12.27.16 FB Video I wonder

     I wonder how many species and life forms yearn for the greener grass nearby, just because it's somewhat unattainable. Holidays bring that hobby into focus. 
     Perhaps we build a quiet life with as much peace and solitude as we ourselves can muster, knowing we could connect up more...with cranky complicated relatives, or kids in need of mentors, or groups with common interests, but we don't , and come holidays, instead of figuring out how to invite others for a group meal or a walk or bingo, we find ourselves noticing we are alone.
     Perhaps we would have parented anyone and anything that breathed, and we end up with foster animals or kids, with or without another adult .
     Perhaps we are ensconced in family, in ways we do or do not like, possibly with a partner and maybe a kid or more , most of which we may or may not be happy to see at all. There are endless variations.
     I've always been with a million siblings, mostly younger and in need til adulthood, many kids and kid cousins and then partners galore what with their full families, and then happily and exhaustively my own partner and kiddos, such noise and love and complexity and rancor that those unpartnered or not parenting will hardly be willing to shove that actuality into their tender Disney fantasies of what true love or parenting or family are about.
     So it comes as not much of a surprise, when some of our life stuff is put aside during preparations for holidays, no matter how modified our efforts compared to the past, and the aftermath is a bit tough, crash landing into all the realities that have been momentarily pushed aside.
     Like a dike giving way, it all splashes back home, the realities of our daily lives, illnesses or economic realities or financial difficulty or kid school stuff , all irrevocably coming slowly back home to roost, after a holiday .
     Here we all are.   

https://www.facebook.com/gwen.mcclellan/videos/10208562391040757/

12.27.16 The morning after

The morning after, in the peace and quiet of the early hours




and the twelve days of Christmas

12.27.16 How nice

Tired, bed rest, putting together holiday cards at my leisure. 

How nice to not be a spring chicken.

12.27.16 The day

Day is done.



https://www.facebook.com/GwenMcClellanWordsandPictures/videos/1179035542133228/

12.27.16 Crop Circles around here

How New England does Crop Circles

12.27.16 What we can do

So many beginnings and so many endings. 

What we can do is breathe.

12.23.16 Now without a leg

Now without a leg, still
he dreamed of running

He could've dreamed of cleaning the garage or climbing on the roof or skiing through the snow or wrestling as if he was somebody any old somebody wrestling another 

any old somebody down

But instead, it was running
The tightening and power rippling
down through both legs, pushing off
one after the other with both
feet, his ankles sturdy, his calves
flexing, propelling him along