Behind the darkness it is pleasing beyond measure to know that the season has turned; the solstice come and bringing with it the promise of the resurgence and upwelling of light. Winter here is a dark, damp thing: sodden and murky. Something to be endured under the cloud cover, through long days of watching the propellers of the wind machines turn in the lightless air. The fields have been winter-plowed, the short growth of autumn grass turned under, exposing the clay-rich valrhona chocolate of the earth to the sky, if not yet to the light.
10,000 synapses snap and sparkle all day long as thoughts fling themselves along the neural pathways of my brain. Music, especially, zips my mind around in different directions, every song raising a memory of a place or time long past. Questions raised by the kids jerk my brain repeatedly to a halt while my mental encyclopedias go into shuffle mode to find the answers. Every day is a miracle full of memory and experience being shellacked onto the sphere of my self.
We took the kids to see The Golden Compass last night. I’m the only one in the family who has read the book, and since it was quite some time ago I enjoyed the movie rather more than I might have had I re-read it recently. As it was, I managed to get swooped up into the atmosphere and the glorious adventure of it, and the details (and the ending) didn’t jar as much as they might have. Having read several reviews I knew the movie wasn’t really up to the expectations the book engenders, so I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The kids, predictably, loved the armored bears and the idea of daimons was pronounced perfectly wonderful with the small fillip of disappointment that they couldn’t each have one of their own in this mundane universe. We did, of course, research what our own daimons WOULD be, if we did, in fact, reside in Lyra’s world. Karin delighted to have a mouse, Martin rather squashed to receive a dog as the site stated rather stuffily that “servants have dogs” and I pleased to discover my sun sign transfered handily as a daimon: I got a lion. 🙂
Afterwards we ate some excellent sushi and the evening, concluding the first full day of the holidays, was declared a success.
It’s strange to think the year is coming to a close. Each year pulls past with such speed that I feel overwhelmed and begin to wonder how I will ever get everything done. Despite the pace I keep, life still outpaces me. It’s exhilarating and exhausting both at once.
Miles and Piles of Bounteous Birthday Wishes to My Great Good Friend, Kathey!