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I really like holidays.
Since we live in this great American melting pot, or stew, or tossed salad - whatever - this can mean holidays of LOTS of different religions. Such a fine variety of holidays to choose from!
But how to avoid stepping on one's toes, congratulating someone for the wrong day?
It's easy. You don't need to try to remember who believes what. No no no! Get yourself a cheap calender with Important Days outlined in red, or bookmark same - just for ya know it's Special - and tell everyone you like:
HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!
See how easy? This way you have many other fine advantages, to-wit:
You don't have to worry that you just said *Happy Easter* to, say, an Orthodox Jew. Plus, no one will question you closely about the nature of the holiday, for fear they'll look like a horse's patootie - which you just saved your ownself from doing, right? PLUS, it puts lots of people in a nice holiday mood. Want a great reason to pull the curtains, invite some friends (or not), and do a fine cook-fest?
And if you've got some brave acquaintances in the bunch, you can drop the Horse's P. concerns and have all sorts of interesting discussions about the real date of the Chinese New Year and such. Not many supervisors are brave enough to jump in and cut that conversation short if you're swiping another 15 minutes of lunch hour.
The point is, it's a holiday. A time to relax a bit and remember to enjoy ourselves. I think the world could use a bit more of that.
Leaving religion behind for a bit - say, taking a brief vacation from it - Easter is special because it's springtime. I don't need to figure out if it's the correct historical date, or reconcile the usual mix of orthodoxy and paganism. Nope.
Because even living in near-perpetual sunshine and warmth, we can feel the change down here too.
Springtime.
Full of joyousness, renewal, warm breezes, seeds sprouting, sap running, bunnies bounding and eggs hatching. Yeah. All o' that. It's just great.
So whatever your beliefs, agendas, family situations and so forth, I hope you have a truly Happy Holiday today.
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17 comments:
Happy Easter to you, too! All my Gregorian Chant and other choir music is in storage, so I put on some Tibetan monks instead. They seem perfectly appropriate.
We're in South Philly, at Joe's mom's house. I've been chafing quite a bit, since South Philly is mainly one big slab of concrete and bricks, without even any window boxes. People have artificial flowers in their front windows. Which freaks me out considerably. I spent my first tips on a large window plant and an orchid, just so as not to suffocate.
But there are some trees here and there, and they're bursting into bloom--dogwood and cherry and forsythia and the occasional pink magnolia. I take Little O to Girard Park and walk round and round, feeding the squirrels.
I landed a job at the nicest wellness center in Center City within two weeks of moving here. The more I work, the more clients I get, because people who have seen me come back and refer their friends.
We sublet our Brooklyn apartment, and Joe spent the last week packing up most of our stuff for storage. We're not sure where we'll land eventually--it must have access to more nature than hitherto, a more congenial wage/cost of living ratio, decent schools, and the potential to develop an arts community. There are a lot of places on our list, and we're taking our time.
Meanwhile, Little O has Joe's old bedroom, which we painted sage green and hung with butterflies and dragons. We see Joe's sisters and Little O's cousins nearly every weekend. On Monday, Little O and I start Baby Groove classes, which are one of my job perks.
It's maybe not what we planned, but could be much much worse.
And a Happy Holiday right back to ya, k. So very, very good to hear from you again.
Thought of you today after someone mentioned there's an orchid farm out near the sea.
Hope you guys are doing fine.
Hope yours was GREAT! Nice post! I wrote one today--I'm not a very consistent poster...but I am sure glad to read yours!
Holy smokes, Pretty Lady! Gregorian Chant and Tibetan monks. Are you taking me down Memory Lane! I shall absorb and ponder upon this tasty morsel of information.
And OH, do I feel for you. *It's maybe not what we planned, but could be much much worse. * Yeah. I know you know that. Everyone I know is suffering the bad effects of this terrible economy. It seems we're mostly in a *medium* category, most of us in our tiny corner of the 'sphere: grateful to have food and have a roof over our heads; some kind of income, and perhaps some kind of health care, for at least part of our extended families.
More? We're not doing as well as we were, including those of us that weren't doing so great before. We can't really help those of our friends and family that are suffering worse than we are, at least not financially, and that bothers us way more than a little. We send up some prayers and/or positive energies and/or good thoughts, try to reach down inside ourselves and pull out other ways to help them instead. Economizing, trying hard to stay cheerful and stay strong, ride it out, don't lose our tenuous hold on that 3, 4, or 5-dimensional spider web that's the economy, once you can look underneath it...and yes, chafing.
