Mystery bird

 If anyone can identify this flying figure, please do. It might be a European robin, can't say I've ever seen one in flight. I'm learning that I don't have to know everything, so I'm not researching this one.  If I find out, good, but not by dint of searching.

I was reading an essay today about Christmas and being free not to do things the way we always have.  Partly it's about the pandemic, partly about the idea that it's okay to do things the way that suits us, rather than the socially demanded way.  All year round, that is.

One of the immediate subjects is, for people who celebrate Christmas, that if you simply decide to be simple, it gives other people permission to do likewise.  Which had not occurred to me, even though when I see other people being casual and comfortable and not stressing out about their hair and eyebrows and Christmas cards and so on, it gives me permission to do likewise.  Not that my hair and eyebrows are ever a concern, to be honest, but for some people that kind of grooming issue has been a big deal during lockdown.

So I hereby put my money where my mouth is, and say: I will greet people with texts and emails as I get to it, and definitely in response to their greeting me. No flock of cards is going out. The little decorations I have out at home will not be added to.  

Christmas dinner is being brought by Handsome Son, heat and eat style,just as we did at Thanksgiving.  I'll get out the red cloth and the white embroidered cloth and glasses, and lay the table.  I'll make an apple crumble for dessert.  Nothing fancier.  And I'll enjoy the day. We may even be celebrating on the 25th this year. Everyone I know has too much stuff, so it's not really a favor to give presents, unless they can be consumed right away.  So aside from getting out The Pearls, that's it for our huge festivities.  And it will be enough.

I don't believe in making Christmas the centerpiece of the year, certainly don't start planning it in January, as some folks I know do, and good luck to them, if they like it, go for it.  Me, not being swept up in that energy.

I really think learning to live in the present is a bigger deal now than ever, since we realize better than ever that we don't know how much present we're going to get. It's like the difference between 9/10 and 9/11.  We were in deadly danger on 9/10, but we didn't know it then. After 9/11 we certainly knew it, and continue to.

It's a continuing work in progress for me, learning not to make anxiety the default of the day.  But I'm working on it. So many things don't matter as much as they seem to in the middle of the night.

So that's where I am, and I do offer these thoughts to you in the hope that they might be helpful, or at least interesting, and if not, you can always scroll on quietly.

Off to make blueberry muffins now, for Handsome Son tomorrow.