaster molds of little hands, kindergarten pictures in macaroni frames, my Mama’s glass church…..ballet slippers, an American flag from Desert Storm, a slice from the trunk of my very ever first Christmas tree….coasters from the corner bar…the cork from "that" bottle of pink champagne...It felt like Christmas today, so I stayed in my pajamas and sock feet and blasted CD’s and smiled. I emptied the Ho!Ho! Closet onto the hall floor and giggled. I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped. Laughing out loud in my empty house. The tradition continues, and like love, it grows…..
Pass the trash….
Shopping in my cupboards, my closets, my kitchen garbage can……
45 comments:
And you do...
continue to make glad the heart of childhood, of adulthood, of the human condition.
Commercialism and cliche have tried to cheapen the 'spirit' of Christmas... If only the world knew that it is present in the lives of all those ordinary people who strive in the midst of adversity to give birth to love each day.
Never was there a more beautiful christmas tree.
Your love lights the stars
Love, Maithri
Maithri....The Sunday paper is three inches thick with glossy colored ads for this and that, plastic love.....
Christmas is our Thanksgiving....a time to scooch in for stories, laughter, children, silly songs, and thank God we are so blessed to have each other. A time for peace.
And sharing.....
Today, I washed and folded and wrapped a beautiful little crocheted blanket.....22 years old....the pink,yellow,green,blue white, colors barely faded....Gramma Lela made this, anxiously awaiting Haley's arrival....I remember watching her, perched on the green tweed couch, fingers threaded with colors, weaving love....and now, her gift again,from heaven and her heart, for the new baby....
Love grows......
Peace~love my friend
And How you weave love with your words,
Bless you friend, M
I cannot believe it's Christmas soon... Wasn't it just New Years Eve yesterday!?!? Where have the months gone?
I cannot believe it's Christmas soon... Wasn't it just New Years Eve yesterday!?!? Where have the months gone?
Love grows indeed! From trash to treasure & sometimes back again the circle is ever-growing & a karmic pleasure. ILYSVMS
SLB
I love that picture. It reminds me of drinking in bars here in Detroit, and they pretend it's a Maui party and fruity drinks are everywhere, or a Cancun party, Coronas in everyone's hands. Sunglass and cowboy hats everywhere. Not a lot of clothes other than that.
The they all have to drive homw and it's zero degrees out. Nobody cares until frostbite sets in.
Hell isn't a place, it's driving home from paradise when it's all over for the night.
Clink! SLB and me checking on Lady Singleton at the same time.
I hope the leg has been holding up.
Listen to the music pulse
the electric canary singing our blues.
Dance until everything
is the same look and same color,
touch and smell and taste.
The night smells of sweet blue candle light,
tastes like a sudden loss
of cabin pressure
feels like sweet buttercream
and a new dose of religion.
The night tastes like
a lover of worldly flesh.
The night feels like
a thousand words
crawling all over us.
No more I love you
free samples
dance and turn
spinning and slinging like whips
until the lights after last call
until the bar-stool
delusions of grandeur
turn to pumpkins and mice
with the last drops of their beer.
Like the last time,
like the time before that...
Every morning after the ball
we blame the drinks
the smoke
the lights
the electric canary
playing tricks on us
anything
but we
anything
but use up the rest of the
after midnight black magic
left in that old glass shoe.
Maithri....
And may the blessings pass amongst us....
And the circle grow!
Princess....It was New Years Eve yesterday! And I'm kinda of pushing the envelope early on it this year, it's just that time flies by, sometimes at such a speed, we barely have time to enjoy it! And here, we really only have to seasons.....
Summer and Holiday!:)
Skinny....Ha! I started writing about Gramma's little blanket and almost dove straight into the silver disco shoes! "And sometimes back again"......Karmic treasures indeed! They're here this year, the little note still safely by....But they're a few songs older, a few songs wiser, a few songs greater! Karmic little babies, aren't they? ILYSVVM! Hope you girls had fun! Wish I could have been there! My love-love-love!
Eric.... Yup, that's my Christmas tree! See why I wanted to put it up so early? I took the picture from just over the Bamboo Bar...Probably should turn the disco light on (Florida snow,you know) and snap it again! Clink!
Peace~love to all
Eric....
Clink!
"The night smells of sweet blue candle light,
tastes like a sudden loss
of cabin pressure
feels like sweet buttercream
and a new dose of religion."
Incredible!
hey, what are going to do when chritmas does come. You're a spacer Singleton, but I guess you know that- "a nice one that is.
Y;-)
great post! great picture!
-christmas spirit alive and well here too with my son making marshmallow snowmen and my daughter and her friend katie with the hot glue gun making bookmarks & boo boo bunnies to sell at our good neighbors boutique
no plastic.. big-hearted hand-made everythings with icing on top
"let the spirit within!" love, ~s.
