Grandson Daniel, along with his mom, are up in New York this weekend for more musical theater auditions for college next year.
After auditioning for NYU, Juilliard and Pace, their flight back to Savannah got canceled tonight because of winter weather.
So what to do?
Run outside and try to grab a snowflake or two, of course.
A colorfully lovely new exhibit at our favorite art museum here in Savannah, The Jepsen Center.
Continually changing colors and configurations.
(As we all are.)
So back in 1985 I started saving my yearly/monthly calendars.
I’m not sure why.
So that makes … what? Forty years in 2025.
I suppose it started out as just a way to remember birthdays, appointments, to do’s and other important (or unimportant) dates I was prone to forget. This was before the days of “Siri, remind me ….”
But it morphed into jottings of my hopes and dreams, my frustrations, my successes, my problems, my New Year’s Resolutions (difficult to look back over today), my very … non-Facebook life.
As I skim through the pages of years/years of pages, I see emerging themes: family, children, travel, career, wife, ex-wife, coming out, husband, grandchildren, parental deaths, medical issues, joy, sorrow … Life.
I’m not sure what to do with them. Leave them to my daughters? Burn them?
The National Enquirer? People Magazine? The highest bidder?
Here’s to my new calendar for 2025 and whatever it may bring.
May your 2025 calendar be filled with Good.
And that’s my Saturday Evening Post. 1/11/2025.
So today I took down (a tad sadly) our Travel Tree.
If you have followed my little blog for a while (and why on earth would you not?), you may remember that Robert and I have a second, smaller Christmas Tree which we call our Travel Tree. All the ornaments are ones we have purchased on our various travels.
As I cleared the little white tree, my eyes kept resting on a couple of simple ornaments.
And I didn’t want to hurriedly take them off. So I let them hang around a while longer.
HR and I have visited Plains, GA, hometown of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, a couple of times, appreciating the small town that birthed such a tremendously kind and humanitarian couple.
May President Carter, as he is being laid to rest this evening next to his beloved Rosalynn, finally Rest in Eternal Peace, after a long life well lived.
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Discovering Buc-ee’s (that people seem to rave about) on our recent drive to Baltimore.
Robert and I have never been to one before.
This is a gas station?!
2. Athletic Grandson Gabriel, along with teammate Peyton, earning the All Tournament Team award AS FRESHMEN after Savannah Country Day School won their Holiday Basketball Tournament.
3. The wonderful ability to HEAR. What do you hear right now?
4. These World Famous (or so the menu said) Diner Chips at a little diner I found in Raleigh, North Carolina on our way back from Baltimore yesterday.
5. HR in front of this cool mural near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.
May you get in front of some Weekend Joy ahead.
Marveling this Monday Morning at … life.
Robert and I are up in Baltimore for his dear Aunt Pat’s funeral.
We are staying at a lovely old Airbnb in the Fells Point community at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor (our favorite area of the city).
On a walk yesterday afternoon, Mother Nature reminded me of her incredible strength and resiliency.
Surrounded by all of man’s “built-ness,” one of her daughters stands strong …
… her foot firmly planted in the ground.
Alive.
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1.My fragrantly delicious holiday roasted rosemary nuts.
2. Granddaughter Isabelle, aka Santa’s Little Helper.
3. The gift of Appreciation.
4. Pink camellias saying hello from behind a downtown Savannah garden wall near us.
5. A couple of HR’s dangling Christmas pins.
May you have a Merry Weekend-Before-Christmas ahead!
So early this evening, Robert and I went for a walk along the Savannah River a few blocks from our place.
There’s a fairly new development along this evening’s trek, “Eastern Wharf” …
Their advertising is obviously meant for “non-early-evening casual walkers” …
Seriously?
The only thing I saw that was worth $3 Mil to $9 Mil was the Stunning Sunset …
Seriously!
May you have a joyful million dollar view soon.
Robert and I live in an old 1800’s apartment building in Historic District Savannah, so we don’t have much garden space. But we do what we can. (Correction: HR manages most of the “doing.”)
Here’s our little Japanese maple as she decided to “seasonally change” her outerwear recently.
Isn’t she gorgeous?!
I told her, EXCITEDLY, that she was simply LOVELY in her shimmering gold, thinking she would receive the compliment graciously.
And she did. Sort of. The she smiled, as wise sentient beings often do and said with patience (which wise sentient beings often have): “Neal” (I was thrilled she knew my name), “seasonal change, as you call it, is a part of life. We all go through it.”
“And sometimes it strips you bare.”
My smile drooped a bit. I wasn’t really keen on that part of our convo.
“It’s a part of life,” she said with no trepidation in her voice.
Maple got me to thinking, and I know I have probably used this poem far too often in my blog, but it SO resonates with me, especially as I’m getting … older and “seasonally changing.”
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
— Robert Frost
Here are a few of Robert’s photos of Maple and her “seasonal change.”
May we all “seasonally change” so gracefully.
NealEnJoy 