Shades of pink stretch lazily across the sky as the world wakes up to the "day after". I sit here with my French press, feet propped on the needlpoint footstool, the heater humming quietly as I take the first sips of smooth Colombian. The tree winks sleepily from the corner, still stately in its Christmas splendor, waiting for the dismantling to come when it will be moved to the porch as a winter home for the birds. I look across the yard where our neighbor, Bo, is removing the garland from his white fence and I know that soon our neighborhood will lose its magical holiday appeal as decorations and lights come down until the next holiday season.
This year has passed so quickly and I feel as if I flew through each calendar month with lightning speed. When I open my journal, though, and read the entries chronicled during various months, I can see there were highs and lows in the progression of the year. There were times when I felt the days crawled and I was in a slump of disapointment over a dream that seemed far away, or felt keenly the lack of close friends nearby to share a tear over a glass of wine. At other times, the days and nights flowed sweetly in a harmonic symphony of work, school, and family.
Some of the best times happened around my table when friends came to dinner and life experiences were shared over good food and wine. We ate warm, crusty bread dipped in olive oil from Sicily and talked of travel experiences to places like Peru, Brazil, Corsica, Switzerland, France, and Wales. We sunk our forks into garlic-laden stuffed manicotti and delighted in storytelling and joke cracking and poetry reading. We enjoyed the distinct flavors of bison and lamb from the grill while listening to blues and jazz. We were cultured by live performances of classical concertos while enjoying the best cheesecake on the East coast, made by a friend.
Heaven happens around the dinner table, so in reflection of this past year, we had a lot of heaven going on in our home. And that's a good tradition to carry into the next year as we get ready to turn the page of the calendar once again.
