Holiday Celebrations

  Celebrating with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and linking with others who share their celebrations, too. I am grateful to Ruth for helping us celebrate together!  

   Taking a break till the new year, looking forward to celebrating the holidays! For me, family and Christmas is a time to savor and anticipate all the year! 

MERRY

C arols and Community

H ats hand-knit and Hope

R hymes and Relaxing

I magination and Icicles

S anta and Sleighs

T oast and Talk

M emories and Magic

A ngels and Arrivals

S pices and Soup

                    Linda

Making My Way

        Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference hosts this mid-December Poetry Friday, showing gorgeous shadow-box poetry. Thanks, Tabatha!

      It's mid-December, cold is arriving on Saturday from a breezy and warm Friday. Official winter's here in a few days. I continue to be warmed and grateful to Mary Lee Hahn for her challenge HERE  to write a haiku each day in December with the hashtag #haikuforhealing. And when I read Catherine Flynn's post about #commonplacemarvels, it inspired me, too. Except for Dec. 1st,  I've shared every day. I have found pleasure in the search and pleasure in the discovery of beauty in my everyday world. Thanks again, Mary Lee and Catherine. 
       Thanks again to Michelle H. Barnes at Today's Little Ditty also, and those in her committee who created the poetry book, The Best of Today's Little Ditty. While I have ordered others for gifts, shh, don't tell, I waited until I received my copy signed by Michelle before I began to read. I am proud to have some poems in it, but my heart also warmed as I began to read the amazing poems by all of you. It will be a lovely way to spend cold nights this winter, savoring the words, trying a challenge all over again. 
       And thanks to every one of the Poetry Friday poets. I am grateful to be a part of such a caring and creative community. I learn from each of you every Friday.

     Found in a book about the solstice at the bookstore, a poem of comfort at the end of this strangest  of years:


Here at the gateway of the year,
May we strive to make good cheer.
In our revels shall joy abound
And sorrow be cast underground.
—Caitlin Matthews from her book Sun Still; Sun Return

              I'm taking a few weeks off until the new year, when actually I'm hosting on January sixth, Three Kings' Day or Epiphany. Happiest of holidays to you and yours. This Wednesday, the winter solstice arrives, and I am reminded of Percy Bysshe Shelley: "Oh, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?" And that brings me to today's discovery.

Click to enlarge!

a barren bush,

then a closer peek —

promises

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

Learning from N-F Picture Books

              Thanks to Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge at Kidlit Frenzy, those who link up share fabulous non-fiction picture books. I am grateful for all that I've learned through reading these books. 
          I'm taking a break until the new year, wishing everyone a wonderful holiday with family and friends, and peace in the new year.      

We discovered who Sally Hemings was some years ago, but little, according to the author's note at the back, is known about her children. In this story, we learn of one of her sons, among four children. Jonah Winter states that he has pieced together bits of information and fictionalized what might be James Madison Hemings' story. It is told by James himself,  one rightly given in a solemn way, of the mystery that his mother shared with the children that their father was an important man. There is little cheer shown and they eventually discovered that he was not only their father, he was their owner. At first, this was a mystery to the children. 
        Being so light-skinned and resembling that man so clearly, it wasn't easy to pretend that they knew nothing. They were "owned" and lived all together in one room in a kind of dungeon, but they were treated a little better than other slaves. They did not have to work in the fields. They were taught a trade. And luckily, James was taught to read by one of his father's grandchildren. Sometimes they could play in the big house. Finally, they were freed as they became adults. James lived the remaining part of his life as a master carpenter. The final sentence is chilling: "All I know is what I have told you here. This is my family history. And this is American history." It is good to have these stories told, but I continue to regret that in my own education, they were never told. The illustrations are serious portraits of this life, beautifully showing the life and the beauty of the home and land of Thomas Jefferson, who was James' father, that "important man". 

Catching Up In Year's End

       I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community today. It's always a pleasure to read what everyone writes about their lives.

