Solstice Party the Rightway

I have just come from the best Solstice party ever. And I am the only one at work who celebrates the Solstice. The women at work, knowing I love the Solstice, decided to have the Christmas party on the Solstice, just for me really.

And there was a Rosemary herb "Christmas" tree growing in a pot and decorated. Fruit plates and hard cheese plates (Parmesan, rosemary and olive oil Asiago, Romano, crackers, cranberry brick). They had chicken and I had the Burger King soy burger with everything on it which they went flying to buy just before the party started. And we had soy non-egg nog that tasted like vanilla cream and carrot juice. I loved the organic fruit plate from Basics, with pineapple, grapes, pears, apples, oranges and even pink grapefruit, all sliced and ready to eat. I brought a lot home. Oh, and did I mention the red velvet cake? Oh YES, red velvet cake! Try these raw gingerbread cookies
and these Yule anise cookies.
We lit the Solstice candle and made wishes, what we wanted to end and what we wanted to replace it during the new cycle. Lots of laughter and support, fence mending and joy. Holiday music from the computer and GIFTS. Oh, Oh, Oh, the GIFTS!

A few weeks ago my old friend of 40 years, Joel, gave me a beautiful black and white book bag purse that I use all the time now that the cats peed on, AND IN, my attache case. The beautiful bag was with me today reminding me of kind beautiful strong Joel.

I am laying in bed the abundance all around me. I am wearing the new soft and plush, wide striped pink and white bathrobe, and matching slippers Mary G gave me - yes I am wearing the pink and white striped slippers with the little pink ribbons in bed. The robe is called, is strangely called, "Covington", on the little card that tells you the size and stuff. Covington is the name of the Appalachian mountain town in Virginia where my father was raised. Mary said that means my father is hugging me from heaven.

I now have foaming bath balls, a bath pillow, white soap roses to float in the tub, and a foot scrubber that fastens to the wall of the tub on which you rub your feet to get a solitary massage. Oh yes, I made out like a robber baron.

I received a golden sun mobile that spins to honor the return of the sun which I will hang in my office above the white porcelain cherub that was in another package. And vanilla incense with a beautiful jade incense holder. And a cup with red birds on it to drink my never ending black coffee at work. HOW THOUGHTFUL ARE THESE PEOPLE?!

Speaking of red birds, my artist cousin Jacquie Jrolf sent me three of her Bingen sculptures which are strange and fascinating(halfbird/halfhuman,emerging from what might be eggs or cocoons).

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) was the last of ten children and tithed to the church where she was raised and, though uncommon for women at that time, educated. She went on to become a German abbess, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, channeller, visionary, composer, and polymath, She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and the first surviving morality play, while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations. Always ahead of her time, she was a renaissance woman during the middle ages

But Jackie also sent, a bright red happy sparrow. The sparrow is part of her "bird in the hand" series; they are egg shaped birds that nestle in one of your hands. She is selling a lot of the happy "speros" at her art co-op store. I am going to get one for my Uncle John so far away.

Jacquie has a card that goes with these lovely little happy birds that reads: SPERO from the Italian word "Sperare", meaning "to Hope for".

Spero translates as, "I Hope.

On Solstice, the darkest day, the longest night, what better message than hope is flying to us with the sun's return. Hope through the cold and the bitterness, hope comes flying when everything is barren except the evergreens. I LOVE this bright red baby bird with the bright eyes and little pointy beek and the wavy black line wings

And I will tell you what else is coming, ---- PICTURES!

Oh yes, after the Christian holiday, when I am rested, I will have the women at work take pictures of me in my bathrobe with my birds and I will post them. Oh yes, I will.

I am remembering Jill from the Sirius Sunlight Store in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, who during my darkest time made me crystal ropes to hang in my windows so I would have rainbows. She gave them to me as a gift- no charge, she said. It took her hours to string them. They make rainbows all over my walls. I wish her a prosperous holiday season in the store on High Street.

And others, I am remembering others - their gifts fill my house. Tonight I heard from people who are out of my life but who I have tenderness for despite my common sense. I wish them well. I wish them love, peace and their own laughter.

I am living alone with the cats now. I like to be alone - it is a gift to be able to survive alone, on your own. There is no loneliness because of the cats. I live with a Pride. I bought them their salmon tonight - they have eaten and are content. Sleeping with their heads on my legs, - snoring actually. My old friends, my darling dear companions. The baby is creeping around in the dark outside the bedroom, trying to find someone to ambush, which is why all the old cats have found refuge on this bed. Ah the young and their energy. When no one will play he whimpers heartbroken in the dark. Poor baby. Someone threw him over my fence a year ago.

When we are not working because of the Christain holiday, I will wash the floors and clean the house. They will be happy for the space that comes when the clutter is eliminated.

Tomorrow I pay the annual property taxes, the predatory property taxes. I will not even go there tonight. I will stay in the very pleasant now.

MY favorite lines from Rimbaud come to mind as the cycle begins anew:

Let my eternal soul
fulfill its' promise
in spite of the night alone
and the day on fire.

I am wishing you, dear reader love - yes I am - happiness breeds the desire to share love. I have been given a lot of love lately. We have made it through the darkest of times, the cats and I. I have lived in the mist during my dark decade.

I am loving you right now. Let us love as if the world really will end in 2012 - just for today, just for tonight, in the dark of the Winter Solstice, 2009, with the cats and all the animals, may they find love instead of cruelty, may we all find love in the dark and in the light, instead of cruelty.

And now I go to get some more of that fruit I brought home...Good Night Good Night 2009.

PS: BIG BOX left on porch --my cousin Grace is an excellent seamstress. In addition to working two jobs, she sews. And she sews wonderful creations, in the tradition of women's art through the ages. She has made my mother and I beautiful pillow cases in the past which I treasure. Bight colors, ribbons and roses...But this time she actually made a pillow. The background is cats loving and magical and then the front is framed in wonderful colored stripes and in the middle of these bands of color which form a frame is a blown up old photo of my father and mother with her brother Jim (Grace's father) and other family members. All smiling and looking at the camera, my mother looking at my father... I am stunned. How did these fabulous artists survive the struggle of our working class roots, with all this skill, color and creativity? Such energy, such beauty, such love and caring. The cream rises. Amazing Grace.