Dance, dance otherwise we are lost*

The Big Chill is upon us and  I  a m  f r e e z i n g  so it's best to keep moving. Plus the deathly pallor of our barren scenery is making me a bit ... melancholy. Nature is a study in the beauty of simplicity, silence and serenity right now, but it's hard not to overdose on melatonin during the dark winter days so you gotta fight it, sweetie darlings, and dancing ... dancing makes everything better. Take it from someone for whom dancing once was, still is, always will be a system of survival. But that's just how I feel. That's just how I feel, that's just how I feel, trying to reach the things that I can't see.

Come on, you need a break. Oh yes you do. We both do. Come here. Don't look at your feet, don't look at the ceiling, or the walls, look at me.  That's it. Shall we dance?

ENVY - AM I WRONG from Kavar Singh on Vimeo.

*Pina Bausch

Jeanne d'Arctique

Temperature: a sunny -15/5 (we had some 20 sunny hrs in December. In Dec 2012? 24 minutes.)

Eating: as long as it's heated, anything goes

Drinking: as long as it's heated, anything goes

Watching: travel dreams, like every other night

Listening: to Hubby using power tools. It's the new season of our personal Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Oh, I'll do my share.

Reading: what needs to be read

Writing: what needs to be written

Feeling: Of winter's lifeless world each tree

Now seems a perfect part; 

Yet each one holds summer's secret

Deep down within its heart. 

~Charles G. Stater

Eleison

Happy New Year, dearest denizens! Everyone accounted for? Are you glad or sad to see the holiday season go? How was yours anyway?

Mine tasted of dates, gingerbread and smoked salmon, of figs, butter fudge and port, of glögg, ham and wine. It smelled of pine needles and hyacinths, of burning wood and endless rain, meaning it looked quite bleak outside but chummy and yummy indoors. The soundtrack was a cacophonic symphony of languages and laughter, of playful slash bickering kids, of carols and classics and rock and pop. And it felt like a change of pace with a pinch of bittersweetness for all the loved ones I couldn't talk to or touch, only think about this holiday season.

Many look back, take stock and plan ahead around New Year's, make promises, make demands. This year I'll do more, be more. Reach higher, go faster, be stronger. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, if it really keeps you going where you're headed, if it actually helps. I see no shame in taking the long and winding road, though, as long as you don't stop. Be as kaizen as you dare, just please don't be too hard on yourself.

Maybe this year you'll speak a little softer, be a little kinder, more forgiving and merciful. Yes, especially to yourself. In this world that so greatly values independence, moxie and self-reliance, I wish everyone would find the strength to admit to themselves and say it to others that "I need you." Those seem to be the hardest words. Not I'm sorry or Thank you or even I love you but I need you.

OK. Up and at it, sweetie darlings. We have all year to get this right. Let's not waste a single day.