corner view~holiday

photo by Gary Marks

I already posted a few times on our family's Christmas celebrations. Feel free to scroll back to those if you wish to see some tropical Christmas cheer here and here.  I want to take this post in another direction.

The word holiday originally meant "holy day." All around the world many holidays are celebrated, or observed. These holidays have significance and customs associated with different religions and cultures.

It's interesting that the term "holiday" is also now synonymous with "vacation."

What makes a day holy, I wonder?  An anniversary of the birth of a great being who changed the world, a day for giving thanks, a past miracle, a day for penance, a day to remember the life of a great soul. These are certainly holy events.

Maybe, in a way, every day is holy.

Sometimes we need a vacation from the busyness of our lives to remember this. A place to go for silent reflection and prayer. Maybe holidays remind us that life itself is holy. That our lives are not to be taken for granted.  That in the stillness of peace and silence we can find our hearts and regain our sense of peace.  Sometimes for me this means taking 10 minutes out of the busy day to go in my room by myself, lie down and breathe.  That's my holiday. 

There is holiness all around us at every given moment of our lives. We just have to open our eyes and hearts.

new belts again

For my two little ones, who in fact are not so little anymore.  Shawn (6) is now a purple belt, Annabel (almost 11) is now a green belt.  Every time they test for a new belt there is this leap in maturity, confidence, discipline, and dedication.  They all want to get their black belts and are training toward this. 

go fly a kite

I love it when they play together nicely. 

sharing food, local style

I have a friend who is married to the local country doctor who works on the mountain.  He heals on many levels.  The first time I went to see him, years ago, very homesick for family and friends, he examined me, then after our appointment he took me into his kitchen and gave me some homemade chicken soup to take home and eat.  This was the best soup I ever had, and probably more helpful than any remedies I was given.  My kids love going to him.  He always lets them pick a polished colored rock from his basket.  I was recently up to see him and my friend took me into her home.  Sometimes this doctor is paid in food.  He also has a fair amount of fruit trees growing on his property and my kids love going to pick and eat the fruits.   We always seem to leave with a bag of something.  I wonder, who is paying whom?

distillation by claudia

In the process of distillation a plant substance is cut into pieces and heated with fresh spring water until the water boils, then the hot vapors are captured and cooled.  The condensed vapors are collected, in oil form, and there you get the essense of the plant.  The smells are heavenly.  The leftover water can also be used for spritzing, cooking, drinking.  It is called a hydrosol, and it too is alive with magic .

In my research I found that people have applied the principles of distillation for thousands of years. Distillation was probably first used by ancient Arab chemists to isolate perfumes. Vessels with a trough on the rim to collect distillate date back to 3500 BC.

My friend is doing modern day distillation in her backyard with copper equipment (some people use glass).  The girls and I recently got to see this firsthand on a batch of pomelos.  Pomelo is a cirtus fruit, similar to grapefruit.

The oil floats on the top.  Sometimes the layer is very thin, like this one.  Sometimes the layer is several inches!  There is a lot of care once the process really gets cooking, like taking care of a tiny baby.  My friend is putting so much love into her work.  I want to learn to do this!

looking back on 2009

I always love it when a new year is upon us.  I like the anticipation of new experiences, opportunities, and seeing the growth of the kids.  I also just love it when the numbers of the years change.  So with this attitude I welcome 2010.  Here are some of the highlights of the past year:   

In January, we began a new lifestyle, of home schooling our daughters.  This continues.

I continued writing projects.

I attended several retreats, including a trip by myself to California.

And I prayed a lot.
I took lots of photos, and continued my blogs.
We made some new friends.
I expanded my vegetable garden.

I designed the cover of my daughter's cd.

I expanded my tulsi garden and began to sell tulsi plants.
We traveled to see family in New York in the summer.

We vacationed in Italy...

 ...and France.

We road tripped to Washington, DC to see old friends.
We spent a month in northern California.

In the fall, we enrolled our son in public school, first grade.  We found a great new teacher for the girls.
Two months later I began a part time job teaching first graders at our home on their days off of school.

I had a Christmas party and sang carols.
And for the most part, we slowed down the pace of our day-to-day life.
All in all, a pretty good year.

holiday celebration

We had a wonderful Christmas.  We enjoyed good food, good friends, and good fun.  There were lots of homemade gifts, dishes, and of course, music.  I am still singing Christmas carols as I hang the laundry on the line to dry. 

happy holidays

This is my save-a-tree version of a holiday card.  Hope you are all blessed with health, joy, abundance, good spirits, grace, growth, and love in the coming year.

Theresa, Gary, Skylar, Annabel and Shawn

the days before christmas

Wild pointsettas that grow to several feet tall and red berries on a bush, seen on a country drive, wrapping gifts and making handmade ornaments for Kelly (created by my daughter Sky and me), mini trees that the kids get to decorate, and a few other things that I get to put up.  Tonight -- a quick garden harvest to add to the salmon -- Swiss chard, basil, parsley.  While I was outside I noticed the spontaneous poolside art.  School is out and this is what December looks like in our neck of the woods.