January 1, 2017 - A Year of Anxieties and Hopefully Small Graces

The decorations have been taken off the tree and packed away in tissue-lined boxes. The 9-feet-tall artificial tree has been dragged to the curb, with a sign reading freebie, gently used. We have decided that we are getting too old to wrestle with assembling all the pieces, fluffing out all the branches, and stringing all the lights; our next tree will be smaller and pre-lit.

Sitting in my office as I noodle around on my computer, I am  listening to the sound of fire works being launched by the people who live across the street from us. Last night the street was lined with bottle rockets and the windows rattled as gunpowder-filled canisters exploded in the dark midnight sky,  but tonight it sounds like they are shooting off zippers that end their flights with little pops. We used to shoot off fireworks with our children when they were young, and then with Teaghan (Marijke has never liked firework holidays) until she grew up and went off to college. The other "granddots" live in far away states and while they were here for Christmas, they spent New Year's Eve at their own homes while we had dinner with our best friends and spent the evening lamenting the soon to be inaugurated 45th president, Donald J. Trump.

2017 promises to be an anxious year. When the President-elect takes to Twitter to wish his friends and enemies a Happy New Year, one has to take a moment to lift a small pleading for peace and protection.

Social Challenge

Terrorists and tyrants,
Using tactics of fear,
Vying for power
Worldwide and near.

Xenophobes, xanthocroids
Yammering hate.
Zealots defending their ziggurats of faith.

Abandoned, abolished, aborted, abhored.
Bearbaited victims and ballyhoo men
Cautious and callous
Defeated and damned.

Everyman matters?
Foreigners don't.
Gangrenous gatecrashers, gangsters, goats
Harboring hatred, wearing hajibs.


Imperiled? Inappetance!
Jingoism prevails.
Kaleidoscopic perils threaten our land.
Live in your death camps; labor in vain.

Magnanimous Americans no longer prevail -
Naive namby-pambys have no place in our land.
Obdurate obedience obscures common sense.

Palpitant vitriol, parochial paroxysm
Quashes hope, quintuples fear.
Rabelaisian rabble-rousers raging; refugees reviled.
Saints or sinners? Safety or sacrifice?

A Year of Gratitude, Day 123

Ariya and her dad went to the zoo. I can only guess how much she misses her daddy everyday. I know he misses her.

A Year of Gratitude, Day 122

The filtration system of our backyard pond failed at some point last winter and the pond had become quite alga-filled. Jim spent the morning catching koi, transferring them to a holding pool, and draining and cleaning the pond -- discovered the shop vac worked well to remove all the leaves and muck from the bottom and sides of the pond. Yay! He then set up a new, larger pump and filter and refilled the pond with water. The fish were a little skittish in their clean home but were loving the waterfall.

A Year of Gratitude, Day 121

I spent the morning working on a sundress for Daphne and managed to complete the bodice. The skirt of this dress will have two gathered layers. The top skirt takes 22 pieces of fabric, all requiring topstitching. I dread the gathering.

A Year of Gratitude, Day 120

Gardening and yard work are not among my favorite activities, so I was happy to have Marijke's assistance today in planting. Luckily I had just purchased some small gardening gloves, because Marijke did not like the feel of the damp soil on her hands. We planted coleus, impatiens and torenia. With luck, most of them will live.

A Year of Gratitude, Day 119

One of Marijke's transition goals is meal preparation. Today she made M&M cookies. She doesn't have good hand strength so using the cookie scoop was difficult, but she was persistent. I try to address at least one goal every afternoon.