A new year!

New year, new beginnings, new stories to weave on the pages of this magical book called “Life”—page after page filled with dreams, and hopes for a better future, reveries and daydreams; stories of good and evil, of love, of memories spread-out in the wings of a thought; a time for celebrations and reminiscences; a time to love and laugh to repeat to weep to pray to plant to harvest to nurture to forgive and forget; a time to remember the good times, to consider and reconsider, and a time to live. 

Oscar Wilde once said that to live is the rarest thing in the world, because most people only exist, and that is all.  Dear Lord I want to live… live in the moments you gift, and in the now you bestow.  I want to really live; live the moments of my daily life deeply, for happiness is not in another place but this place, and not for another hour, but this hour… and you have given me so much, oh Lord… you have always provided, protected, encouraged, guided, and shown me your love in so many unimaginable ways!  And who am I without you?  Who am I oh Lord and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me this far?

A large flock of robins came by on Christmas day and stayed around for a long while.  I first knew they had arrived by the clumps of swift shadows they made across my kitchen windows as they flew from tree to tree under the brilliant sun of December. And I felt happy and giddily like a little girl fully gratified by the small things of life—by the great things I should say, because the small things of life are often so much bigger than the great things...

Some very especially dear people—our youngest son and his fiancée, came from the other side of the country to celebrate with us, in our togetherness, the end of another year.  We walked on the snow, and droved on icy road to the tallest mountains and ski towns, we cooked and ate, we drank lattes and watch movies past midnight, we played silly games and told stories of now and then, we laughed and danced with the Beatles in an old Egyptian theater and at the end of their stay we embraced once more again and again...

As love nurtured and strengthened every fiber of what’s good in us—affection, friendship, tenderness, fondness were the sentiments which soon let us realized that we had fully adopted ‘a new daughter’ into our family with opened arms and hearts.  How very lucky we are!   

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal, and there’s not a single day I don’t think of mom, and miss her terribly, but life takes away and in return bestows new unexpected ways for us to extend that love and let us continue on loving…

A blessed an happy New Year to you my dear friends!

The Christmas family room

Have I already told you that I’m not one to overly decorate during the holidays? Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Fourth of July and so on… I’m not a devotee. 

Christmas is mostly when I decorate a bit, and mainly because I love light. Even so, it is not much. One of the reasons being that clutter gives me anxiety. So, aside from the new Christmas tree I have in the living room, just a few more decorations are scattered here and there; but only in the Family room… 

The two little Christmas trees I had while living at the little white cottage came with me to this old house in the roses.  One sits now outside by the front door, embellished with pink poinsettias

And the other one is by the fireplace in our family-room.  I placed it in a wicker basket and covered the sides with some black and white polkadot tissue paper to match with the rest of my decor. No adornments on it, just lights. 

I made the cutest Christmas garland for the mantle using a gold bead string and some burlap ornaments I already had.  Then added lights.

Globe lights sit atop some chunky candles in front of the fire, for some extra sparkle!

And do you see what I see?
A star, a star, dancing in the night 

amidst the candles!

On top of the coffee table is where the rest of my decorations are.  A Christmas flower bouquet in a gold vase.  Gold, because I love gold accents and this is the same vase I use all year around.  Later on, I'll just replace the flowers by some greenery, or leave it as is.  Why buy a new coffee table centerpiece just for the holidays?  

Frugality, storage, clutter, time... these are some of the reasons why I don't go overboard with my holiday decorations.  I know, you can call me a Grinch if you want, I won't mind! ;)

This cute little elf here has been with me for several years now.  I found him at a second hand store, on a beautiful sunny December day while living at the little white cottage, and I love him so much.  He means a lot of memories to me!

He sleeps on a bed of gold pinecones and pomegranates...

and by him some baubles and trinkets on a Christmas plate

I finally got all my gifts wrapped!

You?

At night, when the house is quiet, this is how I see our family room!  Aglow in the magic of Christmas and the love of the Child born in Bethlehem.

And where is Sherry and Rita and Ms. Luna?  So many of you I’ve gotten to know and love through the years by just coming here every day, that when I don’t happen to see you in a while, I start to miss you! I hope all of you are doing marvelous, wherever you are.  

