This is the Happy New Year doll I made last year when I thought 2020 was going to be an exciting, enlightening, happy year filled with clear 20/20 vision, new adventures, new pathways to explore in my artwork and writings. I couldn’t wait for the clock to strike midnight and the shiny, new year to begin! See how fun and sparkly she is? Dressed for Mardi Gras celebrations too!
Well…we certainly got new adventures-staying away from loved ones and our work environments for the most part; figuring out how to use Zoom, Skype and Facetime on our electronic devices so we could still see people and do our work from home; trying to get our money back from the airlines, vacation places and Amtrak for trips not taken; and finally understanding this pandemic is not going away any time soon and it is a dangerous, insidious little bug.
Gratefully, I live near a lovely lake and I was able to sit on a dock each morning and again at sunset as soon as the weather permitted in the Spring, and watch Nature unfurl while furry and feathered creatures were hatched/born near me. I wrote and sketched and painted, consulted my Goddess card decks, performed rituals, had fires in my backyard, watched the stars, planets and moon wax and wane at night. As it became colder and darker in December and I could no longer be outside for any length of time, I found it more difficult to stay optimistic about the future of this planet and Her inhabitants. However, I signed up for several online Advent and Solstice retreats involving rituals, artwork, music and celebrations which gave me renewed hope and an eagerness to say goodbye to 2020 and look ahead to 2021 and all this year has to offer me. During one of the retreats I was reminded of a poem I wrote many years ago – in 1993 as it turns out – that captured the Christmas Spirit back then and does again today.
The Gifting
I did not see at once he sported angel’s wings.
He stood on a street corner in busy downtown Troy
dancing and singing to his own private band,
asking for spare change from the passersby
who answered with polite refusals, heads hanging down.
I approached him with coins in hand and smiled into sky-blue eyes.
‘Have a beautiful day, lady!’ as he danced a happy jig,
threw his hands into the air.
An angel he was in blue jeans carrying his halo in his smile.
He blessed my life from that day forth
in exchange for my spare change.
Poetry, Prose, and Painting 