the first night December 16, 2006

Happy Hanukkah!

Perhaps it’s a crass assumption for me to make … but Hanukkah just doesn’t seem to matter here in the North.

It’s that or the media has tired of it. We did a story on Diwali (Hindu and Sikh Festival of Lights) … but Hanukkah? Just a sidebar to the Christian season of giving?

It troubles me. Are there other reasons why Hanukkah seems so neglected? Or am I simply not hanging out with the right crowd?

I’m not Jewish myself. But I did have a good opportunity as a young woman: divorced parents.

My father married a Jewish woman, my mother a Christian man.

The result was a bit of a religious tug of war. Sunday school to prepare me for confirmation. And Hebrew School because no one knew what to do with me while my stepbrother was preparing for his bar mitzvah.

In the end I have no confirmed religion, but I can recite small scraps of the Bible and the Torah as a party trick.

But I must say, on this sundown when Christmas parties beckon, I wish I had a menorah to light and a friend to spin the dreidel with.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik neir shel chanuka.

for your viewing pleasure December 14, 2006

A brief post of something that never fails to give me a smile and chuckle.

It’s a brief 90 second You Tube video … and I promise it will stupefy if not boggle every time you watch it.

Enjoy,

c

countdown to solstice December 13, 2006

A blessing in disguise this week: extraordinarily early mornings.

I’ve been rising from bed well before the crack of dawn.  In fact the sun doesn’t rise until 8:53 am, to be precise.

3:30 am is when the alarm sounds. Happily this ungodly hour yields some keenly interesting radio. This morning I heard about the growing popularity of “shires” is suburban England. As well, I heard about a development in China based on a fictional English burrough from the 1920’s, and a medieval village setting recently opened in Singapore.

I am hosting the program this week which demands a 4:30 am start. You may be wondering why I don’t simply roll out of bed to arrive at work at such an ungodly hour. But I need that little bit of time in the morning to pad around in pyjamas and ponder early morning things.

And 3:30 am isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds when it’s mid-december up north and perpetually overcast. Really … with so many dark hours, who can tell the difference anyhow?

In fact, I would even go so far as to advocate it. For when you start in the middle of the night, it means you can actually be outside for the 7 remaining hours of daylight (as cloud-filtered as it is).

It’s almost like a fast. You remove food from your life to remember it’s vital place in your existence and the phenomenon of substance.

Waking up so early gives me a profound respect for circadian rhythms and those crucial hours of sleep. I relish the thought of preparing for bed at around dinner time (6 pm), precisely because it is so out of the ordinary.

I count the hours of sleep I could possibly get over and over again; I drink sleepy time tea and breathe slowly, I take evening baths. It is all strangely lovely.

But the frightfully early mornings do not change the fact that every day there are less hours of daylight. Like a fasting person hungers for nourishment, I yearn for the lengthening days. And with them, a return to a normal person’s hours. It’s a fun experiment, but I appreciate eating dinner at 6 o clock more than getting under the bed covers.

c

long nights, hardy influenza December 6, 2006

The oomph to record has fizzled.

Walking to work in the dark and then home again in the dark is making creative energy a real feat.  And, in some sort of psychological manifestation, I’ve come down with a flu that won’t go away.

No matter how much I sleep, oranges I eat or tea I guzzle, the virus is winning: 5 – 0.

It is like doing dark battle with a demon named “Inertia”.

Whine, whine, whine.

Historically the dark period of year is an uncomfortable “psychic” time; the span where we are forced to retreat into the spirit and mind.

I’m holding that thought like a torch, hoping it will light the way into renewed enthusiasm and inspiration.

Happily, Christmas is just around the corner.  I think for the first time the holiday season means a departure from the daily rigours.

It means cheer, family, and a concerted, group effort to brighten life.

I can’t express how thankful I am to have this, rather than seeing the rapidly approaching season as a gaping maw of further depression.

a more cheery note next time … promise