I always seem to be looking for magic. I find it to be sort of a delicate balance, because you have to be able to lure it in with your openness to it but not chase it away with planning. It's simple but elusive. It looks like an external thing, some kind of treat that you get to experience if you're in the right place at the right time, but it's really all inside of us: the noticing of small details and the connections we make that give them meaning. I'm trying to learn to do this more often!
Things I look forward to in December: taking a walk or drive to see the holiday lights, sitting in a dark room with a lit Christmas tree on a snowy night, walking over to the church and spending time alone inside-- something I usually find myself doing on Christmas night; the local tradition of Santa riding through the streets on the back of a fire truck throwing candy to the kids, seeing my son, Cody, get excited over his gifts. :-)
Nutcracker, gnome, or elf: I'm gonna say Nutcracker because they remind me of how my mom and my son, Mikie, always loved them. Mom had a small collection of them. So seeing them reminds me of people I love. :-)
I love the quote by Ruth Ozeki, as well as the one by Edith Wharton.
Your encounter with the gingko leaf is a wonderful one. I believe the universe provides signs but we’re often too distracted or in a trance, ruminating about the past or future, to notice. I enjoyed reading the book by Robert Moss, Sidewalk Oracles, which is all about coincidences, synchronicities, signs, symbols, etc. I find hope and inspiration in these “messages.”
Gold is this season’s color. I’ve recently been stopped in my tracks on a walk when noticing light shining through the golden leaves of a tree. It inspired me to write this haiku for my husband’s birthday: When sunlight shines through
Golden leaves, I think of you
Your warmth, eyes and smile
Also, kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken things, usually pottery, with gold
I’m probably rambling now, but your offerings get me thinking. Thank you for writing.
Amy, I've been thinking about a Note of yours for days now. I don't remember if I reacted to it, but I definitely read it and took it in. I think it might have been the Thanksgiving piece (Roundness of memory..). At any rate, what struck me was a comment you made about how we aren't *supposed* to restack our own work - something along those lines. I remember thinking, "According to whom?!" I'm having similar thoughts reading this.
I believe you and your words belong wherever they land. I do not see you as someone who wings them out with abandon. We never know who we might touch, or how they might discover exactly what they needed to read. On Thanksgiving day, we joined friends for a shared meal and time around a fire. One fellow, a young man I've known for years, was overflowing with complements for Chicken Scratch. That's all nice and everything, but it's not the point. The point is, I didn't even know he read them!
Thank you for persisting, and for sharing your curiosities, in all the ways you do.
What I look forward to in December is seeing houses with Christmas lights. I also love cool sunny days, they allow you to appreciate the sun and sky without risk of spontaneous combustion.
I went halfway down a rabbit hole with the nutcracker, gnome or elf question. Definitely gnome, but I found this surprising information in several different articles. “Christmas elves are in fact a type of dwarf, whose skills in stone craft have been adopted for toy making.”
I have avoided the “work” of planning it out specifically during this Thanksgiving week, but I am looking forward to teaching my 1st grade Christmas Around the World unit this December! Is a joy every time revisiting certain videos and traditions, crafts and snacks.
Nutcrackers
I read Fairy Tale in paperback form in July. I really loved it. I hadn’t read any Steven King novel in a long time. I hope you enjoy it!
I think when you look for the gold, the glimmers, the signs, you’ll find them. It’s better to look for the gold than to see the negatives, although day to day I am not consistent. Those little golden moments can carry you through. I have thought a lot lately about how we can still laugh and rejoice and have beauty when there are horrible events going on for other people. But I think we have to take our leaf photos and enjoy what we can that’s in the real world around us. I hope you find your joy this week. ☺️
Nutcracker all the way! I love the Tchaikovsky nutcracker music and listen to it all December. I’m not a ballet person, we didn’t do ballet, or even go to nutcracker performances as kids, but we had the Maurice Sendak-designed nutcracker ballet on VHS. I think my mom taped it off PBS. We watched it every year. I tracked down a DVD of the same program a few years ago to show my own kids. My daughter actually asked about it a few days ago. Oh the joy of your kid actually liking something from your own childhood.
I think this is the first post of yours that I’ve read and I have no idea how I got here as I am finding so many great things in Substack, but I love prompts and doing things together. I’m assuming the hashtag is an Instagram thing. Is there a way to find others participating here on Substack?
These prompts might help to inspire my Document your Days personal goal for December when I get stuck. I am a digital girl living in a digital world! So I tend to do things that way. I’m trying to use my phone for quicker creation in Adobe Express because I get lost in time creating in Photoshop.
I think you saw that picture of a single lonely ginkgo leaf that I published a couple of weeks ago in my posting on yellow things. I think ginkgos are special, too, as are monkey puzzle trees.
Besides that ginkgo leaf, the Universe has dropped not just one but two yellow leaves in my lap as I drove my wheelchair outside these last few days.
Thank you for writing, thank you for sharing. I always look forward to Sundays.
I’m looking forward to the magic in my grandson’s eyes. December is magical at 4. Elf. The other 2 are just not animated enough 🤣
I always seem to be looking for magic. I find it to be sort of a delicate balance, because you have to be able to lure it in with your openness to it but not chase it away with planning. It's simple but elusive. It looks like an external thing, some kind of treat that you get to experience if you're in the right place at the right time, but it's really all inside of us: the noticing of small details and the connections we make that give them meaning. I'm trying to learn to do this more often!
