Rural Routes, Blog Version

GARBAGE BAGS

You might wonder why I include a photo of a garbage bag in an end of year/post-Christmas blog.

You might think it is a comment on the waste that accompanies the holidays. Which is true enough… how many households are throwing out garbage bags full of shiny paper that cannot be recycled?

But really it is a reflection of the old days when we would hold on to those garbage bags for several days before sending them to the burning barrel in our farmyard.

We were being cautious. In the days when our children were small, we would often have to go through the bag/s to search for something that had mistakenly been tossed in the Christmas morning flurry of torn paper, ribbon, and bows. Missing game pieces, instructions, you never knew what might be found in the bag. It was safest to wait until we were sure that nothing was missing before we consigned the Christmas garbage to the fire.

Old habits die hard. This year’s bag of Christmas paper still sits in the porch. Last night I dug through it searching for a pair of scissors missing since Christmas Day. The scissors were not there, so we shall continue looking.

DEAR SANTA

For several years, a decade or so ago, I volunteered as one of Santa’s helpers. I answered his letters.

This was not done with the official sanction of either the North Pole or Canada Post. It was a less formal arrangement with the local post office and school.

I thoroughly enjoyed my assignment, and it was one of the things I missed when I first moved away from my home community.

As Santa would have done, I tried to make his replies as personal as possible, without being too intrusive. It was not difficult. I knew the children. Heck, I knew the parents when they were sending letters to Santa.

I did not, however, commit the cardinal sin of promising anything on their wish lists.

I sometimes wonder if those children – or their parents – wondered how Santa’s assistant knew so much about them.

In the words of the old song, ‘he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake; he knows when you’ve been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake.”

That’s the kind of stock answer my parents would have given. We kids called it magic. I think that was part of my motivation for writing the letters; I was trying to keep the magic alive for children. I don’t know if I was successful, but I sure had fun trying.

BONSAI TREE

Usually between Christmas and New Years, I complete a seasonal puzzle. But this year I have a different project.

I received an adult Lego bonsai tree for Christmas, and I am putting it together. Lego for Christmas, you say? Are you entering your second childhood?

Far from it. Adult Lego kits have become popular, and my husband and I discovered the charms of the bonsai tree when we attended an exhibition earlier this year. It was the ideal present to keep me occupied in this transition time between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

YEAR END

I quit making New Year’s resolutions a long time ago. It’s not that I don’t have things I would like to change; it’s just that I don’t seem to be resolute enough when it comes to keeping them. It’s like setting myself up to fail and who needs that?  I know I am not alone

Like all years, 2023 has had its successes and failures, its joys and its sorrows, its challenges and its accomplishments. I am learning that, although I am ageless inside my head, my body is showing signs of wear. Again, I know I am not alone.

“The world is too much with us” is a line from a poem by William Wordsworth. The poem talks about how we have alienated ourselves from nature and lost touch with spirituality, paying too much attention to the material changes in the world brought about by industrialization. More than two centuries later, the words seem just as apt as ever.

I find new meaning in them, though. The world is chaotic right now and it seems impossible to avoid knowledge of that chaos. We are surrounded by it. The world is in our living rooms.

Simple acts of kindness throughout the past year – from family, friends, acquaintances and sometimes strangers –brought brightness and warmth to our 2023. I shall do my best to remember that and to share that kindness with others in the coming year.

So, beyond the traditional wishes for health, happiness, and prosperity, I wish the blessing of kindness for everyone in 2024. And hope.

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