And to the rest and every one of you my dear readers and bloggy friends, there are so many gifts I want to give to you this Christmas. Peace, love, joy, happiness are all presents I am sending your way.  Thank you for another year with me!

Love to all!

The ape in the roof

Days are brief and gloomy, and the sun seems to have gathered up its bags and gone to live somewhere else.  From morning, to evening, clouds hang low and dark-gray in the vast expanse and, following the same sluggishness in which hours travel through the landscape of my days, I too move slow—desperately trying to rise up from the haze which blinds my eyes and stretch out over my head like a crown of night-dreams. In fact, the lack of light during winter is so influential on my moods and energy that I feel as if another woman had inhabited my body.

To be able to subsist, to restore my soul, I need warmth and sun, and I need my precious hours in the garden alongside birds and the Black-eyed Susans.  But, alas, what is there to see, or do right now?  As it is, I haven’t set foot in the garden in a very long while.  Last night, and the night before that, I heard the wind cry outside trashing things around and slamming off gates, and it was so cold that even the stars turned cerulean blue and went on hiding.  

By five pm is already dark around here, and night falls upon your little world suddenly and brutal.  No, I’m not a pessimist, really, I’m not. I just suffer from what some called a Seasonal Affective Disorder, always had and always will, I guess… but the good thing about all this is that I’m also a dreamer with some magical winter tales to spin, so wont ’ya come in and sit by my fire!  Oh yes, do come in and stay as long as you like!

Now that I don’t have a magical forest anymore, I haven’t seen any witch prying around like I used to back at our little white cottage, but don’t you go on thinking I’m free of incidents of the bizarre nature here, oh no my dears, my witches may have refused to moved north with me, but I have been sightseeing some other type of creature lurking around these days… probably more dangerous than an insipid old witch… you take a look at this 'thing' I saw walking on the neighborhood roofs the other day, and tell me what you're seeing here, because I really really think this is an ape!

Yes, yes I’m not kidding you… I’m talking about Caesar from the Planet of the Apes!  He was here lurking through our neighborhood walking on roofs and backyards the other evening.  I went outside to watch the sun come down, and instead I saw this knuckle-walking think up above the roofs moving very fast... As you can imagine I was invaded with doubts, and shock, and pondered if I was really seeing what I was seeing. An ape?  See the cone head, the strong upper body, and disproportionately long arms for one's body?... ape arms for sure, and the way he was moving!  Truly creepy.

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A post shared by @gypsycielo on Dec 4, 2018 at 4:15pm PST

What do you all think? I have always said: “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” Roald Dahl. 

The Christmas tree

I’ve been dreaming with a new Christmas tress for a long time.  My last one, that one I transformed from a traditional green to a flocked white tree by spray-painting it in white, was left behind somewhere in the south...  

Thus, the windows in our living-room were desperately asking for one.  Of course, it had to be a special kind of a Christmas tree—slender than the usual tree, because it had to fit between both of the chairs crowding that small space by the bay window, where I wanted it to be.  That is one of the reasons why I'd delayed my dream a bit.  I had to find the perfect fit!  And I finally did.   

This tree remains lighted up 24 hours a day, and I just love its glossy glimmering, the warmth, the magic, the small candy colored glowing to it, and that kind of glory that exceeds everything else and always speaks to me of love and forgiveness and hope for our humanity… 

And what is a Christmas tree, but the metaphoric light by which we live our lives?

I love to see my Christmas tree reflected on the mirror across from it... It creates the perfect magic, flooding our living room with dreamlike daintiness and delicate shimmers… 

I'm not one for an over the top decorated Christmas tree.  I rather see something less pretentious or simpler; a less crowded tree only embellished with a few ornaments and just clear lights.  It looks more sophisticated decorated that way to me.  The few vintage baubles I have are in antique pink and the stars are those same ones I spray-painted pink years ago.

I don't decorate a lot for the holidays, but I still love light... lots of little lights! I think this one looks cute here!

I may have to leave it here all year!

Christmas is one of those holidays that is all about light. It’s spiritually illegal to have any darkness in it!