Things I look forward to in December: taking a walk or drive to see the holiday lights, sitting in a dark room with a lit Christmas tree on a snowy night, walking over to the church and spending time alone inside-- something I usually find myself doing on Christmas night; the local tradition of Santa riding through the streets on the back of a fire truck throwing candy to the kids, seeing my son, Cody, get excited over his gifts. :-)
Nutcracker, gnome, or elf: I'm gonna say Nutcracker because they remind me of how my mom and my son, Mikie, always loved them. Mom had a small collection of them. So seeing them reminds me of people I love. :-)
I love the quote by Ruth Ozeki, as well as the one by Edith Wharton.
Your encounter with the gingko leaf is a wonderful one. I believe the universe provides signs but we’re often too distracted or in a trance, ruminating about the past or future, to notice. I enjoyed reading the book by Robert Moss, Sidewalk Oracles, which is all about coincidences, synchronicities, signs, symbols, etc. I find hope and inspiration in these “messages.”
https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/images/i/m/5A87FA04F8DEC374E1DC5117F85AD8A45ECC5D80.jpg
Gold is this season’s color. I’ve recently been stopped in my tracks on a walk when noticing light shining through the golden leaves of a tree. It inspired me to write this haiku for my husband’s birthday: When sunlight shines through
Golden leaves, I think of you
Your warmth, eyes and smile
Also, kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken things, usually pottery, with gold
I’m probably rambling now, but your offerings get me thinking. Thank you for writing.
Sending peace 🍁🌟🥰
Amy, I've been thinking about a Note of yours for days now. I don't remember if I reacted to it, but I definitely read it and took it in. I think it might have been the Thanksgiving piece (Roundness of memory..). At any rate, what struck me was a comment you made about how we aren't *supposed* to restack our own work - something along those lines. I remember thinking, "According to whom?!" I'm having similar thoughts reading this.
I believe you and your words belong wherever they land. I do not see you as someone who wings them out with abandon. We never know who we might touch, or how they might discover exactly what they needed to read. On Thanksgiving day, we joined friends for a shared meal and time around a fire. One fellow, a young man I've known for years, was overflowing with complements for Chicken Scratch. That's all nice and everything, but it's not the point. The point is, I didn't even know he read them!
Thank you for persisting, and for sharing your curiosities, in all the ways you do.
Gnome. 🍀
What I look forward to in December is seeing houses with Christmas lights. I also love cool sunny days, they allow you to appreciate the sun and sky without risk of spontaneous combustion.
I went halfway down a rabbit hole with the nutcracker, gnome or elf question. Definitely gnome, but I found this surprising information in several different articles. “Christmas elves are in fact a type of dwarf, whose skills in stone craft have been adopted for toy making.”
I have avoided the “work” of planning it out specifically during this Thanksgiving week, but I am looking forward to teaching my 1st grade Christmas Around the World unit this December! Is a joy every time revisiting certain videos and traditions, crafts and snacks.
Nutcrackers
I read Fairy Tale in paperback form in July. I really loved it. I hadn’t read any Steven King novel in a long time. I hope you enjoy it!
I think when you look for the gold, the glimmers, the signs, you’ll find them. It’s better to look for the gold than to see the negatives, although day to day I am not consistent. Those little golden moments can carry you through. I have thought a lot lately about how we can still laugh and rejoice and have beauty when there are horrible events going on for other people. But I think we have to take our leaf photos and enjoy what we can that’s in the real world around us. I hope you find your joy this week. ☺️
Nutcracker all the way! I love the Tchaikovsky nutcracker music and listen to it all December. I’m not a ballet person, we didn’t do ballet, or even go to nutcracker performances as kids, but we had the Maurice Sendak-designed nutcracker ballet on VHS. I think my mom taped it off PBS. We watched it every year. I tracked down a DVD of the same program a few years ago to show my own kids. My daughter actually asked about it a few days ago. Oh the joy of your kid actually liking something from your own childhood.
I think this is the first post of yours that I’ve read and I have no idea how I got here as I am finding so many great things in Substack, but I love prompts and doing things together. I’m assuming the hashtag is an Instagram thing. Is there a way to find others participating here on Substack?
These prompts might help to inspire my Document your Days personal goal for December when I get stuck. I am a digital girl living in a digital world! So I tend to do things that way. I’m trying to use my phone for quicker creation in Adobe Express because I get lost in time creating in Photoshop.
Amy,
I think you saw that picture of a single lonely ginkgo leaf that I published a couple of weeks ago in my posting on yellow things. I think ginkgos are special, too, as are monkey puzzle trees.
Besides that ginkgo leaf, the Universe has dropped not just one but two yellow leaves in my lap as I drove my wheelchair outside these last few days.
Thank you for writing, thank you for sharing. I always look forward to Sundays.
I am looking forward to some quiet time in December and having some family over for meals before the Christmas rush.
I would normally say Nutcracker but I have to go for Gnome as just recently I have seen some on walk where I wasn’t expecting them.
I love the imagery in this, Amy. That single leaf capturing your attention, a simple yet magical moment. A little glimmer. 💛