Before Christmas

Before Christmas is always a special time that begins with Thanksgiving and lasts right up until the New Year. It is a time wherein I do huge amounts of internal research on my past and present juxtapositions. Many years ago, I was a Christmas Demon...rushing around and buying something for everyone....this gradually faded into attempts to bring back meaning by making all the said gifts by hand...for those ventures, I had nothing but an empty wallet for the beginning of the year and/or very sore hands.

Now, I do a lot of watching and witnessing...and internalizing. I avoid retail stores like the plague, while painting and writing with no dead line. I have forgiven myself for telling my childrern stories as truth, when in reality there is no big fat man bringing relief. There is nothing I have to buy, as the gift I have found to be the most important...is the gift of my time.

It is a time, when enough people take off...that you can actually spend some time with them. I love how New Zealand still shuts down, less than more these days, but more than less compared to where I use to live in the USA...people in New Zealand get out and embrace their baches, their weekend retreats and some still take a month to create a home away from home in one of their favorite spots...outside the home. I'm digging that...

This week, my partner and I will go to the Moeraki Boulders...he will fish, I will walk the beach, contemplate the boulders, write and paint. No doubt, we will eat lots of fish...he is optimistic for the catch...I am just pleased that I can choose to be somewhere where the surrounding area is not begging me for a purchase...and, the green is not juxtaposed with so much red.