A Charlie Brown Christmas
My annual watching of A Charlie Brown Christmas is complete. I feel that whether one believes in the Christian message o...I think one of the most difficult things in life is seeing someone close to you going through difficulties and not being able to help them. My aspiration can be to help, to offer a perspective, to share some tools to try, but in this moment they do not want to talk (at least not about the struggles) - indeed any attempt at help might be counter productive. All I can do is sit, watch, and wait…however long that might be…
I spent about three hours preparing our Anniversary dinner last night. It was a Japanese vegan dinner from the cookery book, Vegan Japaneasy: Over 80 Delicious Plant-Based Japanese Recipes.
In the photograph below, on the left is a
- Shiitake, Onion and Potato Stew, and on the right is a
- Portobello Mushroom and Onion ‘Sukiyaki’Bowl.
Both have a Mushroom Dashi, and the Sukiyaki Bowl also has a rich Sweet Soy Sauce, recipes for both were also taken from the book.
Outside it was wet and wintery, and so I enjoyed being in a warm kitchen, creating. These were only the second and third dishes that I had taken from Vegan Japaneasy, and I was very pleased with how they turned out.
Finished reading: A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, a take that I now read annually. 📚
Finished reading: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (thank you @Munish for the recommendation) 📚
I sit here listening to Christmas Carols. I grew up singing Christmas Carols at school, went carol singing in my early teens back in the UK, collecting money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and always have had them playing in the background in the lead up to Christmas. They set the mood of the Christmas holiday for me. I have my favourite pop music songs, good for the parties, but while I could live without those songs, Christmas does not feel like Christmas to me without the carols.
I have often wondered about this. I have never considered myself a Christian, though what I see as the Christian message of love, compassion, service, peace, has resonated deeply with me. I am not even clear where that understanding came from? It is just something that has slowly become apparent in me. As such, that for me is the essential message of Christmas. I could do away with the commercialization of the Christmas holiday today, and nothing would be missing.
When I think of Christmas I think of cold, wet weather, frosty mornings (I don’t get many of those here in Hawai’i), nights closing in, warm homes, family and friends gathered together, church services…and singing carols.
After interruptions over the last couple of days - storms, power outages, a migraine - I am just about to start exploring the recent addition to Micro.blog, newletters, and to see how it might inform my usage and workflow of my blogs.
Well it appears that my post from Sunday night was published, three times no less (the extra two are now deleted), though I had no feedback that it had done so. A storm was blowing through the islands off and on through the weekend with steady and at times heavy rain. I have read of localized flooding, landslides and trees blown down. The power went off last night and was down for 8 hours, the internet for 18 and has only just come back on.
As I said here, we have poor cell reception where we live and a spot outside allows for scratchy connection to the internet with little going through.
Without the distraction of the online world, I disappeared deeper into journaling this morning. The time spent there was welcome.
Finished reading: Holloway by Robert Macfarlane 📚
Finished reading: Blessed Are the Weird by Jacob Nordby 📚
Finished reading: Elevation by Stephen King 📚