Crisp Autumn Days - Issue #39
I haven't a thing against Christmas shopping. I actually love going Christmas shopping, finding fun things to get people. But what with buying a new house, moving and all the expenses involved with moving, medical bills, etc... it's been an expensive year. So, I have decided to sew and make instead. Which means I have about a month to sew or make presents for a horde of rapidly growing family! Wish me luck.
Of course, I cannot tell you everything I'm going to sew because some of the recipients of this newsletter are family members. And if I spill the beans, it won't be a surprise for them. But, I can tell you that a little four-year-old niece will have a couple new dresses and my littlest nephews will have new clothes, as well. I will take lots of photos of what I make and share them with you after Christmas.
I intend to bake many pies and freeze them this month, so I don't have a mad dash surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have a good gluten free pie crust recipe that I finally found which tastes like pie crust should! Quite obviously, apple pie is on the list. But I think I'll make a few others, too. Now that I can have duck eggs, I can make a pecan pie. The very thought gives me a thrill I cannot even explain. Do you know how long it's been since I have tasted pecan pie? It's been over five years, at least.
And it would be awfully fun to make a bunch of Christmas cookies, package them up, and deliver them to our neighbors--most of whom I still haven't met. (Cookies are a universally accepted ice breaker.) If I can get all the gifts and pies done, I'm going to go for it!
And of course, somehow, I have to keep finding an hour or two a day to work on my novel. I have nearly finished Chapter 18, and the plot is thickening nicely. Sitting on the ground outside with Jonathon while we waited for the rest of our merry band to pick their apples, I thought of my three main characters in 27, and how much being outdoors as a child has influenced my soul, body and spirit. Without that, I don't know if my mind could have conjured any of these imaginary people up.
I would not be the same person, if I had not had the time to go wander. To go get lost in the woods, to make friends with silence and trees and the sound of things other than humans living and existing which so often gets drowned out by the hum of machines. To feel comfortable alone. To never find within me the urge to create a distraction to escape my own thoughts--until much later. I think every child should have that. And so few do anymore.
I think it is a deep, undeniable human instinct to go out into the wilderness and be alone. It's a universal. And so, I created a boy who likes to play hooky and run away to the woods when he should be at school, another boy who escapes his carefully climate-controlled existence who sees a bird for the first time and is never the same again, and a strange girl transplanted from the woods to the city. Here's an excerpt:
'He walked slowly so Jessica could keep up with him. She was quiet as usual, and he studied her face carefully.
“Jessica?”
“Yes?”
“What was it like, living in the woods I mean?”
Jessica shook her head with a sad smile and Shane watched the struggle to communicate play out on her face. “It was quiet,” she said, finally. “But loud in a different way. The sounds of people were gone and it made room for the sounds of everything else. There was more of everything.”
“Huh?”
“The sun seemed bigger, and the wind was wilder. The trees were like giants.”
“And the fairies and hobgoblins came and had tea, huh?” he laughed.
She looked at his laughing face and fell silent.
“Sorry to make fun,” he apologized. “Don’t know why I did that. Honestly, I kind of feel like that to, but then I feel stupid.”
She smiled again.
“Here in the city, people don’t notice how big the sun and wind and trees are. They think the city is bigger and more important, but it really isn’t. When you’re in the woods, away from the city, you realize how small you are. I was happy to be small. It seemed right. It seemed good…fitting.”'
And so, I have much to do. One step at a time... And now, I have to get myself out the door for choir practice this evening.
Until next time, folks...