It's finally here, or already here, depending on your age and how you look at it; today is Christmas Eve. Whatever decorations we wanted to display, and presents we intended to purchase, are surely taken care of by now. Since I wasn't in the process of moving this year, I've had more time to decorate my home. It seems I've had the luxury of slowing down and noticing those things that are special and the meaning they have from my life; I hope you'll have time for that as well.
One of the items I have that I bought on sale at Hallmark is a canvas-stretched New England scene with battery operated lights. I loved the cozy feel but wasn't immediately aware of why it drew me; I just knew I wanted it.
Later, I realized it reminded me of my Solo Journey to Vermont in 2015. I spent part of a day in the village of Woodstock. It was picturesque with a green town square and a covered bridge. I tried to imagine it blanketed in snow when I walked about on that July day.
From that village, I drove west to spend three nights at Button Bay State Park on the shore of Lake Champlain. Recently, I relived that portion of my trip when I told someone the story of staying there in a lean-to. I remembered the "person in my path," the man who was camping with his family in the site next to mine. He offered me the use of his pup tent to save me from the mosquitoes that would "eat me alive". I'd plan to just use the bedding I'd packed. How grateful I was the next morning for that kind stranger when I saw hundreds of dead mosquitoes in the bathhouse.
Do you have holiday decorations that represent places in your path?
Another favorite decoration that I purchased when I moved into my apartment is a collection of trees. I have always loved trees; these which are made of glass, wire, gold mesh, sequins, and brushes delight me in their reflected glory in front of my stained glass mirror. I'll leave them up to give light during the gray of winter. When I look at them, I think of how they represent my "Single" life, how I chose those trees as part of building my new home.
As a girl, I loved colored glass including marbles--which I collected instead of "shooting"--since that stung my fingers. The stained glass mirror was once a broken church window found at a Chatham County dump years ago. We had it restored and changed to a mirror. It was one of the things I kept from our dividing up the household. Altogether, the mirror and trees represent my past and the present.
Do you have decorations in your home that represent your past and your present?
The Christmas item I display every year, and leave up until spring, is a special painting done by my Aunt Polly. I've told this story before, but a good story bears repeating. My Aunt Polly was Daddy's older sister. She lived with us, when I was in 5th grade, for a couple of years, after she moved back to North Carolina from Colorado. She'd gone there in 1950 to take art classes at the University of Denver. While she told me about painting when she lived out there, I'd never seen any of her work--- that is until the Christmas of 1993. At that time, she lived in a mobile home behind my mother's house and invited me to come over. She had paintings displayed all around her living room; that was when I first saw the one of Mary and Joseph.
I was drawn to that one because of how she'd illuminated Mary's face and I liked the deep red and blue of their cloaks. I told her then that if "she ever didn't want that one, I wanted it." She said she'd painted that as a Christmas gift for her mother, my Grandma Rosser, in 1954. But she didn't give it to her because Grandma died right before Christmas that year.
After my Christmas visit with Polly, she died unexpectedly the following May. When her house was cleaned out, Mama remembered what I'd told Polly. That painting became my gift and now always reminds me of my aunt following her dream. She was a North Carolina farm girl moving across the country where she knew no one except her younger sister who joined her. So many times I look at the painting and think about all the questions I'd like to ask her now about how she had the courage to do that.
I wonder, are there are holiday reminders of special people in your life that bring up new questions, new realizations each year?
I close this Christmas post, hoping you and your family and friends are enjoying this holiday season, remembering the special people and places of the past and the present.
Happy Christmas,
Connie
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