there’s no such thing as a bad day

top memories of 2009

1. being free, 2. celebrating holidays at home, 3. support of great friends, 4. being home–wherever it happens to be, 5. being with my family again, 6. fresh fruit, 7. not wearing green, 8. catching up with movies, tv, books, and magazines, 9. enjoyable work, 10. having a small garden

deer, an appreciation

What is it about deer? What makes them so fascinatingly darn cute, even if they are sometimes as big as a horse?

Is it their large, moist, heartbreaking eyes?

Is it their impossibly tiny dainty feet hooves? 

 Is it their nobleness despite their obvious cuteness?

Perhaps it’s their links to the human race over thousands of years–as food, as totems, as spiritual guides, as clothing, as companions, as artwork, as literary inspiration.

This is the time of year when I start meditating on deer.

geese flapping

Each morning and evening part of a flock of geese flies low over our house.  I can hear their honks announcing their imminent flyover arrival, and go outside. If I stop and stand still and look straight up, I will see them flying low right overhead–so low I can almost pat their plump not-so-little bodies.

The most thrilling thing, though, is I can hear their wings flapping–sort of a thu-wump sound.

It’s magical.

if it’s christmas …

it must be Last Christmas by Wham!

if it’s christmas …

it’s time for Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris …

today’s thought

Actually, yesterday’s. From my Louise Hays daily calendar for yesterday:

Life is simple. What I give out, I get back.

True.

santy

On my way to the library today, I pulled up at the intersection of Monterey and Fred Waring Drive. Much to my surprise, when I looked to my right, there was Santa Claus driving the FM-103 Easy Listening Rock Classics radio station van.  He gave me a cheerful wave.

Does Santa like The Beatles?

appreciations

sleeping in the cool house wrapped up in flannel sheets

pear season

soup season–cream of mushroom soup, yum!

getting our first Christmas tree in several years

buying the tree guy and the checkout girl who were stuck working in the Home Depot tree lot coffee and hot chocolate from Starbucks

rain…and no leaks!

the mountains covered in snow

Christmas magazines

shopping for inexpensive stocking stuffers for Robert and Emma

that piney tree smell

young@heart

Yesterday I watched the movie Young@Heart, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3uOOhm8Fj8, a documentary from last year about a chorus group of senior citizens who sing rock songs. It was fabulous! I am totally in love with these people!

It is unbelievable, and so inspiring, to watch them learning and enthusiastically singing “I Wanna Be Sedated,” plus more songs by the likes of Coldplay (here’s one of the more moving sections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gosIuO1HqEg), Sonic Youth, James Brown, and more.  They are so determined, in the face of much hardship and physical shortcomings and outright pain, to be there for the group, to not give up, to keep actively living right up to the last second of their lives.

We should all be so strong.

rain and snow

Monday it rained all all all day–what a treat for this part of the world! and then, magically, the next morning the clouds lifted and we were surrounded by snowy mountains.