Musing

-2C/29F, chilly breeze and cloudy; we walked around the lagoon, stillness everywhere; traffic almost non-existent, homes under construction on our horizon stand silent, not a hammer or forklift in motion, not a sound

this day, the one that follows the one we had yesterday, this day when it is all over

this day when shopping and cooking and wrapping and unwrapping - is all done for another year; the world resumes its usual course unaffected by the good cheer, the eggnog and the sleep inducing turkey dinner

having a Christmas 'day' celebration a day early or a day late is great, but what then does one do on the actual day? . . . coupled folks, I am sure, do that kind of 'alone day' better than singles; they can hang out together, go to the movies, play board games or curl up on opposite ends of the couch with good books

Gusta and I hung out at home alone yesterday, 'twas a brown Christmas here but some snow is predicted for tomorrow to return us to feeling seasonal; my day had family bookends - breakfast with my kids, dinner with my dad - the rest of the day involved a sprinkling of holiday greetings, calls, emails but mostly it was a day of silence, not a keyboard or pen in motion, not a sound

today is a day I avoid the retail world as a tangled frenzy of mall-goers return merchandise, spend their gift certificates and clamour for bargains - the biggest business day of the year for stores amid chaos and certainly the extreme opposite of calm or slience; maybe that is why so many people do it, to avoid the quite privacy, the silence . .when the celebrating fades . . hhmmm ..

Boxing Day is a holiday in Canada and the UK, a British tradition rooted in delivering 'boxes' or gifts from one house to another, a day of just visiting friends, an act of going out of the way to deliver some seasonal cheer to those one doesn't see very often

I'm off shortly to Red Deer for the day to visit a new friend and an old one, then back home to receive a guest

Boxing Day tradition is alive and well

Mark
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