It's a beautiful winter day.....

....that feels a bit more like an Indian Summer kind of day. It provided the perfect opportunity to accomplish a chore I've neglected for weeks now....removing the pumpkins and corn stalks from the front porch and beside the lamp post in the yard. I'm amazed the neighbors have not complained! While all around me are lights of red and green, I'm still glowing orange and brown....well, not anymore.

Removing the pumpkins was no small feat. They were large, for one thing, and they were squishy...ewww!! I always purchase lots of them too, because they become a feast for the creatures that live in my yard and the surrounding woods.

I was greeted with this sight when I approached the porch to remove the pumpkins. The one small attempt I'd made at decorating for Christmas lay shattered on the floor. It reminded me of how I've felt about my life these past few years, especially the recent two, post-divorce. Today, I just picked up the pieces that had fallen from my wreath and moved on. Things change...nothing stays the same, and on this day I'm okay with that.

There is a quivering in my chest after loading and unloading the 'food stuff', which I now know is an atrial fibrillation, but I'm not as worried about that either as I may have been in the past. It was worth it to get my heart pumping, and it's not going to kill me....even if it did....today, I'm okay with that too!!!

It's a glorious, beautiful day. It reminds me that I need to breathe now and then, to work and to play, now and then. As I breathed in the sights and the sounds and the scent of the woods around me, I was grateful for the life I live. There were reminders of the past everywhere I looked, but at last I'm feeling at peace with this. The winds seemed to whisper the very same sentiment of 'peace on earth, goodwill toward men'.

Happy Holidays!!!!!!!