And yes: also counting our blessings. Remembering to see the Special Trees in bloom - even in concrete. To hang those butterflies and dragons, buy some special plants. There's always a sense of hopefulness about inducing and nurturing life.
And...I vote to put Fort Lauderdale on your list. ;-)
Granny J - Well, I'm hoping to keep on talkin' atcha, the best I can. I love the way you sort of *pop* in so quick when I post! You and Joyce must be some of the readers who have me on a feed. The gesture itself reminds me of a story a couple of German friends told me called, I think, Danke Shoen/Bitte Shoen.
John - That's very nice. I think of you when I see or hear about any kind of cartoon. It can be set in any time from Felix the Cat to something released yesterday. Perhaps that's due in part to the way Freakazoid is nicely balanced between our pre-tech past, and that change that put the human race on a radically different new footing - not just computers, for instance, but widespread easy access to PC's. It really is the dawn of a new age.
The *thinking of you* when I hear about a cartoon can have some startling juxtapositions. Today a nurse told me she loves to dance to them, so she went out and bought a whole bunch of episodes of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
I hope you and yours are hangin' in there too. I hope to come by Little Miss Attila soon and catch up a bit.
Well, Joyce, like they say - my house, my rules. Blogs are STILL places where we can post as much or as little as we like, any time of year. In a sec I'm even gonna break one of my own guidelines (leave the Medical Stuff off of Happy posts).
And yes, my Easter WAS a great one in an odd way. Please excuse the medical talk on a Happy Easter post - I'm still in the hospital recovering from the Really Big Surgery, which had some subsequent issues. BUT! In the wee hours of Easter I was treated to The Best Transport EVAR, and on Easter Sunday had a weird and wonderful day socializing with some nurses who let their hair down a bit and played and joked around with us aaallllll day.
Hmmm...well, you're on my list of Blogs to Stop By Soon, so it's great to hear you updated too. heh! I love to read any of your posts, but there's always something so especially tempting about one that's nice and fresh.
Kind of like home-made bread.
I love you.
Me too.
k, I can't tell you how much I miss you. The blogging world (mine anyway) is that much the poorer without your voice.
It is *very good* to see you writing here again for more than a brief interlude between crises. Dare I hope you are on the mend and may soon be spending more time in your garden than in a hospital bed?
I love you guys too. ALL of you, ever so much.
Oh, Desert Cat. My Pops.
On the one hand - it's still up in the air, whether or not I make it at all. But just in the last few days I've felt a change, physically. For example: an appetite. I mean a raging one, a nice healthy *eating like a horse* one.
Better yet? A sudden compulsion to move. To move my arms around, to sit up, to stand up. Things I haven't been able to do for a long time, some for over a year now.
I feel like I'm on the mend.
If so? It will be a long time before I'm back in the garden. I'm under strict orders for bed rest for at least 6 months.
But kdad the doctor has a Program. He's going to be my trainer, my support and guide through that long healing process. I think, with not just his help but the help of everyone in my life - I think I can make it.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your compliments and support. I've given up trying to figure out why you want to read my stuff. I'm just glad you do.
Oh come now Little Miss Heart O' Gold. I think you at least intuit that answer. It is not necessarily so much what you write, but who you are.
Please make it. I need you, too.
Okay, you guys. Please keep on praying, sending good thoughts and positive energies, and doing everything else you do for this tired ol' blogger. Whether it's my imagination or something that really works, I can feel it supporting me and helping me stay strong.
But cut it out with the mushy stuff already, or I'll keep getting distracted from finishing the next post. (scold scold!)
Mushy stuff! Hmph.
Well then, I'll describe the latest video Joe posted on YouTube.
Olivia received a truly Bizarre Object as an Easter present--it is a pink stuffed bunny rabbit, sitting on his haunches, with a purple butterfly sitting on his nose. When you squeeze his paw, he starts dancing to a cheesy song about the Easter Bunny, and the butterfly flutters.
Olivia is sitting in her play pen, pressing his paw over and over, and dancing with him. The funny thing is that she keeps stopping the song and dancing to just the first phrase, like she's rehearsing. Finally she gets to the end of the song and giggles.
http://youtube.com/joerosato
Hey, let's all camp out on k's blog and distract her!!!
:-)
Good to hear from you again, K! I'm going to have to try some more liggy seeds again sometime. Let me know if yer up to it and I'll blast you a SASE. Great to hear so sounding so chipper, hang in there.
Cefenix aka Mike D
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