No matter what month it is or is going to be, I love the start of a new one. I love turning the pages of my various calendars over to a new month. It doesn’t matter if a beloved month is coming to an end or the new month marks the end of a season that I’ve particularly enjoyed. There is just something about a brand new month that speaks of possibilities, opening doors, newness, and joy.
This metal calendar is one that I bought at a lovely and now very much missed store here in Columbia, a la campagna. When the pages for that year ran out, I decided to recreate them for the next year and the next. So this is a yearly ritual I observe — “the making of the new pages“along with choosing new calendars to hang right here next to my computer and upstairs, by my bed.
I take pleasure in many little things like this, partly because I love the four seasons but partly because I like homey little rituals, down to the protective closing of the curtains at day’s end, my mug of tea with pen and paper in the morning, a bit of meditation with my little dog Rufus on my lap. And the turning of the calendar page at the start of each month.
The last couple of weeks have brought frost to our landscape. If I get out early enough on a bright frosty morning I’m able to capture the sparkle and glow of the last colors of fall and also the look of fairy dust outlining every branch, stem, thorn and fallen leaf. Glorious! Soon there will be no more red or yellow, but there will always be other beauties. So many! And these changes in nature, too, speak to the turning of the Earth, of the clock, of the page.
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter
to give it sweetness.
– John Steinbeck
If you’re interested in my cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website.
It’s nice for me to think of you out there, reading this. I hope you, too, have some little comforting rituals in your life, ones that are all yours.
Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”
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