Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
The Season’s approach
The most often asked question at work this week? “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?”. It is a ritual every year as people share their plans, and sometimes their recipes, and some stories of holidays past. One of my colleagues was bemoaning the fact that her sister will be serving finger foods for Thanksgiving. She was outraged. “Who does that?”, she said as her rant came to an end. She tried to explain how inappropriate that menu is to her sister, who was having none of it. “People want real food!”, she exclaimed. She’s hoping she will get over herself by Thursday so she can enjoy the company, if not the food. Happy Holidays….
My workplace gets quieter as people take time off for the Holidays. There’s almost an expectant hush that falls over the halls where offices are vacant. (I can say with certainty that attorneys’ offices are the most cluttered places – thick file folders are piled high on every surface, including the floor in some cases.). Soon a few decorations will be in place. Office Holiday get togethers are being announced. The Thanksgiving pot-luck happened last Friday and from the sounds of it was quite a jolly affair. It’s good to hear this merriment in a place where such serious life issues are the stuff of our daily work.
People with children are exchanging ideas for gifts for the kids. My own two little boys will be getting a trove of Lego stuff from Yaya and Gigi – aka Jan and me. The Harry and David catalog landed in my mailbox and it was a magnet for me. So, adult people on my list will be getting edibles.I hope they enjoy the goodies.
This will be a quiet season for Jan and me. We are not going out of town for Thanksgiving or Christmas. We will see close friends here in St. Louis and share meals with them. We will wait for pictures of the boys on Christmas morning. We will call around the country to talk with precious friends on the days of…
I have a confession to make and it has to do with a saying that I like: Never say never! All my life I have insisted on a real Christmas tree. For all the hassle and expense, a real tree makes the season for me. I love the smell and the way the lights look in the dark and the ornaments that date back decades and each carry a memory. But the other night I made a decision to get an artificial tree. This made Jan happy. It made me wonder if I’m really getting this old and apparently I am. (No offense to people of any age who have artificial trees). So a four foot pre-lit tree is on its way and will arrive sometime this week. We’ll put up other decorations and I can still hang sentimental ornaments on the tiny tree. After all, Charlie Brown still gets the reason for the season with his twig of a tree!
As a reward to myself for making this huge leap I am going to attend the performance of Handel’s Messiah at Powell Symphony Hall on the afternoon of December 4. I bought myself a ticket four rows from the stage so I can study the faces of the musicians and singers. I love the look of concentration that comes over a musician on a stage. The soloists will be up close and personal and I love that. Powell Hall itself will be decorated for the Season and that’s always a feast for the eyes.
So, for me, there is a special feeling that accompanies the onset of the Holidays. Some of this involves sweet memories of times past, and there is sometimes a little sadness in that. I will miss being with my children or grandchildren but we will talk and wish each other much joy and love. Church will have some special events and will be decorated this weekend with greens and lights. Tomorrow, people from all four Unity churches in town will gather for a Thanksgiving service at a Unity church in South St. Louis. We will be working on a fundraiser for Feed My People. Soon the Salvation Army bell ringers will be out and about, standing in the cold next to their red bucket, reminding us of the real Reason For The Season!