Carpe Diem

 

 On Facebook every few days I post things that gave me pleasure under the title Carpe Diem/Happiness.

During New Year's Eve and Day every moment was filled with pleasure to pure joy. To seize the day was easy.

Our little French village had been magical for a month with the lights, music and decorations. I was almost afraid a return to normal would be a downer.

Still, there was a New Year's party, but not an ordinary one. It was filled with friends whom we were afraid we'd never see again, people with second homes, who were stopped from crossing the Channel by Covid, health problems and/or Brexit. Many are thinking of selling up.

The house, beautiful in its decoration, beautiful in its memories, was the scene of New Years celebrations and other celebrations for well over a decade. I had been prepared to never spend another there, but then the word came...they were coming and bringing others with them. It didn't matter that we were all moving a little more slowly, were a little grayer, the joy was still there.

New Year's Day was a wear-sweats day. Because we are going back to Geneva for the next few months, we need to eat up the food in the frigo. Rick created a lovely pasta dish that would never be found in any recipe dish. He perfumed the house with a baking cake that we would eat with champagne as we watched the video of Midwinter Revels. We could see the fire in the patio fireplace through the glass doors.

When I was in Boston and when I could get tickets, I would walk through Hahvad Yahd, sometimes with snow, sometimes without, to Sanders Theatre. Each year, the performance might have a different theme, another way to celebrate the solstice but there were standards like sing-alongs, a sword dance and most importantly The Lord of the Dance before intermission where the entire audience would follow the cast dancing into the main hall.

This year's was a little different with its theme of Ellis Island in the 1920s. Irish and Jewish immigrants shared music and dance. It was a subtle message or maybe not so subtle of the joys of inclusion in a world that has too much exclusion.

The day was also marked by ease of writing. The words seemed to jump from my brain into the computer. 

The day was marked with dog cuddles, husband snuggles just being that reminded me to carpe diem.