Monday Moanings - December 29, 2014

Looking Back - Moving Forward

May 2014, Great Wall of China at Badaling Hills

The Old Year Runs Away from Me

the old year runs away from me.
I hang on to her sleeve
but she shakes me loose.
where does the old year go
when the new year comes?

she slips away into memories,
falls into the crevices of wishes
and ought-to-have-dones.
she waits no longer upon promises,
turns her back on the might-have-been.

the elves of the old year step in,
pack up the struggles, store the joys,
tuck them away in the bulging box
spreading out on the psyche’s floor.

it’s up to the new year now.
I bring a lot to her domain:
expectations, dreams, hopes,
and I place them all before
her strong, abundant door.

I walk into her untamed territory,
with a meek apprehension
and a vast sense of mystery,
assured by the welcome I receive,

anxious about what is waiting
behind the drawn window shade,
curious about what I will discover
in the hidden folds of her new days.

(from Out of the Ordinary ©2000 by Joyce Rupp. Used by permission of Ave Maria Press. All rights reserved)

2015 brings us places to go...

things to blossom...

And promises to celebrate.

It's going to be a great year!

Thursday, or Thereabouts - January 2, 2014

Baby, it's cold outside!




2014's opening gambit suggests that hibernation is the best strategy for life in these parts. At high noon, it's a blistering -22C (-8F) outside my door with only the briefest of hints of sunshine. Not even our faithful canine, whose one blue eye and spitz twist tail attest to her Alaskan Malamute roots, shows any inclination to venture outside. One brief sniff of winter's cold through a narrowly opened door and she promptly turned tail and trotted back to bed. What a clever girl!

I'm going to follow her lead I think, and though I'm not going back to bed, I am going to curl up in blankies with hot tea in the living room and watch a movie or three, or maybe even some Dr. Who episodes from long ago - the Tom Baker years and the Daleks! Ooohhhh that will get the circulation going! And there is also a warm invitation from a jigsaw puzzle to re-visit Venice...

There are such wonderful Christmas gifties to support me in my hibernation: liquor filled chocolates, candies, cookies, books to explore, and when I need a break from all the activity, luxurious lotions and potions for deliciously hot baths or showers.

I may be stuck in here for a while...

©2014 April Hoeller