Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Ephemeral Christmas gifts

trying them on for size
trying them on for size
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
Every year, MJ's aunt, who lives in the Milwaukee area, sends a cache of old family photos along with her Christmas greeting. Each time she writes, in her elegant Palmer method hand, “You probably have these already, but I'm sending them to you just in case.” While we have many images that his mother and father left, we usually haven’t seen the ones she returns.

These little gifts are true Christmas surprises--full of fun and memories. What more can you ask from a gift? In fact, who says a gift must always be glamorous, practical, or costly? These small pieces of paper cost nothing, yet each is embedded with its own small story that money cannot buy.

christmas window
chrismas window
Originally uploaded by chacal la chaise.
Their effect looms large our minds as we remember holidays when we were four or five years old. We remember long forgotten memories of stenciled window panes, tinseled pine needles, and frosted breaths in December air. All float to the top of our consciousness, and only then do we realize another year has flown, and the holidays are here once again. What memories are we creating this year? How will we send memories to the young? Are these URLs we create the future Christmas card memories for others? Only time will tell.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

my kid that blogs moves east

a blogger moves east
(with apologies to frank o'hara)

will you have a goodbye/wrap-up
for the blog
b 4 u
leave?
will you blog on the road from
yr tree-o?

remember, we love you.

call
asap if you need

H E L P!
call, even if it is 2:00
in the morning
and you
are driving down
a foggy
road, with a foggy
mind, and
need a chat
while shannon sleeps
and mister
cat purrs.

call, just to say
hey! i'm at
i-forget-where, AR
at the Waffle House!

call when you reach
the NY state line!

call when you
get to brooklyn

call, even it's all good.

and most of all,
call us when you get there.

ps-we love you
xoxoxo
c

Sometimes you need to get away from it all.

And sometimes, it's time to return and be part of the larger world.  Between the first of 2023 and February 14, I painted many watercolo...