I admit that the holidays bring out the Grinch in me. I’ll spare you the details. For the past two years, my teenaged son and his girlfriend took it upon themselves to decorate our house, which was great. But this year I’m left to my own devices. My son’s in college and busy with friends and a new girlfriend and not so interested in spending much time around our house. He has his own apartment. I didn’t want to totally not decorate, I’m not ready for that. But I’m just not into it. Not so much.

I did put up a wreath I’d made a few years ago, opened the rustic cabinet that houses our hand-painted Christmas village and pulled out the stockings for the mantle. I didn’t want to mess with a tree, but kept seeing these cute little tree-shaped rosemary plants. I love rosemary but have a hard time keeping it alive. But, I rationalized, if I bought a tree it would also die. At least I can eat the dead rosemary. So I bought one!

My Rose-Merry Tree!

But how was I going to decorate this little cutie? I looked in a few craft stores for little Christmas ornaments, but there were none that were quite small enough or pretty enough. I did find a 7’ string of white Christmas lights, battery operated, for $2 at Hobby Lobby. Perfect! I finally got the idea to make my own earring-like mini-ornaments, using my jewelry-making supplies. They’d be small and light and I could make them look any way I wanted. Yes! I bought a string of red Swarovski crystals that were on sale for half price and would make due with whatever else I had at home. Continue reading →

“… the touch of your hand can change a life in a way that no other individual, alive or dead, could change that life. You act upon those that you know and those that you do not know in ways that no other individual can ever act. In each of you resides a uniqueness that is never recaptured…. The self that you are now is unique and therefore it is highly important that you honor the self that you are, through which the vitality of the universe shines.” Seth Audio CD 11-1 © Jane Roberts

This post has nothing to do with food, gardening, nutrition or animals. I had an insight this week that felt so profound I had to write about.

As a background to what prompted my thoughts, I’m a big fan of Jane Roberts’s Seth Books. Written over a period of 25 years, the only thing I can say what they’re about is “the nature of reality.” After decades of school, science, religion and the official line of consciousness (generally accepted “truths” of our society), the Seth books’ explanation of reality makes more sense than anything I’ve ever been exposed to. One of my favorite quotes is above, and that’s just a small part of it.

1995: About 8 months along & looking a little tired.

So, backtrack about 20 years. I was newly married to my husband, living in a nice house not far from the foothills and in school to learn graphic design. Not even a year into my classes I became happily pregnant. At some point towards the end of my pregnancy, I think in Photoshop class, I started chatting with another woman, Kathleen, who was about as far along in pregnancy as I was. She was really nice and I enjoyed our exchanges. Then we parted ways to have our babies, thereby postponing our educations. Continue reading →