Sparkle and shine!

Ah, here we are, in the first week of Advent.

Last night I was walking around the block enjoying the way the streetlights glittered on the icy road and thinking how much sparkle we have at this time of year: lights, icicles, sequins, glitter... last week's freezing rain coating the bare branches of trees making them shine silver in the sunlight. So beautiful. And all this contrasts with the way the evenings draw in and the vast darkness of the night sky. Yes, ours is dark even though we live on the outskirts of the city.

A few Christmas lights are up, and surely many preparations are being made. I was thinking how we clean and fix up our homes in anticipation of entertaining and welcoming guests. It has to be good to do this, and hopefully our outer work will be reflected inside us too. So the anticipation builds (hopefully the stress stays manageable!), to culminate in the holydays. Perhaps they will help us to shine a little brighter during this time and the year ahead.

so not a princess!

(and there's absolutely no sub text to this post)

I was making the bed this morning and our bed equals layers. First of all, the frame is a wooden one, built by my husband. Then we have a 5 inch latex mattress, bought on sale at Ikea buy me and wrestled into the trunk of our old Jetta. My husband still remarks he doesn't know how I did that!

Because I found this a little to hard to sleep well on, we added a foam comfort layer. And lastly, when my arthritic hip started to play up, we added a feather bed... bliss, in this colder weather.

The latter needs a good shake every morning, which reminds me of Mother Holle (particularly apt for our present snow). Today, however, I happened to lift up the foam layer as well and found there..., a hedgehog!!! Actually, this is a wooden apparatus for massage. One side has four rolling balls and it's good for easing tense shoulders and backs. I can only suppose the littlest grandson slid it under there when I wasn't looking.

I had no idea!

p.s. on digital

A friend told me something interesting the other day. Apparently, when digital watches came out, it was presumed that analog was dead. However, time (!) proved otherwise. After puzzling about this, the powers that be (or maybe the watchmakers and sellers) realized the reason.

Apparently, people like to have a sense of where they are in the day. Digital watches and clocks simply don't deliver in this way.

It's ages since I wore a watch. Not that I have anything against them. In fact, I have been known to gaze covetously at the adornments on friends' wrists. Yet somehow -- mostly because the couple I possess are in need of repair -- watches have gradually faded out of my life. What I find is that I usually have a pretty good idea what time it is, give or take about fifteen minutes.

In London days when I lived in Bayswater (yes, the FRObisher district), I used to travel to school by bus. Waiting for the right number of red double decker to swing into the stop could be frustrating, especially when two or three would appear in a clump. But once on board, I'd sit back and relax... and measure my progress by various clocks I'd see on the way. I wonder how many of those still exist today?

Habit changing and a poem

Let me tell you about the little habit I'm trying to change.

The thing is, I have 'wear and tear' arthritis in my left hip. I put this down to years of ballet plus too much driving a stick shift and having to press on the clutch to change gear. Be warned!

Anyhow, it's hard for me to put weight on my left leg. So I'm trying to step out of the bath while standing on my right. Hmm. I'm not quite there yet. It's lucky this is not reality TV so you can see me teetering! However, I know it's worth persevering because, as I wrote last time, changing will be strengthening and help delay the ageing process.

Years ago, when I last attempted a similar exercise, I did another simple switch. Instead of holding my hair dryer in my right hand, I took it in my left. These days, I can do it with both, which turns out to be an advantage!

What fluttered through my mind while I was driving yesterday ( stick shift, unfortunately!) turned into a simple poem by evening. So, for what it's worth, here it is:

I passed a road called Frobisher today
and I recalled those old phone numbers
in place before, in London,
when first I stayed away from home.
For instance, FRO you had to dial
and follow this with three (or was it four?) digits
but the letters meant a district
and brought a combination
of place and number.

That's all now lost in the past
when so much today
creeps closer and closer
to complete
digitisation,
making me wonder
if we'll all disappear and become
nothing but ciphers.

But no, that cannot, must not be
as long as we can cling to,
take hold of,
develop and keep
our one, unique, humanity.

