Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Welcome December!

The first week of December brought snowflakes and real cold to the farm. Tonight the lows will reach the teens and the pond is frozen with a banket of flurries making it appear like a perfect piece of broken glass in the barren woods. During morning chores, while cracking through the ice in the pigs buckets, I noticed how instense a cardinal looks under a gray sky and leafless bush. What an amazing gift of color and sound. The night are growing darker and it feels like midnight at 6PM every day, but if you look for it the frozen ponds and songbirds bring promises of light's return. And in the meantime if you can focus on the care and comfort of animals, making the home cozy and safe, and eating more than your share of cookies - you'll make it to the solstice just fine.

It's a weird holiday. Not as sad as ones in my past but the pandemic makes it feel like a holiday trapped in the snowglobe, and not in a cute way. We are all so sepeatated from each other. I have been getting so many cards and hanging them in the window on strands of twine. Shannon too, she gets cards from friends and family and we string them together like reminders we're not alone in this season. But the pandemic makes everything feel tighter, a little scarier. In rural America there's a figth between people who still don't believe Covid will ever hurt or touch them, and those terrified to go to essential work every day. I am grateul to be on this farm and able to make soap and work on art from home. It's been tight, but sometimes a big sale or luck comes through and it's enough to order some gifts without guilt and still pay the electric bill and that is the real light of this season - to still be making it. The OCtober morthage is paid and I'm savig for the Novemeber one and I hope to mail it off soon. That's a bit of good news. Hoestly, all of us still living and whole right now have good news.

I'm trying to practice yoga daily, which has been amazing for my anxiety and heart. Stretching went from a chore to a release and the best massage I can give my body, inside and out. I look forward to the yoga mat now. Shannon is the reason. Her practice slowly became mine. And I can tell you how much easier it is to lift my leg over fences or stand on one foot to scrape poop off my boot. Little gifts can't be discounted!

I hope you are all safe and sound. I hope your holidays are kind and small. I hope you find warm light and promise of another spring not too far off. Be kind and open and gentle with the world right now. We all need it more than ever.

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