Our December Calender

I've been wanting to create this ritual. One to open a space in order to give new gifts of gratitude, love, and joy each day to our family during this holiday season. Gifts of sharing, playing, celebrating, creating, together.  I am rather new at this family making, ritual creating and I'm hoping to find rich gifts for each day's opening envelop. I will share the process here beginning on December 1st. Come join me.

Here is the Calender creation made by my son and I, together.

Our Advent Calender

Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving was especially full of gratitude in my heart.

To my Grandmother
To my Mother
To my son
To my husband
To my sisters
To my friends
To my family
To my Higher Power
To my father
and to all that I have today.

I have been sharing, daily, with a friend, a practice of a voicing a gratitude (more often multiple). It is amazing how I am able to turn each negative thought, each complaint, each anger into a gratitude, even if it is Just for a moment each day.

This practice has been amazingly healing and helpful to me.

I am thankful.

Harvest

Celeric (celery root)

Bean picking on the farm

The biggest pig I ever saw (even at the State Fair)

These images are from our visit to our farm last month. They had a farm festival with hay riding and all. Though we have joined this CSA for 3 seasons now, it was our first visit to the farm. How fun it was in the brisk autumn air. Our son enjoyed sculpting big birds' nests and throwing the hay all over himself and others in the big hay pile (not shown).

Now that Halloween is over, it is suddenly Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
Panic arises.
Somewhere in there too is my birthday and my mothers' memorial.

It is a lot. Especially because it has been such difficult recent past,  4 + months processing challenge after challenge after challenge. And still.  I have taken a ride deeply to the bottom, dragged there for far too long and slowly now, only now, I feel the slightest lift. A spring upward to nudge me, perhaps, I am finally coming up rather than falling down face first. My faith is stronger today, My boundaries are stronger. Still yet it is Fall. We just changed our clocks back. So now when I wake it is not pitch black.  Winter is coming. Hibernation.

I have learned to plan and plot in these past few years as mother, as family maker, as tradition maker, as creative celebrator. And my planing and vision setting has begun to feel a little smoother, more successful and more joyful.
Those are only small things.
And this past weekend I had a few insights that felt hopeful (I haven't been feeling that too much lately though I do keep moving forward).

One is making a date with friends and their children to do some art-making activities. This should be fun. I am trying to open the space to see if we can do this, be creative together in new ways, that are personally, soulfully, fulfilling.

Another, thanks to my friend John and to Studio Mothers, is art-making 10 minutes a day. It is in the calender those 10 minutes several times a week. Since I no longer have an art  studio, or even a corner where I can leave things out to pick up again with ease. I am packing small boxes, each one with one project and all the tools needed, including the "step to do next" list. Streamlining. Thank you Alissa, Creative with Kids.com.

3rd is finally having the opportunity and grace to make a daily gratitude and daily action commitment. What a gift this has given me to be able to speak these prayers of gratitude and action out loud to another person, every day.  What new clarity and empowerment and connection this gives me to expand, to be human, to love, to peace, to Spirit.

Thank you all, in the world, occupying your place, your space, as I am here, proudly taking my power as the 99% with all of you here in this world! Peace to Occupy Wall St!

October Snow