Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Wishing Us All Light. And Love, Of Course

Angel biscuit dough has been made and chicken boiled for the chicken salad. A trip to the Monticello Tractor Supply was taken where chicken feed and scratch were bought.
Is this a conflict of interest?
Probably.
The big news for today is that I have not seen ancient old Luna, the almost-feral cat since yesterday. She has not come to the porch once today for her food and this is not a good sign. She is not a wandering or a traveling cat. She is just a very, very old cat who lies mostly in the yard and sometimes on the porch, watching things and drowsing and occasionally getting up and making her way to the food bowl to make the most pitiful sounds imaginable although not that long ago, she killed a squirrel which surprised her as much as it did me.
Once, she did disappear, a long time ago, and we thought she must be dead and then we found a dead gray cat and Mr. Moon buried it and then we realized that that had NOT been Luna who showed back up the next day.
Cat magic?
Who knows? Not me.
But she is (was?) seventeen years old and has not been to a vet in at least twelve years and has lived outside almost all of those years and so I think she may be gone. This will not disturb Maurice in the least. She and Luna have had an uncomfortable relationship to say the least, and there has been spitting and hissing on both their parts since Maurice moved in.

Well. Time will tell if she is gone or not.

And so it goes.

It is 72 degrees here and I have never, in all of my years in Florida seen the mosquitoes as bad as they are right now. It is intolerable, the way they swarm and bite. They are hungry and fierce and make being outside nothing short of torture. This is certainly a Christmas for the books.

I have nothing else to report. I am still wrapping presents in my own not-quite-approved method. Slowly, but surely, I am getting things done. As are you, I feel certain.

I wish we could all get together and have some festive beverages and snack and laugh and chat about the things we've always wanted to talk to each other about. But since we can't, I just wish for all of you that you manage to get a few hours at least, of peace and perhaps a bit of joy. I read a beautiful piece by Garrison Keillor today about Christmas and you can read it too, right here.
As I pull away more and more from the madness of what Christmas has become, I find myself softening towards the actual day itself a bit more. There is absolutely nothing in this world wrong with celebrating the birth of a baby or the change of a season or the growing light day by day. There is nothing wrong with getting together with loved ones and celebrating.
And I do so love red velvet.

All right. That's enough.

Be well. Hang in there. Know that you are enough and that there is no perfect gift and no matter how much we wish there were the perfect gifts to give to express our love completely, it cannot happen. And so we make do with imperfect gifts and food and drink and love and kisses and sparkly lights and that will do. Quite nicely, in fact.

Love...Ms. Moon





14 comments:

  1. Oh, Mary, You have me in tears. This time of the year does make me feel so inadequate. Well, I feel that way all the time but more so right now when everyone seems to have their shit together and I can barely decide what I should wear. Your words brought me comfort and I thank you for that.

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  2. Yes. Once I decided to do it my way, I lost all animosity for the season and its insanity.

    Tomorrow we go to the woods, to curl up in a cabin to read books and take long hikes. Away from wifi and cell service and all reminders of holiday sales. I wish peace and love to all who choose to celebrate differently.

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  3. My daddy's 17 year old cat curled up next to his back door last week and died. For some reason, he called Animal Control to pick her up and not my brother or me to bury her. I was a little angry at first but I guess he wanted to take care of it on his own.

    Mary, I hope your Christmas is lovely.

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  4. I just love the image of all of us getting together one day and having a drink and talking and maybe one day we will. You never know. Until then, have a fabulous sleep. I am bothered by the cat out there. May she be at peace wherever she is.

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  5. I love what you've written here about Christmas. I think it will probably help legions of people who have a hard time during the holidays.

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  6. I love the idea of festive drinks and snacks and talking, who knows,like Joanne said maybe one day. Sorry to hear Luna is missing. Gail

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  7. I'm sorry about Luna. Seventeen is quite an age for an outdoor cat.

    Merry Christmas, Mary. Enjoy your family to the fullest.

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  8. Ah, this makes me happy. Changing seasons and red velvet. Yes. I still have a butt-load to do, though.

    I remember the dead grey cat incident. Strange one. Maybe Luna is a magic cat who rises phoenix-like again and again?

    I saved that GK piece to read and lost it - I will save it for my Christmas Eve reading before bed.

    now I must shop and bake and cook and clean. Sigh!

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  9. Dade just passed by, caught a glimpse of the photo and went 'Creepy Santa!'

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  10. Wouldn't it be something if all of us COULD gather for drinks and snacks. So many great people who know each other through your blog. It's be awesome.

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  11. Mosquitos! We don't have mosquitos here at this time of year, and I think the day of cold rainy weather we are forecast might be better!

    All of you have a lovely Christmas!

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  12. you say it so well. I've mentioned before that I don't do christmas, not a believer in the theology but more than that it's the commercialization I abhor. how it's supposed to be so magical, how you will get your heart's desire, how it is supposed to be the best day in the whole year, and if a tragedy happens around this time it is much worse because christmas. but I don't mind the actual day so much because for me it is a free day off. I can do whatever I want because I have no obligations.

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  13. It would be good to have a blogger get together. Years ago, a bunch of us bloggers talked about doing just that, but it didn't happen. Maybe one year sometime soon.

    Glad Luna showed back up--just read that in your recent post. Thankful for the nine lives cats have.

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  14. I'm glad Luna turned up (as you subsequently wrote) and I hope whatever's going on there is temporary. But we all have our time, I guess. I love the way you write so honestly about the ups and downs of this crazy season, and these crazy seasonal temperatures.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.