         

        It has been quite a chaotic time this fall in politics, no surprise to any of you I know. Among all my other activities I've continued to read as widely as possible, and tried to find ways to challenge our president elect's way of being. Never will I accept that his behavior toward people and toward America is acceptable. I am tired and still will not stop, but I also am going to take the next couple of weeks away from blogging (after this week), to try to get my holiday life in order so I can be with myself, with my family and friends, catch up on some writing goals, and other needed things, like bake and wrap gifts. I love blogging and connecting with all of you, but need a break. I know that all of you do not celebrate Christmas, but do wish everyone a safe and joyous final days of 2016. 

         I'm sharing a book I shared yesterday because it is a book just discovered, and includes many of the holidays that bless us in this season of light. If you don't know it, find it. It is lovely. It also is about poetry and quilting!

My Review

        Anna Grossnickle Hines not only wrote the poems and illustrated them but created the quilts that became part of the beautiful pages. In the backmatter, she writes about the importance of light in the deep winter months, including the holidays that are celebrated with some kind of light and ending with the light we all share, the moon. And she gives detailed instructions for creating the quilts. The quilts are exceptionally gorgeous, glowing brightly in a sea of dark, just like the candles of Chanukah and Kwanza, or the lights on the Christmas tree. There are poems for each special time and they glow too, like the one about farolitos, lines of paper bag lanterns symbolically lighting the way for Mary and Joseph. The book will delight everyone in this season where light is needed and celebrated, and might inspire quilters too.

        I have a favorite quote from Charles Dickens that gives me a smile every time I read it.

        There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. 

        At the school where I worked, each classroom created some kind of artistic light production, and one morning before winter break, we all traveled the school viewing everyone's art, light and memorable words. One year, we used Confucius' It is better to light one little candle than to curse the darkness, and created small lit memorials to people all over the world that had lit that candle.  

Enjoy your celebrations with your families!

Monday Reading - More to Love

         Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  

Tweet with  #IMWAYR

          I'm taking a couple of weeks off after this week to enjoy my family and the holidays. Whatever part of this season of light you celebrate, I wish you peace and kindness along the way. This first book includes numerous holidays that celebrate light during this winter time. I hope you can find and enjoy its beauty.

          Anna Grossnickle Hines not only wrote the poems and illustrated them but created the quilts that became part of the beautiful pages. In the backmatter, she writes about the importance of light in the deep winter months, including the holidays that are celebrated with some kind of light and ending with the light we all share, the moon. And she gives detailed instructions for creating the quilts. The quilts are exceptionally gorgeous, glowing brightly in a sea of dark, just like the candles of Chanukah and Kwanza, or the lights on the Christmas tree. There are poems for each special time and they glow too, like the one about farolitos, lines of paper bag lanterns symbolically lighting the way for Mary and Joseph. The book will delight everyone in this season where light is needed and celebrated and might inspire quilters too.

Celebrating What Counts

  Celebrating with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and linking with others who share their celebrations, too. I am grateful to Ruth for helping us celebrate together!  

          Sometimes Christmas is sad for me, missing my husband and all the good memories we had together.  Decorating the tree finds me filled with thoughts of the past. Nevertheless, I do find things to celebrate among all this, too. A few years ago I went through our many decorations and gave a box full of ornaments that were saved for my children, from their childhood.  There are still so many that now I only put on the favorites because I have a much smaller tree. The favorites year to year change, and that's fun, too.

Like A Daily Walk

       It's Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Jone MacCulloch who blogs at Check It Out! She's sharing about sending Poetry Postcards and offering great "how-tos" as well. I especially like the words about resolutions. Thanks, Jone!

       When I read Mary Lee Hahn's challenge to write a haiku each day in December with the hashtag #haikuforhealing, I thought 'no way' do I have time for that, although I loved the idea that it might help in this chaotic time we are experiencing. Then I thought, 'Well, maybe sometimes?' Finally, I read Catherine Flynn's post about #commonplacemarvels and I was hooked. Except for Dec. 1st,  I've shared every day. I find myself looking for a subject all through the days as I do all those other things expected in December.  It's rather calming to be on the search. I am grateful, Mary Lee and Catherine!


Here is mine for today, actually a haiga because I'm pairing it with a photo.

#haikuforhealing #commonplacemarvels

winter sipping
in a drought—
daily visit

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved