The Flip Side of Forty: Solstice

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Solstice

Today is a good day to take in the quiet of the snow, forget the aching trials and numbing darkness of the past few weeks, and put it all behind. To hide out, instead, in the shimmer of the fresh snow that has set everything to sparkle, a perfect cloak of white. To dress myself in this enchantment, lose myself in this wintry world, rendered still by the storm, and fall, deep, trusting, into the soundless noise and muffling cold. Today, I am content to follow the birds from tree to feeder and back again, listen to the snow jostling elbows on the roof, the dog’s deep sleep in the corner, the fire coming to in the woodstove. The Solstice is here, the world will once again begin to open to its warming light; bit by bit the darkness that has snuffed my torch will ease, settle into something more manageable, and blaze with shooting stars. Today, that is enough for me.

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The Love List--a Work in Progress

I love…

…Having time to really listen to music, not just a snippet or a song but a whole album at once. On vinyl. Or to dust off those old mixed tapes and give them a spin. Or, even better, catch a live show. Go to a festival. Dance.

…Finding new music that I love, again, just when I think there's nothing that will grab my solar plexus and send me spinning.

…Eating homemade pie. Strawberry rhubarb, wild blueberry, apple. To hell with cake. Cake sucks. Pie rocks.

…Watching, feeling, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting the change in seasons. From summer into fall, fall into winter, winter into spring, and spring into summer, there are moments that creep up on you, fill your senses with the tingling excitement and resignation that change is in the air, and compel you to shift ever so slightly in your consciousness to adjust to the coming winds, fill your sails, and go.

…That spiral of never ending change that lifts you up and takes you someplace you’ve never been before, then winds you back down to places you haven't been to in a long while, to refresh your spirit and blow the dust out of your wheels.

…This time of year, whenever it is.

…Singing. Really. I should have been a rock star.

...Green & Black's Maya Gold chocolate. Dark. Creamy. Rich. Anything else just isn't worth it.

...Sleeping through the night (not always easy if you've been eating chocolate).

...Laughing. Because I don't do it enough.

...Dancing: the Hustle, the Bump, or Bomba with Dominick. It's all good.

...Freaks and Geeks. Far and away the best TV show ever. Brings me back to 1980, when I found myself doing the Lindsay-thing, trying to ditch the egg-head identity for a cooler vibe. Never did quite shed the geek thing fully, and I'm glad for it.

...Walking on sidewalks, crunching through the leaves, trying not to step on cracks, jumping from line to line, tree to tree, lost in an ambulatory haze of meditative delight.

...Any kind of walking. But you knew that.

...Animals. Nearly every kind. Even humans, though there have been days in my life that I have wondered if perhaps I get along better with animals of the non-human variety than I do with animals of the human variety.

...the Galapagos Islands. If you have never been, don't go; too many tourists are ruining the fragile ecosystems of these amazing islands, an evolutionary laboratory, Darwin's inspiration. Just know that they are breathtakingly beautiful, each one different, and home to animals that are found nowhere else on earth. I feel profoundly grateful that I was able to spend 8 days on the islands a few years ago. Trip of a lifetime.

...Costa Rica! The people, the food, the landscape, the Pura Vida vibe. Grateful for the time to experience a slower pace, and to be reminded of that essential, shimmering essence of living your days, through our connections with others, to nature, and to ourselves.