'Tis the Season...

... for Advent/Christmas fairs, and merry they have been so far. On Saturday my husband and I drove past dry, golden fields until we reached the German Club house, home of an annual bazaar. We were fairly early, but already the place was buzzing. Now that we've been there three years in a row, I know pretty much what's available and what I want to buy. So I'm happily stocked with stollen, and chocolate covered ginger cookies and chocolate covered marzipan. Those will be kept for next month when Advent is here.

I was thinking how we actually have more than one start to the year. Advent is the traditional Christian beginning, then we have the 1st January, soon after comes the Chinese new year and sometime later the Jewish new year. We have Michaelmas, the start of the academic year, and for anthroposophists who work with Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul, we begin at Easter. So, lots of opportunities for New Years resolutions and renewed efforts to change old habits and put new, better ones in place... always a good and strengthening thing to do.

This morning our son and grandsons came to fetch me to go to the Waldorf School fair. The boys went straight into a puppet show while I greeted friends and acquaintances, bought a beautiful Advent calendar and went for coffee. Again, we had a fun time and came home with suitable loot.

I rather coveted one thing I saw which wasn't for sale. A guy was wearing a black tee shirt. The white writing on the front said, 'If all the world's a stage, I need better lighting!!'

In and out the doors

Yesterday I spent a pleasant hour or so in the park with my grandsons. The weather was glorious -- not at all cold, for which I was grateful because it meant the boys could run around outside. Before we left, I unlocked our front door, but we actually went out through the garage to collect tricycle and bicycle. On our way home I thought 'maybe we'll go in through the front', but then I thought 'no'.

This reminded me of my mother, and her superstition that visitors should always go out through the same door they came in. I can still hear her saying, "You'd better go out the back way, because that's how you came in." (for example). Now, for the life of me, I can't think how this superstition might have arisen. There has to be some kind of historical or convenient context for it, surely?

Another thing which I think I've mentioned before, is that she always wanted me to cut my nails on a Monday. If I did them before noon, I'd get a present... which, of course, came true when I was little. I can get my head around this, kind of. Monday is Moonday, after all, and we know that our hair and nails grow slower on the waning moon. As a grower of vegetables, I also know that mostly they're better off picked in the morning before the day gets too hot.

But in and out the doors? I'm still puzzling over that one!

Remembrance Day

When I first went to live in England at the age of thirteen, we arrived in Southampton by ship from South Africa on the 3rd September. That year I was able to experience the solemnity of standing in Whitehall, London and close to the Cenotaph, on Remembrance Day. Watching the wreath-laying made a deep impression on me.

And now, on this day, I carry an extra remembrance... that of my younger brother, whose birthday was on the 11th November and who died at the age of 45. As I think of him, I remember the sweetness of his smile, and his nature, and all he meant to me. But I also realize how unaware I was of what I, the big sister, meant to him.

I have read that it's important for us to understand, or at least get some idea of, the effect we have on other people. I guess I'm mostly busy with the effect people have on me, so this is something I'll have to learn. Perhaps there's always something we can learn from our loved ones who have passed over as we consider the role they played in our lives, and the role we played in theirs.

Time away

Yes, I had a long weekend away from home, back in the big(ger) city. We were invited to a wedding, and this gave me the opportunity to connect for a brief while with the life I left behind three years ago.

Of course, at times like this, there's always nostalgia for how things were, but meeting old friends again, travelling familiar streets also brought a refreshed recognition and gratitude for all I was privileged enough to experience during those years. It's true that you can't go back. Perhaps 'going back' is not important. What may be more significant is the chance to look back in a more objective way than I was able to do when I was caught in the thick of it.

The wedding itself was beautiful, and I mean that on many levels. The bride was Japanese and truly exquisite. She and the groom looked so happy and that glow spread over all the guests. The flowers too were simply a joy to behold and clearly they were carefully chosen and everything consciously and artistically coordinated.

So I returned home on Sunday feeling very full. And now? Well, catching up is hard to do!