Laying It Down

Like the Queen of England proclaimed in a sad weak voice way back in 1992, 2012 has proven to be my annus horribilis!  I pray that 2013 turns out to be my year of joy! While this is the time to look at that 2012 List of Resolutions, ticking off what has been achieved, looking aghast at what you did not even remember you had put on that list, I am choosing today to forget the pain of this year and not make a 2013 List of Resolutions but instead to make my 2012 List of Gratitude: my'God in Action List' which I shall review in quiet celebration as the clocks tick off the old year. Thank-you for this life: not fully understood but being lived. Thank-you for a mind and body that was sound most of the year. Thank-you for keeping me ‘treading water’ with my nose just out of the water; never drowning. Thank-you for my little creole dog Feo, who kept me connected to the world having to take care of his daily needs and who always demanded a display of affectation. Thank-you to

image of Canalons a  la Barcelonesa Having a typical Boxing Day breakfast - Christmas Day leftovers!  Love it! 

Merry Christmas to you and yours as we celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Star & Ribbon Jigsaw Puzzle

I think for all of us especially those of us who actively celebrate the birth of Christ, Christmas becomes a time of warm feelings,  giving of one’s self in particular through gifts, and of reflection through tradition.  The house must look beautiful, and the foods have to be all present.  Where there are children, big and small, there is an especial joy of passing on family values.   One can see throughout the Christmas season the simple exchanges of love as a knowing smile is shared between strangers as they pass, each laden with packages; the smile saying “Christmas!  Phew, lots of work, I understand, we love it “. For me, the reflective side of Christmas always dominates.  It is a time of even more thinking than is usual for me and a time of forced hibernation.  My mind hibernates for the last quarter of the year.  I have  concluded that occurs, because I was born during this season (December 30th )  and I imagine that within the womb I was preparing for my new beginning, looki