Sunday, December 21, 2008

Yuletide

Thanks, TjZ, for the link to the great picture! Yuletide is here, the longest night just passed and the light beginning its journey of return. For us it's meant more snow -- it was falling long before I got up. Not that I have to be anywhere, but the more difficult it is to get around, the more you itch to do so.

As the Wife of Bath might say:

We wommen han if that I shal nat lye,
In this matere a queynte fantasye;
Wayte what thyng we may nat lightly have,
Therafter wol we crie al day and crave.
Forbede us thyng, and that desiren we;
Preesse on us faste, and thanne wol we fle.


Her only mistake, of course, was thinking it's only women who feel this. It's human nature to want what is forbidden or difficult to obtain. The anxiety of the season -- holidays and winter both -- tends to exacerbate these longings what with the stresses of gift-giving, gift receiving and too much indulgence of every kind. Deep breath -- winter's just beginning, but the light has begun its return. Hope can't be far behind, eh?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

joe the LOAF say:
As i type...Perilous Cheryl is wrassling a rugby ball-sized wad o' *gingerbread* :P into formation in the best of 3 free falls

WHO WILL TRIUMPH?

*goes to pick up annoying cat DEMANDING ATTENTION at office door*

C. Margery Kempe said...

At least your cat is awake (pokes Kipper who barely moves).

My money's always on Perilous Cheryl in *any* throwdown!

How much snow by you? It's still falling here.

Anonymous said...

jTL rejoinders:
1)Got about...8 inches? of snow yesterday. EQUAL amount started coming down this morning and is still at it...

2) PCheryl: 3
GBread: 0
i eats parts of loozah! ;D

CL said...

All cookies are baked and bagged. I won the gingerbread match. ;-)

RE: Wife of Bath
I was just having this conversation this morning with Joe-boy about something similar. Anxiety is in the air...I know we can ride out the economic downturn, but other anxieties hang over head and we're trying to make decisions should things not go as planned.

I want two things in my life right now...but I can only have one, and there is a chance that if I get one, I may not ever have the other. Which will it be?

Winter is the time to contemplate...hopefully as the light returns, so will hope...and a solution.

Happy Yuletide!

C. Margery Kempe said...

Choices! Hate making choices. I want to have all possibilities in reach.

You should take comfort in not being in debt like the rest of this country. I'm still paying off two trans-continental moves and beaucoup student loans. I will never be free -- unless I find more lucrative work than academia (working on it).

CL said...

I say: You will be a famous author!
Bet on it! ;-)

The Queen said...

I refuse to let the winter holidays be stressful- and for me, the winter holidays start with Halloween and end at New Year's Day. That's too long a stretch of time for stress!

I think we ended up with a foot of snow eventually- our has nowhere to drift off to...

But, there was finally enough snow to go snowshoeing on Yule! Hooray!

C. Margery Kempe said...

Cranky: I don't want to be famous -- just wealthy!

QoE: Stress? What stress? I simply concede defeat and do nothing.