Gathering my pen and paper, I went to the kitchen table to compose a letter to send with our cards this year. The last time I didn’t feel like sending cards - I had lost so many friends and family, my heart was not in it. This time I couldn’t get started because I didn’t seem to have the spirit.
Since Halloween, I remember walking through the stores listening to Christmas music, seeing Christmas decorations, and poinsettias all over the place. It just made me want to go baa-humbug. What about the cranberry sauce and Thanksgiving Day? What about being grateful for what we have! Oh well - it just started me off in the wrong direction, which is probably why my spirits were low. Nevertheless, I figured sometime before December 31, 2009 I will kick myself for not sending the cards and letters.
At this time of the year, I'll send over ninety plus cards and letters to a wonderful group of people, who in some way have touched our lives. Unfortunately, because of my senior schedule, which keeps me busier than I was when I worked, I don’t get the opportunity to communicate via phone or visits, as I should. You see, as a child growing up at my grandmother’s house, families were close and friends were closer. They were a community of communicators. All I had to do was walk out on the front porch and say hello, or walk around the block and see my classmates. There was always someone there to help you out if you needed it. It was a community of caring people, who gave Thanksgiving more importance than Halloween. I miss those days, but as time marches on, so does the society I live in.
Although the year has found some of us short on some things, or tightening our belt on others, this year has offered some positive opportunities. It has caused people to slow down and look at what they have. Some have become appreciative of the good will of others and thankful for the loved ones in their lives. Some have created traditions that will generate once again attitudes cherished as a child. Later that night I watched, 'How the Grinch stole Christmas.' At the end of the movie, the Grinch realized that Christmas doesn’t come from packages, boxes, bags, or poinsettias all over the place. Christmas doesn’t come from a store - but means a little bit more - Christmas will always come as long as we have friends to lift our spirits. Merry Christmas spirits!
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- New to the writing world, I live with my husband of twenty years in Chicago, Illinois. I have been retired from the work force for fifteen years doing small jobs to earn money and keep constructively busy. I love to garden and have been painting and drawing all of my life. Although challenged with the English language, I found comfort when writing came into my life in the form of rhyming verses. Poetry was an outlet for emotions I needed to express, and because I am dyslexic, this form was easy for me. Later, after 17 years of research, I wrote and published my first book called People of Difference, which is a paternal genealogy study. It was after writing People of Difference that I decide to try my hand at actually writing a short fictional novel. In 1983, I wrote and published Moments of Feelings – a fictional story about a young girl starting life on her own. I received so much pleasure from writing Moments of Feelings that I decided to learn the trade of writing. Although I haven’t written a lot of poetry since I’ve started my ‘late in life endeavor,’ I am hoping the world will keep me on my toes in developing the skills of writing.
