The Tree

I can face my day with gratitude, today. A friend has forgiven me, and the stark relief stands like a lone wood with no leaves to keep the branches from swaying on their own. The beautiful season of winter is upon us, with it's stiff, gold grasses, and clamoring branches rimed with frost.

The bear is gone and the cold she fled from is coming down and up, from all corners. It's windy, today. And while I love the wind in the Spring, and on Summer nights, and I love the cold weather coming in, the bluster will make walking the dog harder today. It's not that he has a hard time staying on the ground...he is 50 lbs. It's that he has a hard time keeping his ears down and his eyes turn to slits, trying to filter flying leaves out of them.

The unicorn meat eating cats have come to the realization that it is winter. After an entire day outside, yesterday, they do not clamor to go out this morning.

And for the first time in several years, since I moved from the Old House, I will have a tree this year for Christmas. It will be Georgia's first, that I know of, and we will see what she will make of it. My last girl cat, my beloved Echo, used to roost under the lights at nighttime. I have ornaments my mother bought me, that also serve as cat toys. Hung from the lowest branches, they dangle with enticing ribbons and bells. The ornaments for further up are shaped like cats, and I remember every Christmas my mother bought a new one for me.

I also have several Star Trek ornaments, and love to hang The Enterprise, with its working lights.

My body is stressed with the prednisone, and its own natural processes, but I struggle to maintain it. I would like to keep using it for a while, and it deserves some care, as a tree in a living room deserves the cool air, and water. So, I walk the dog, and I am grateful for friends and forgiveness and my AA program. I am glad for the roof over my head, and food that I eat.

I am glad of the winter solstice coming, and the miracle of the evergreen, and the festival and remembrance of Light.