THE TABLE

"Embracing the Light. Collected bits of truth. Shimmering sparks. Shards of light.  Merge. Healing. Restoring. Bursting bright. Rising in divine ecstatic flame.." - Leonard Nimoy 

The table. It has been beside me forever. Like an old friend. That Jacobean table. One hundred years old. If it could talk. But it never had to. The hundreds. Possibly thousands of people who  have gathered round its sides.  They talked and the table listened.

Some it knew well.  Painted dark, like fig jam. My mother first got the entire set  from good friends. It was the 1930's. My parents were newly married . It once used to be a kitchen table. My mother thought it would make a good ironing board.  She ironed on it for years.

 So much so, for years you could see white scorch patches in the damaged surface. She'd  leave her antique flat iron on the surface. It would burn.

At Christmas, it always  was the center of attention. My mother would cover it in lace and  glass balls and cover the burn patches. 

Lace and streamers, delicate cut glass.  It bore the weight of years of shortbreads, cakes, candles and weathered spills of  champagne, birthdays, parties....

And in between  those years, my mother ironed curtains,  and underwear . She sewed , cut out patterns, kneaded  bread, stirred fruitcakes, arranged jars of jam.

And ironed . Mostly underwear and tea towels. At midnight, watching Perry Mason,  labelling Christmas cards, scalding  the table surface with  bubbling teapots. 

She ironed on the table for fifty years, till her last moment on earth.  Then it got a makeover. Long overdue. The table waited with bated breath. So did I.

It went from black paint to it's original Jacobean golden oak. The burn marks disappeared. It glowed warm and vivid like copper. The table felt new again.

Each Christmas it  glimmers and glows and shines. My old friend. New again.

And company  still  gathers. When the lights are low and the candles waver, in their sweet wisdom.

There have been hundreds. Possibly thousands come to this table.  All across this country they have sat here in the magical light.

And the table welcomes them. And it remembers.

 All who have been, who have gone on before.  And those who still sit within it's beautiful face.

 My old friend. Hearing their voices soft and low, in the still quiet of the night.

“They made their way to the dining room, where the air was blossom-scented and gilded with candlelight. The mammoth Jacobean table, with its legs and support rails carved like twisted rope, had been covered with pristine white linen. A row of broad silver baskets filled with billows of June roses rested on a long runner of frothy green maidenhair ferns. The walls had been lined with lush arrangements of palms, hydrangeas, azaleas and peonies, turning the room into an evening garden. Each place at the table had been set with glittering Irish crystal, Sèvres porcelain, and no fewer than twenty-four pieces of antique Georgian silver flatware per guest.”
― Lisa Kleypas

 Photographs 2023

This Christmas......

 “This Christmas seek out a forgotten friend.  Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth.  Keep a promise.  Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand.Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love, and then speak it again.” 
― Howard W. Hunter

 “I don't want Christmas season to end, because it's the only time I can legitimately indulge in on particular addiction: glitter.” ― Eloisa James, Paris in Love

 “Advent creates people, new people.” 
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas
 “Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway

 “A new star, the Christ child, God's gift to mankind; these are what Christmas is made of.” 
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway
 “The Christmas tree is a symbol of love, not money. There's a kind of glory to them when they're all lit up that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy.” 
― Andy Rooney, Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit

 “The real Santa Claus is at the mall.” ― Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal

 “Christmas is a whisper of peace and a sigh of hope on the lips of love.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes

 “Later in the winter I'd tire of the snow, but Christmas snow was different.” 
― Marie Landry, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

 “At Christmas, all roads lead home.” ― Marjorie Holmes

 “Christmas, so joyfully celebrated within our hearts and within the hearts of countless others.” 
― Eleesha, The Soulful Pathway To Christmas: Soulfully Inspiring You in the Days Leading Up to Christmas and Beyond!
 “At this Christmas when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving the others with God's own love and concern.” 
― Mother Teresa, Love: A Fruit Always in Season
 "If everybody wanted everybody else to be happy all the time, then would it be Christmas all the time?" Laura asked, and Ma said, "Yes, Laura.” ― Laura Ingalls Wilder

 Photographs 2017

Ready, Set, Go Christmas

 Ohhhh, I love Christmas. The one time of year, you can stuff the mantlepiece with candles and  Nutcrackers and watch them clack their mouths  open in surprise.

 The cats flop genrously by the fire.  The other one's watching birds from the window.  But these two know a good thing when they see it. Ahhhhhhh, now this is the life...

  Cookie cutters dangle happily from the front window. A few years ago I was leafing through a Christmas magazine and saw how they spread out all their cutters from a light fixture. Why not from a window? I don't make  cut out cookies much, and I've go sooo many, so this is a great alternative. Some of these are very old, some are fairly new, like the cats cutters. They purr  from their place of honour in the sunset.

                                    

 And in the distance, a happy fat orange cat watches as I wrangle those cutters into position. This is Cordelia's buddy. I've never seen the two of them in the window together.  But often Cordelia will sit on the other side. Way up high on the hill. Surveying all.

 Candles glow. Antique angels sing. The little church is alight; a gift from a special friend. Brass stocking holders waiting with bated breath. Shining in the firelight,, while the cats snore underneath.

 And in the dawn, Cordelia, beautiful as ever, sits on her Moai head and listens. For bells pealing , I like to believe ; she is like a sentinel up there.

            The banister is set, Father Christmas awaits in the foreground, cause Advent is coming. And it comes soon. Next week. The elves are ready. These are special elves. Vintage. I found these on eBay. They are from the 1950's. When I was really young, in the 60's and 70's , there were similiar elves on the tree. Just like these. I always regretted that I had not kept them. Reminds me of that time.

                         Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Advent right around the corner. Ready, Set, Go Christmas......