JANUARY 2013 DEAR DEB... SOLITUDE, MY P.J.’S, A FAVORITE CUP and Dear Reader, YOU

January 1, 2013

SOLITUDE, MY P.J.’S, A FAVORITE CUP and Dear Reader, YOU

There’s a beautiful, free-hand, brush-stroked bird on the porcelain cup on my lap.  I’m alone in the early morning hours watching the street wake up outside my window.  I had meant to rail against the vicissitudes of war, greed and competition.  Instead, I am struck quiet with gratitude.  “Gratitude?... But, Deb, you wrote about giving thanks last month!!”

And I know, I know…. But it’s the beginning of a New Year.  The old one tugs at me for a review of all I had wanted, wished for and tried to make happen (damn it!)  What comes now, at year’s end is the vision of my six year old grand girl, Clara, as she takes my face in both hands, brings her nose to mine, looks into my eyes and says, “Mimi! We are going to see THE GRINCH!”

“No!” I say.  “For real?”

She sinks away, picks up her cocoa cup, sips, then nods.  “For real! She says.  She smiles off into the distance.  She’s thinking this, “Just imagine!”

I’m thinking this … “They didn’t stop ‘the season’  (paraphrased from Dr. Seuss’s GRINCH…) from coming!  IT CAME!  Somehow or other…. IT CAME JUST THE SAME!  “Yahoo voray, Yahoo voray, Yahoo voray… bring some cheer…” we sing aloud.

We stand in a circle, hands linked all around the world.  We raise our eyes and our voices and we sing in ONE SONG …. “Just Imagine…” says Clara.