Christmas Vacation

It is just as it should be. Christmas week has been a time of visiting with friends, reconnecting, baking and eating. Yesterday after baking gingersnaps, I spent the afternoon visiting with friends, sharing their good news and company. Then too full of caffeine and sugar I watched TV for a time, catching part of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking on one of my local PBS stations.

This is not an original Conan Doyle, and it didn't seem like it was. Too dark, not noir dark but macabre. It was creepy and seemed like Sherlock Holmes meets Law and Order Special Victims. I do not find psychopathology entertaining. I do not find sociopaths interesting characters. I have long thought that it is a major flaw of our culture that we have become obsessed with these things as entertainments. (I find the fact that people watch these things on TV and or watch the news and then can't sleep without "sleep aids" to be so obvious. We wouldn't need the sleep medicines if we'd turn off the TV!)

Anyway, no one but Jeremy Brett can be Sherlock Holmes as far as I am concerned. The original stories had the finesse of Victoriana. I won't look for more of these new ones. (But I did double check to make sure that I had locked the front door before I went to bed.)

My daffodils are starting to poke through the dirt. The older ones will remind me of a neighbor who died Christmas morning. She had organized caroling in the neighborhood for many years and for the last several, while she fought her fight against cancer, there were no carolers. She was a passionate gardener who generously shared her skills, knowledge and plants with the rest of us. One year she bought a bag of daffodil bulbs, one hundred King Alfred daffodils, from our local Costco and emailed our list that she had bulbs to share. I was the lucky one who bought the extras so as they bloom each year I will remember her. I had not known that daffodils where fragrant or that they are a symbol of the resurrection. I have her to thank for that for these daffodils are fragrant and having them led me to research on the web. She will be missed and remembered.

I hope there will be something similar for people to remember me by when the time comes. It is up to me to make sure that there is, another reason to practice kindness, generosity and gratitude--perhaps selfish, but it is those acts that will keep our memories alive to others.

Today I give thanks for the neighbor who shared her music and daffodil bulbs and for the friends who are making my holiday season busy and joyful.