My mother loved family and friends and all things party. She also knew how to love deeply and generously give both her time and her being, so at Christmas she was our sparkling star, our guiding light, the happiest person in any situation. In my home, we are so glad that she still watches over us all.
As my mother would wish, may you be merry and bright and feel all the joy and goodness possible this holiday season!
There is an abundance of sorrow on this small Earth, of that we might all agree, but there is also, at least here in northern Vermont, the ability to find joy quite easily in May. In the buds and flowers and leaves and warming temps and that fabulous blue sky hovering like sapphires above each and everyone. I am not ignoring the staggering horrors dropping like thick fog, but I am asking that mess to push aside for this day to feel a joy so big it overpowers. This week joy seems to be what lots of people reminded me to feel too: an unfiltered, possibly even a radical joy.
This is not the first time that Frost’s iconic poem has risen into my mind, in fact, just last week I reblogged a post from 2014, Horizons and Mountains Beckon where I quoted every stanza; I guess these lines are on repeat as all of Vermont is erupting in foliage brilliance as we step into October.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Nine Cent Girl 