Shhh … Silent Sunday 12/5/21
Author: Neal Saye
My Saturday Evening Post: “Bless Us All”
Each December, Robert and I LOVE watching the old animated holiday classics, reminiscing of yesteryear. Last night we pulled out The Muppet Christmas Carol.
My capital “F” Favorite song in the movie is “Bless Us All,” sung by poor, sickly little Robin/Tiny Tim and the rest of the Cratchit crew. It always gets me choked up (until I realize that, as a “grown man,” I am crying over an anthropomorphic, singing, cloth-born frog puppet).
“Bless Us All” is actually a beautiful, prayerful meditation, expressing both gratitude for all we have (the sun, family, each other, etc) as well as supplication for greater good outside of our individual little worlds.
I invite you to take a couple of minutes out of your Saturday for a quick listen …
Muppet Truths …
“No place on earth compares with home.” (Of course, “home” can have various definitions for us.)
“We have so much that we can share with those in need we see around us everywhere.”
“Let us hear the voice of reason singing in the night.” (Oh my goodness, yes.)
The full lyrics …
BLESS US ALL!
12/4/21 Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
On this fourth day of the countdown, we take a quick look at F.D. Roosevelt State Park. It’s Georgia’s largest state park with 9,049 acres and more than 40 miles of trails. (That made me tired just thinking about it.)
The park’s website explains that “in 1924, FDR came to this part of Georgia to swim in naturally warm springs that offered relief from polio.”
Quite a few of the buildings were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, including the little cottage where Robert and I stayed …
What a gorgeous spot in our Peach State.
I experienced abject terror only one time, when we came across Bigfoot lurking near our cabin—although at first I didn’t see him.
After the Bigfoot fiasco, Robert being all state park lovey-dovey …
While FDR was our home base, we also ventured over to nearby Callaway Gardens. We really love the peace of the little Ida Cason Memorial Chapel.
And the garden’s azaleas …
And the butterfly house …
State parks! They allow you to fly away to another world.
12/3/21 Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.
High Falls State Park is a naturally beautiful oasis along the Towaliga River just off I-75 between Macon and Atlanta, near Jackson, Georgia.
The water was a bit muddy the day we visited. (But then again, I’m a bit muddy some days as well.)
Here’s a one-minute “meditation” (we’ll call it). Close your eyes and listen to the cleansing sounds of nature …
Moving Peace.
At one point I paused by the water and chatted with … an animal. It looked like a camel. I think it was a camel.
See? Don’t you agree?
It never answered back. And Robert would have no part of it.
High Falls was just a short stopover on our way home from Atlanta, so we want to go back for a longer trek one of these days.
(I hope the camel will still be there. Robert assured me, with a bit of an attitude, that it “wood” still be there.)
Five Friday Happy Bringers 12/3/21
1. Realizing there’s nothing like the old classics …
2. Robert wearing his Christmas Bear sweater in near-70 degree (!) weather for the Design District Walk.
3. Making our first holiday treat—an ICEBOX FRUITCAKE (you’re yelling “YUM!” right?) using my mother’s time-tested recipe (okay, with a few healthier upgrades).
Robert’s “important” part of the process …
Ready to go into the oven … I mean refrigerator!
The next morning …
(It sorta looks the same as before it got put into the oven refrigerator. Except upside down.)
Here’s me taking a picture of the finished Yum! while Robert takes a picture of me taking a picture of it. Whew.
And here’s me looking frazzled and absolutely exhausted thinking about the possibility that I might actually write and photographically document SO VERY MUCH about a */!§£{¥ FRUITCAKE.
Seriously, it’s just delicious!
4. Helping ex-wife Donna decorate her Christmas tree.
Btw, I’m still waiting on someone smarter than yours truly–i.e., everyone reading this blog–to give me a better word or phrase for “ex-wife”
5. The knowing knowledge that we are alive right now in this very moment. We are alive.
Have a Fabulous Friday and First Weekend in December!
P.S. What brings you a bit of joy this Friday?
12/2/21 Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks
For Day Two of the Countdown, we don’t have to travel very far. About 15 minutes away is Savannah‘s Skidaway Island State Park. I love our local park! Terrific hiking trails. Biking. Close to marshes and rivers. A brand new state-of-the-art visitor’s center.
My fam held last year’s/2020 pandemic Thanksgiving at one of Skidaway’s picnic shelters. It was so good to see one another again! Here’s Robert setting up a family pic.
And here’s ex-wife (why on earth isn’t there a more positive, loving term?) Donna and me giving thanks …
… in skinny jeans …
And on another visit, Robert and I enjoyed the trails.
For some reason (therapy session?), I became obsessed with a tiny outhouse.
Goodbye.
Neal’s Post from the Past: “Magic Dream Spray”
A post from the past about … magic and family. Heads-up: our family text groups have gotten MUCH more complicated since this old post. We now have what I named “Just Family” (ex-wife Donna, daughters Amy and Emily, and me. Then there’s “New Family Plus” consisting of all the above plus the spouses.
To throw a bunch of wrenches into the textual road, there’s also now just “Neal and Donna,” “Neal and Emily,” “Neal and Amy,” and every other two- or three- or four-person family configuration you can come up with. I have gotten into trouble too many times to count by getting the text groups confused and texting something I shouldn’t have.
****************************
Magic Dream Spray
Do other folks out there do what my family does? All get iPhones and set up a little Family Group Messaging System? Well, my two daughters Amy and Emily, along with Donna (even though divorced now, we remain the best-est of friends) have done just that. And it’s such an incredibly efficient strategy for staying in touch, bothering each other constantly and having SO MUCH FUN!
The other night, daughter Amy (and mother of grandsons Daniel, 7 and Gabriel, 4) sent us this text:
I LOVE faith-stretching strategies such as that! My response:
A bit more of Amy’s explanation:
Me:
End of discussion until a couple of days later when we received this text from Amy as she, Orte and the boys were driving down to Florida for the weekend:
Family … magical.
Maybe that’s what family is … Magic Dream Spray.
12/1/21 — Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks
Well before the pandemic, Robert and I had started exploring our state’s 48 State Parks and 16 Historic Sites. Georgia has an absolutely dizzying array of parks, from the North Georgia mountains, to the piedmont, on down to the coastal plain, where we live in Savannah.
After months waiting out the pandemic, and coming down with severe house-stir-craziness, we decided to venture out again … experimentally.
What a glorious time we had, getting reacquainted with or being introduced to our state’s natural splendors.
We would reserve a cabin for a Monday and stay several days before the weekend traffic arrived.
Oh, btw, here’s our nerdy state park magnet board …
Now that December is here, and we are on our Countdown to Christmas, Robert and I have put up our Travel Tree. What’s a Travel Tree, you ask? It’s a Christmas tree, with each ornament from one of our travels over the years.
For this new blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” I plan to briefly highlight one aspect of a different Georgia State Park each day till the Big Day.
Starting with one of our favorite, Tugaloo State Park, way up in Northeast Georgia near Lavinia.
Perhaps our greatest joy about this park was our very own private dock down the hill from our cabin. The dock extended out onto beautiful Lake Hartwell on the South Carolina border.
And here’s an absolutely pitiful pic (thankfully dark) of me shivering in the morning cold with my coffee.
And here’s one of Robert, inexplicably taking a picture of my coffee.
State Park Happiness!
Joyful First Day of Countdown to You!
One-Word Wednesday 12/1/21
DragonFLY!
NealEnJoy 