Knock, Knock?

Hellooo? Yes, I'm still alive....just not very good at keeping up with a blog apparently. I'll try a short synopsis of life since early July....

Another knee surgery to try and fix the previous replacement. Didn't work. The only thing it accomplished was putting a dent in my bank account and giving me the chance to meet some nice therapists who did their best with me.

A show in Columbus in September...again a rain disaster further disappointing because someone stole a cuff bracelet from me that was a favorite. Sigh.

Let's see...October brought my 65th birthday which should not have pleased me except that I am now on MEDICARE! Yippee!!! No more $1000. insurance payments every month. Along those lines, I made the rounds of all the doctors whose titles end in oncologist and got good marks from all. One year down.

During these last few months I've been beading like crazy to prepare for the two Winterfair shows - Cincinnati and Columbus. It paid off because both shows were fantastic saleswise. Should keep the wolf away from the door for awhile...lol. It was also a good time to see friends and clients again that stop by my booth to visit.

So this past week I gave a Christmas party on Friday night and went to one on Saturday night. Sunday night was a Christmas concert at the airbase with the Air Force Band of Flight. They have it at the AF Museum in a hanger filled with very large planes. Today I'm giving my mom her Christmas present..a luncheon for her and her friends and former neighbors. Average age is probably 85. Wonder what would happen if I gave them all champagne? Geriatric Twister?

My son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Eun Ae, finally got their restaurant open in Sierra Vista, AZ. Took as much time as having a baby and Jeff says it made him just as nervous on opening night. Andrea is waiting tables and Matthew is bussing them and Jeff is hosting after work so it's a family affair. Reviews have been good on food and decor.

And this brings you up to date so I want to leave you with this piece a friend sent me today...I hope you like it, too, and pass it on.

This was written by a Renaissance monk, architect and poet.

Written on Christmas Eve, 1513

I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there.

The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too,
be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.

And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.

Fra Giovanni

Merry Christmas to all of you!