Accepto Patronum

One of the great things about being human is the ability to plan and carry it out. Christmas is the best opportunity for that kind of thing, the only drawback being my tendency to over-plan. Lists have lists until only Santa's naughty and nice list is longer. Our everyday projects crash into Christmas requiring contingency plans. I get overwhelmed, but I'm slow to ask for help. This year I got told.
"Accept help or quit" wasn't the exact message, but it felt that way.
At first I was upset and quitting looked like the better option. As time went by I began to see how good and necessary the help really was. Long term I am certain that my kids will get good at doing their chores, but Christmas won't wait for that to happen. Christmas requires order, so when the elves showed up with buckets and pails and made the impossible possible we rejoiced. When the last few sparkly bits needed to be finished while a bunch of other things required attention it was such a relief to call my sister and ask for help. She has a gift for sparkly bits.
The lesson seems to be that expecto patronum isn't rude, and that accepto patronum is imperative. It has been a very happy holiday.

Christmastide

The older the kids get the more pressure there is before Christmas. They have to be at so many different celebrations and activities and they have more sophisticated taste in presents. Gone are the days when Grandma's house was the big party and Little People sent them into ecstasy. It feels like every single moment is all ready taken up and there is no room for any spiritual spontaneity. If God has something to say, he'll have to wait for Christmas. Then Christmas comes and just like that it's all over. The presence of the tree enters the decaying orbit where it moves from beacon to clutter. There is nothing to do but take it down--unless your Catholic. I'm beginning to get the hang of the differences with the way I was raised to do things and the way I've adopted of doing things and at St. Mary's Christmas doesn't stop until Epiphany. I have all that time after Christmas to reflect on Christmas without any checklist or deadline, a fridge full of leftovers and a clean house. What a blessing!

A Tale of Four Journals

It started with Larry Crab's PAPA prayer. For me it's a good discipline for both seeing and expressing myself as I am. I filled up four or five journals before I realized that they were all puny and over-priced. On top of that, there was no continuity. Every journal was an interesting and useful design, but I disliked the way the changes intruded on my purpose. I wanted to get in a groove and stay with it. Enter the Levenger Infinity Journal. The paper is nicely ruled. It's quite fat, and there is no bleed through. The best part though is the refills. When I come to the end I remove the current journal and put a new one in the leather cover. It's seamless which is what you want when you are focusing on an important task.

One Journal leads to another. I'm reading through the Great Books and other stimulating intellectual volumes, and I wanted a place to record all the new insights and such I was gleaning. My first thought was to get another Infinity Journal in a different color, but they've stopped selling it. Casting about for alternatives, I used a gift card to Barnes and Noble to select a gorgeous red leather journal with an amazing owl on the cover. Since I'm playfully enrolled in the Owl Correspondence School, it was a perfect fit.

Harriet is set in the sixties. Anytime I see a display of materials devoted to the period I take a look to see what might work for the plot. A table at B&N was set up like a shrine to Woodstock. I'd begun to scribble down ideas on whatever was in my purse and it was a mess. The peace sign journal was too perfect. All my scraps found a home and these days I pull it out for anything that inspires me no matter which project it belongs to. I've even gone so far as to get multi-colored pens so that the inside matches the outside--lots of fun.

The last journal isn't as much fun, but it's important. I'm going on a diet. The journal lets you record tons of data so that you can focus on other aspects of your attempt to get healthy when this or that strategy has gone stale. I like that.

Write it down. As a writer I should have known what magic that strategy can hold, but I didn't.

It's On!

Today we had the first successful meeting of the Great Books Group, 3:00 o'clock at Barnes and Noble. It was decided that we'll use the guide to the Great Books written by Anthony O'Hear because it is a reasonably sized selection from the books that is also heavy on narrative--a good place for beginners to start. No one needs to buy the book. It is not too late to join. We are reading The Iliad first and would love to have you at our next meeting, the first Sunday in January at 3:00.