I visited a home this week that was entirley decorated for Christmas. The children told me the stories of each homemade item. Mom said we want time to make the stories grow.. I have an artificial snow machine I bought the end of the year to attach to a pine tree and see how my grandaughter likes it . 40 days to Mara Grace ,haven't seen her in a year.I shall allow her to put up her dad's ornaments and I shall tell the stories..Your tree is lively and open to story after story I love it ..sk We are children of neon. I have it everywhere at Christmas and during the year. Will take some pics. painting now..sk
Paddy!... Oh, I hope that's you! Wishing you peace, love and all that hoo-hah...and who knows what I'll be doing by then.....Dancin' barefoot I hope!
she....It's in the air....the giving....the sharing....the draggin' it all out and waving the magic wand....something wonderful from nothing! Wishing you and the children the most magical of holidays.....from early on!
Ibeati....oh, I know you are thrilled your little one is coming! There's no such joy as that reflected in a child's eye! Tell stories til your voice goes hoarse, til you have to whisper them late, and she has to scooch in closer and closer to hear the punch lines! How wonderful! And yes, we are.....children of the neon!
Peace~love~turn on the lights, my friends
I love it! I'm dying to put up my tree but I'm trying to wait for the day after Thanksgiving, though now I have to wonder why......I need to get some Christmas records!!!! :)
Such an interesting display of light. I can only imagine sitting near it and feeling the warmth.
I love interesting Christmas trees! Back home in Africa, we always went out into the veld after a brushfire to collect a burnt branch from an Acacia tree. This we then decorated with red and silver baubels. It's Christmas in summertime, see? And now here in Colorado, I'm finally going to experience Christmas in the 'right' season. It's gonna be good!
oh, man... I'm so jealous, cause my significant other doesn't like/want christmas trees... bah humbug!... he hates the season... I gotta come up with somethin'...
you are so full of life and the neon tree shine all the way to my heart...
loves grow..indeed my dear
Karma.....Drag it out! Plug it in! Light it up! Enjoy it! Then you can spend the day after Thanksgiving, lounging in your jammies listenin' to tunes and feasting on turkey sandwiches, smiling! :)
JR....Ha! Actually, this is Florida you know, so if you scooched in real close, see those windows behind the tree? You might just get a sunburn! :)
Electric....That is so cool! I love all the different traditions that families have....now, what will you decorate in Colorado? Cheers! To Christmas in the Sunshine!
Peace~love my friends
Shimmerings.....Ohhhhhh.....Is his disdain with the holidays because of all the commercial hoo-hah and hep? Maybe you could sneak a little true spirit back into the house....a teensy tiny bit at a time? We haven't had traditional trees in years... after years of rescueing Charlie Browners, our first make-shift tree was born....and it just felt right! ....Wishing you lights!
Drips...Neon has a magic way of doing that.....glowing in the distance!
peace~love my friends....and everynight the moon flips the holiday switch.....And endless strings of lights begin their dance.....
gorgeous! may we all take inspiration and decorate without pre-boxed xmas industry goods.
Yes, Sing... you hit the nail on the head. He hates the commercialism. Last year was our first Christmas, together, actually... and I did manage to slip a few ornaments in and hang them around on lamps and things... but, I so miss my ornaments, reminding me of all the Christmases past, like the ones my kids made. In the past several years, I've not had a Christmas tree, at least not one that feels like home, for different and various reasons. I wish there was a way to bring back some of the things that he's lost, because I so want to share them. I'll keep tryin'... and you keep wishin' me lights... maybe it will happen or something.
Benji....I'll clink to that! We long ago gave up on Walmart and Malls and the latest, greatest, let us shove it down your throat, gotta haves.....Every year our circle grows a little, friends, and sometimes strangers, loners,gathering in, closer....We sing silly songs, and Amazing Grace....clink! to every blessing, and pass the trash.....The poor Garbage men must think we are the most indulgent family on the block, so many boxes and pieces of tissure paper to haul off after the holidays.....If they only knew....each box full of hand me down jeans, lost pictures from childhoods, poems and stories from gradeschool resurrected and sent back to their rightful owner.... cherished baby dolls to the next generation....And silly handmade fun! Beer coozies decorated, empty bottles filled with messages, Welcome signs painted on the planks from Skinny's house, ......I have to laugh, there's a negligee' that still has the tags on it, that's been passed to someone new every Christmas since 1988! We just keep scratchin' out the names on the card and adding more prose! How wonderful it would be, if we all just got back to family, to love, to peace.....for the holidays!
Shimmerings.....Do you have a balcony, or a railing on a porch? I gotta feeling if you draped that in lights, and long cherished ornaments, and you and he could sit out there for coffee and the sunrise or sangria and the sunset and just breathe......Bask in the sweet simplicity of your own little holiday......you might just start a tradition.... Your own little Thanksgiving under the stars.......
Peace~love my friends
;)
so the holiday spirit begins. that is one fine tree.
this year i'm making/painting/glueing/baking/
writing presents. i like that.
