Merry Christmas

Peace on Earth

Good will to men

and Luna jumped over the Moon

candles at four o'oclock

“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.”
">― Thomas de Quincey, “Confession of an English Opium 

Dickens

In every life, no matter how full or empty one's purse, there is tragedy.  It is the one promise life always fulfills. Thus, happiness is a gift, and the trick is to not expect it, but to delight in it when it comes, and to add to other people's store of it... What do you do when your family shrinks?... Cry your tears, but then, do the vital thing - build a new family, person by person.  Come to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom you share your blood, but as those to whom you would give your blood.  -Nicholas Nickleby

The Wind in the WIllows

It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when they flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a horn lantern, some eight or ten little field mice stood in a semicircle, red worsted comforters round their throats, their fore-paws thrust deep into their pockets, their feet jigging for warmth. With bright beady eyes they glanced shyly at each other, sniggering a little, sniffing and applying coat- sleeves a good deal. As the door opened, one of the elder ones that carried the lantern was just saying, 'Now then, one, two, three!' and forthwith their shrill little voices uprose on the air, singing one of the old-time carols that their forefathers composed in fields that were fallow and held by frost, or when snow-bound in chimney corners, and handed down to be sung in the miry street to lamp-lit windows at Yule-time.

Kenneth Graham

snow

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”

― Lewis Carroll

Giving, before receiving

So easy this season:

for nothing at all, you can donate hope
 (it took me 2 minutes - 2 swabs to the cheeks and some paperwork):

Be a part of the healing music -

lovehopestrength




AND for purchase/donation (two birds; one stone):

Serengetee




Wear the world

empower women
support free trade
change lives
support an economy that isn't your own

give a fishing pole -- not just a fish

asleep the snow came flying - Tim Story (pause player)

Pilgrims Progress

“a man there was, though some did count him mad, the more he cast away the more he had.”

― John Bunyan

Thankful

If any late wanderer had looked in at midnight, he would have seen the fire blazing up again, and in the cheerful glow the old cat blinking her yellow eyes, as she sat bolt upright beside the spinning wheel, like some sort of household goblin, guarding the children while they slept.      -Louisa May Alcott

once upon a time

this part is easy... cancer is hard

The Witches of Eastwick

October's crinkled gold hung in her kitchen window; the big ragged leaves on her grape arbor were turning brown, from the edges in.  Off to the left, toward her bog, a little stand of birches released in a shiver of wind a handful as of bright spear -points, twinkling as they fell to the lawn.

John Updike

lifting morning fog

photo credit: L Cantor

“And above all, 
watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you 
because the greatest secrets are always hidden 
in the most unlikely places. 

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

― Roald Dahl

Aunt Frances

My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being 

normal is not necessarily a virtue? 

It rather denotes a lack of courage

On The Right Track - Pippin Broadway Revival (pause player)

Wake from the nightmare

‎"You wake from dreams of doom and—for a moment—you know: beyond all the noise and the gestures, the only real thing, love's calm unwavering flame in the half-light of an early dawn." Dag Hammarskjöld, “Markings”

Rilke

I am the rest between two notes

remembrance and celebration

"The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye; the story of love is hello and goodbye...until we meet again"

Jimi Hendrix

Dance

Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free

Rumi

The Prophet

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother." ~Kahlil Gibran

oh myyyy

This is the theater Willy, this is no place for honesty – Hays and Burke

I don't know WHO you are referring to

At the end of my life, with just one breath left,

if you come, I’ll sit up and sing.

Rumi

fire and water... welcome the longest day of light

Luna - Under a Strawberry Moon

The Spirit Bear cometh

Parting Glass

Oh all the comrades that e'er I've had
Are sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I've had
Would wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and I'll softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

Out on the Islands... with you ;)

Book of Longing

“I think about you

when I’m lying alone in

my room with my mouth

open and the remote

lost somewhere in the bed”.

Lenoard Cohen

to reunions, recovery, hope, and the only thing that makes all those things mean anything else... I'll give you a hint - it's love

wakie wakie Mr Green Man

Hafiz, The GIft

I wish I could show you
when you are lonely and in the darkness,
the Astonishing Light
of your own being

The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse