201213 Winter Tea Best Clothes Geminids

dec. 13

    

This afternoon the sky is showing promise of a clear night. Tal put the chairs on the porch for us to watch the Geminid Meteor Shower tonight. It is warm in the sun but with clear weather often comes colder temperatures and the wind is picking up. 

Winter Tea

1 or 2 bags or teaspoons of tea, black, rooibos, chai, your favorite.

4 or 5 thin slices ginger root.

4 or 5 thin slices of turmeric root.

1 hot chili pepper. 

Warm teapot. Add ingredients. Add boiling water. Steep for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove teabags. 

Sweeten with honey or agave syrup. 

A warm robust tea with healthful ingredients.

*****

This morning Fig and I discovered a little stream at the west edge of the meadow, just inside the forest. It has been above zero and the snow is melting. The roof of the house is free of snow now; we heard the snow slabs plopping in the night. It was raining a little and the clouds have come to lie in the valley. And so dark! I lit a candle for comfort.

       

Get out your best clothes!

Have you begun to wear the same so-so work-a-day outfit, your not-favorite sweatshirt and jeans, pajama pants that are useful but not loved? Stop it! Get out your favorite pajamas, the coziest or most luscious. Find your favorite dress that you bought because it was beautiful and suits your best self, but you never wear because you don't get out to poetry readings. Open up your scarf and shawl drawer and hang those lovely drapes of beauty on the chair, wear the one that best matches your clothes, or your mood. Feel like you. I have several persona that I present to the world and to myself and each of them has some well-suited garments, which, though all similar, may help me find a different aspect of my self. This is what we need to do. We have said in the past, when there were others to dress for (pre-lockdown) that one should actually dress for oneself. It is more important than ever to do this. Surround yourself with things you love, dress in clothes that feel nice and in which you feel your best. Power clothes or comfort clothes or romantic - whatever you want the day to bring. Embrace your inner you. He or she or they are your only companion perhaps! Love them, dress them up and take them dancing, or, well, binge-watch a favorite show.

"Put on your Sunday clothes when you feel down and out...

Dressed like a dream your spirits seem to turn about

That Sunday shine is a certain sign
That you feel as fine as you look!

Get out your feathers
Your patent leathers
Your beads and buckles and bows..."

(from Hello Dolly)

If I had worn make-up (and liked doing so) in the old days when we went out, I would wear it now, to feel my best self. I leave my jewelry box open and put on a necklace or a pair of "best" earrings and they make me smile. Life is for living. Every day is a holiday if we can find the contentment and good energy in it.

"We Spirits [of Christmas] do not live only one day of [the] year. We live the whole three-hundred and sixty-five."       (from the film: A Christmas Carol, 1951)

*****

I remarked to a friend that it was nice to be "in touch" again, since we have re-connected on facebook (I was new there last spring.), and the physical nature of the expression struck me; likewise, "reaching out" to someone is a physical metaphor. It is a reminder of the physicality of social interaction. We shake hands, clasp hands, kiss, hug, and pat one another on the back - another physical action which we use in a metaphor. (and "scratch each other's back", such an intimate gesture!) I hope that the metaphors can carry us to the other side of this isolation. Hug whom you can, the people with you in your home if you are so blessed. Lots.

The sun shone in this afternoon although only a small bit of blue sky showed.

 Here is the house today, bare of snow.

Here is the black cloud that I hope the wind is blowing far away, but not into someone else's clear sky!

Keep well! I wish you clear skies tonight so you can see the shooting stars.  

Thanks for visiting. I love visitors!

Mumma Yaga