Someone who saves the memories of Christmas past and lives them again every yr ... no matter how early! Love it!
Ditto to Spongy. You have a precious spirit. You must be surrounded by white light in your aura.
Great idea and execution!
shimmerings....
you go girl!
KJ.....Make it, bake it, write it, grow it, find it, reincarnate it.....Enjoy! I have a feeling your gonna have a very very blessed yuletide!
Sweetspongy.....Really, it's the enchanted ghosts of Christmas past that usher the spirit in......Bring it wooshing in like deja vue.....and every year we add another memory.....clink! to all we were and all we're gonna be!
Enemy.....I don't know what colors are supposed to be in an aura, or where they even come from, but I do know there's light......and I remember this song from when I was teeny.....
"This little light of mine,
I'm gonna make it shine....." Funny, but your words brought that flooding back.....and my grandmother in her Sunday blues and brooch, singing on the swing!
wreckless.....ta!dah! Pass the trash, please!
Peace~love and opened arms this holiday season
Your joy must be catching; I’m beginning to feel the Christmas spirit.
Surounded by the light of true friends. That's what you are.
Are you there, hippie?
Clink!
Hehe what a funny and fun story. :D
I pass the trash to you Singy.
Later
Sometimes Saintly....Nice to see you! Well if the spirit is catching, it's working! Wishing you and kittie good tidings!
Eric...Clink! Hope your Detroit travels were chock full of family and cheer! I wish I could wiggle my nose and get Skinny and Curty Boy down here with us girls.....sharing the cheer!
Mavin....Ahhhhh, thank you sweetie!
Peace~love~one more day til Friday, Friends!
I strung up colored lights when we did our Days of the Dead party. I left them up. Now the neighbors will certainly think we have decorated early for Christmas. I'll fool em' and take them down around the 23rd of December, right after we celebrate the Winter solstice.
Since we are house sitting and don't really live in this house with the light festooned porch, the owner will be talked about by the other residents of the block and when she returns, and will be in for quite a surprise. I wonder if she knew that we were whacko when she asked us to take care of it? Oh well, makes the neighborhood festive, either with the lights, or with their banter.
Peace to All.
An electric Christmas palm tree?
That's a girl after my own heart right there. :)
sweetspado.....I love,love,love that your camping out in the light! That is absolutely perfect! The lights, the banter, the new memory whispered down the street! Peace~love to all of you~ May the lights shine on and on and on!
Justrun....yeah, baby, plug her in and She's the bomb!
Peace~love my friends
Middle of the night sprinkling of love for you, dear sister.
IMYSVFM & would love a week at the beach with the stars as our ornaments & the sky as our tree and the gift would be our feet sunk together needling the sand talking about everything that doesn't even matter.
xoxoxox
slb
"If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now.
It's just a spring clean for the may queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run.
There's still time to change the road your on."
--Stairway to Heaven.
How are you on this lovely friday? Things are OK here, I guess. My Aunt Theresa--my dad's sister, who helped us every way she could when we were growing up, especially after the divorce--is about to have emergency surgery on a tumor behind her eye, then another by her kidney. She just found out, but it was in time, and they're still small. Only problem is, she's a JW, and if you know about them, then you know she will refuse a blood transfusion. Religion and my family both drive me batty.
Writing to you from my house, finaly, even though I'm going back to the city soon, to stay at sister Kristen's house. I hope you are doing well. I wish you had your loved ones with you, too, like you said above. There's nothing as important in the world.
I haven't felt like writing in so long, now. I just feel a shambles, but I'm going to try.
Peace and love.
Sweet SLB....I would love more than anything to have the endless sea nights to talk about nothing, or how to save the world, or the profound lives of sand crabs and periwinkles! ILYSVVM and our time will come......We girls rock! And summer will swoon us soon!
Eric...Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your Aunt, but so very very glad to hear the Doctor's think they have caught this early! You know I'm sending prayers and good thoughts for her and for each of you, for the circle....I've wondered about you for days, knowing something was off kilter, wrong, low.....But, didn't want to haunt you with the "Are you O.K.s?" I shouldn't have paid attention to my second voice, and gone with my gut.....Just blurted it out....
And writing, sweet poet, is the gift of your soul, the words, the thoughts, the gift still there, embers, waiting.....until the time is right! It'll be ok, my friend.....
peace~love~believe
.. a slice from the trunk of my very ever first Christmas tree..
Wow, thats impressive.
Love the ornament/photograph. It is never early to put something like up.
Orhan...and still I can read the scribblings we inscribed in the slice.....and the memories flood back! Hmmmmm.....maybe I should leave her up all year.... her neon lights dancing!
I'm trying to resist until December, repeating to myself "there's too much to do to think about the holidays", but if I catch a whiff of pine or the get chilled by the wind, I drift into that holiday spirit.
Princess....:)I gave up resisting! Run with the wind....and "drift" right into that holiday spirit, it's good for the soul....and time goes by so fast, that it'll be over before we know it.....enjoy!
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