Above us this morning, our sky presents a slight grade less pure, less bright, less still, than
the snow on the ground.
A hole in the melting ice on the pond, where
no tree overhangs, suggests something must have landed on that thin
spot; and a hope blooms, that whoever falls into a pond through the ice will also find a
way out.
The ever-lovely pond is full of life and
death.
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©2013 Ravenna Taylor, "Thin Ice," 2013, oil on canvas, 20 x 22 inches
Photo: Fernando Gaglianese |
My house is quiet, only the sound of the melting outside at my window, or sometimes a
mechanism within: the well-pump, the washing machine, a regular beat beneath the irregular "chirp" of birds.
The clock chimes the hour.
We have no Christmas tree or
any other decorations around; we haven't done that in many years. We are
completely uninterested in holidays generally, religious and retail both, and would always prefer to be working, on something.
I
remember when we lived in the Arkansas Ozarks, I used to put a small tree with
lights in our tiny house; I would bake cookies and send cards through the mail to
friends and family.
From there, alone in the never-finished house we built in the middle of
the Ozark National Forest, I would imagine the strings of lights as a cord connecting to people all over the world, comprehensible -- I enjoyed the sense of communion in an abstraction.
Now,
people are missing from our families. Sometimes, like a strand of lights with
bulbs malfunctioning, the whole strand seems to go dark.
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| ©2013 Ravenna Taylor |
Happiness derives from activities that bring a greater sense of purpose or meaning. At a certain point in one's life, one might know just what that means.
No more stand-ins.
Heart and hearth - a circle forms, warmed from within, by imagination kindled with memory,
sparked by the gemlike innocence of snow.
There are still children.
This recent snowfall is melting
on the Solstice; I look forward to the next. I'm hoping for a very white winter
this year; I'm hoping for bright crystalline winds to burnish my cheeks.
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| ©2013 Ravenna Taylor |
Peace On Earth
