changing times

 by Rain Trueax

 

'Tis the season for holidays. A good time of the year, if you can forget about politics and just concentrate on your own life. It though also can be dicey if family and friends are a long way away or in a time of plague. Some families are broken apart and even before politics got into the mix. When things aren't all as one would wish, the need is to go deeper into making our own little piece of earth better.

Bird watching is always good when the weather cooperates. I can spend several hours just watching them as they interact. We have a fence between us; so that our cats can also be outside but not bird hunting. The fence makes photos trickier but takes away none of the joy of hearing and watching. I love having the cats with us but safe from bobcats and coyotes as well as being caught up in cacti barbs.

 Emotionally, after going through some tough times, what I really wanted was something to upbeat the house. Since I liked the furniture, art and rugs as they are, the throw pillows were where my mind went.  Ours were all white, tan or brown. The color in the living and dining room was in the art and the Oriental rugs. When I began looking, it turned out what I liked best were only sold as covers. At first I didn't like that idea, but it grew on me.  They are cheaper, easier to ship, have nice hidden zippers and offered patterns I hadn't seen locally in stores. The new covers brought color and design, soft fabrics for naps and were brought to our door from various companies, through Amazon, and their excellent delivery service.

Another plus to covers (besides if a cat throws up on them) is they could be changed with the seasons. I might not do that-- but I could.

Our Thanksgiving will just be us and likely would have been if we had been in Oregon. Times change and needs of families likewise. I grew up where all the holidays were big deals with families. When I began to create my own holiday dinners, it was family and friends. Sometimes it'd be someone we knew would have nobody for the holiday. I can remember times where I'd set up three tables, use the good china and silver for a special feeling along with good food. Now it's time of just us but we'll still have good food. The china is in the Oregon house, but I doubt I'd use it anyway. It'll be Mexican pottery most likely. I feel good about it. I put out the artificial greens, my mom's glass angels and the fairy lights which we had used here last year.

The book we've been reading is Book of the Hopi by Frank Waters. I have a copy of it in Oregon that I'd read a long time back. We ordered a used version for down here. It explores the history of the Hopi people and was researched when Waters lived in the land with them to ask questions and put together what he believed to be the definitive truth of their mythology. It's been so long since I read it that it's pretty new to me.

The thing I am still falling down on is writing on my next books. We have been considering some possible changes on the ones I already have out there. What is it about contemporary that I just can't seem to market? Oh well, onward and upward as a friend of mine used to say. 

I'll be writing about something new next Saturday and a place is ready for it.