December Wishes

Today, on the first day of December I extend to you my

December Wishes for you

May you be safe and healthy

I plan to stay home mostly this December, and avoid public places as COVID numbers have been surging in our state. Jon and I both believe that we had COVID late last December. (For more information on a study that indicates COVID was circulating in the United States in December 2019/January 2020 see this NPR article.) It was a 6 week ordeal for both of us and we have both had long lasting issues from it that are still affecting us. This virus is no joke folks. And our hospital nurses, doctors, aides, and staff are all exhausted and overwhelmed. Maybe you’re not worried about yourself. But you can help everyone by listening to public health advice.

One way I plan to stay healthy in my mind this December is to create photographs every single day of the month. Since I am at home almost all the time, the photos will be mostly of what I see here inside my home.

Susannah Conway has created this list of prompts for December. However you prefer to create, you could use them to photograph, paint, craft, write a response each day.

My response to today’s prompt, “Star” is the photo you see at the top of this post. Do you see the star on the Angel’s wreath? I used my nifty-fifty lens to make a soft image full of bokeh.

May you be peaceful and at ease

How do you find peace in your daily life? Mindfulness meditation and self-compassion practices help me to find peace in my daily life, even when I’m not feeling well. I often find beauty simply looking out my windows at the nature around me.

Yesterday morning the light and shadows on the frozen surface of the pond were soft and beautiful. What beautiful things do you see when you look around your house or out your windows?

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and fresh mown
fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.

Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don’t wait another minute.

   — Mary Oliver

Another way I find peace in December is by simplifying my life and focusing on what really matters to me. We have very simple decorations and buy only a few gifts for our grandchildren. If I see something that I think someone else in my family would really like I might get it as a gift for them. But I don’t buy things to give simply to be giving a gift. Jon and I almost never exchange gifts because that’s not what matters to either of us. The older I get the less material stuff I want. In fact, I am actively working to decrease the amount of stuff in my life.

May you be joyful

I know I talk a lot about joy. In many ways experiencing joy is a choice. It’s a “Yes, and…” response to our crazy mixed up world. Yes there is a lot of pain and suffering. And there is beauty and love. Yes I wish COVID had never happened. And look at the blessing of time and inspiration that I’ve experienced because of staying home more.

May you be grateful

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

There is no doubt about it. I am one of the lucky ones during this pandemic. We’re not worried about money, have no jobs we need to go to, have all we need, and have a beautiful place to live. Every day I am grateful. And I do my best to share what I can with others, whether it’s through writing and creating, or donating to help those in need.

This is enough, this moment, this breath, this life, this time, this place. It’s enough…you are enough.

May you walk in beauty.