December 23, 2021 a thought for today.  They must stand high who would see their own destiny. Danish Proverb   

I had myself stressed with the amount of printing that needed to be done today. I had four separate documents to print and place before the Christmas Eve Candle Light service tomorrow night. It’s done!! One of the concerns I had was running out of the size paper I needed for two of the documents. We don’t often use legal sized paper for most of the printing, at least for the documents I am responsible for. I was about halfway through the second document that needed that size when the copier let me know it was out of paper. So I spent some time looking for what I needed. We had plenty of colored stock in that size but not white that is what I wanted. Finally I found one package left of the white that I needed. Other than that tiny detour everything else went “swimmingly”. 

Yesterday’s photo of the day was “santa”.....I searched the neighborhood for yard decoration Santas. There were many, some b
lown over on their tummies by the wind, some devoid of air so lying flat on the ground but this one was all decked out and ready for a photograph. 

Next on the agenda for me today was a stop at the post office. Then to McDonalds for Bob and me. 

Finally at home and time to get to other projects to get done before Christmas Eve evening. More calendars to print and bind. Then there is the everyday “stuff” like laundry that doesn’t take a day off.

I want to do a few things in the kitchen today to round out the to-do list.  I hope to get a few minutes to spend on the church newsletter. I have arranged to put of the final steps to getting it out until Tuesday. I think I have most of the information I need to complete it but with the other holiday plans going on time is a little limited. 

The word for today is lonely.  There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more. Lord Byron. What loneliness is more lonely than distrust? George Eliot. The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller. John Milton. Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Tecumseh.   What is man without the beasts? For if all the beast were gone, man would die of a great loneliness of the spirit. Chief Seattle. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. Epictetus. All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. Blaise Pascal.  No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. Buddha.  A man thinking or working is always alone. Henry David Thoreau. Don’t feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you. Rumi.

Today’s photo challenge was titled “makes me feel merry”. What better way to make a mother/grandmother/great grandmother or any member of a loving family but among them sharing bits of each others life.  

Another bit of history about a past holiday in Columbus. The article stated that the New Years  celebrations in Columbus in 1922 were very cold, wet and quiet. The temperature on that December 31 dropped to 12 degrees in the city. There were snow flurries in Columbus and two inches in some of the suburbs. Since New Years day that year was on a Sunday Monday was the legal holiday. There was “Watch Night” services in many churches on New Year’s Eve. Home style fireworks were enjoyed both Sunday and Monday since the “official” holiday off was Monday. The most “elaborate” conclusion of the annual Yuletide Festival was at Memorial Hall (280 E. Broad St.) on East Broad Street which, according to this article, was near the “Columbus Woman’s Club” (I was unable to find more information about the “Columbus Woman’s Club”). The chair person of that club at this time said the club would make this evening the “most spectacular of any ever held in Columbus”. There were fortune tellers , dancing, “bargaining at the various booths”, and music. That same evening, at the Memorial Hall, thirty-five newly naturalized citizens were guests of a chicken supper. Again, according to the article, “the economy was booming, the stock market was advancing....prohibition of alcohol production ....America was entering a period that soon would be called the ‘Roaring Twenties’”. Life was busy in Columbus on that Monday after New Year’s Day. The article ended saying “in a letter to the editor, ....there was a plea for 1922 .....to the youth...teach the young girl to be a womanly girl with not too many frizzes and frills. And to the boy to be a manly boy – be polite and courteous and cast aside the cigaret and the swear word, both very common these days..... Happy New Year!”

I am going to try to make crab cakes for dinner....I have never made them before. We will have cheesy potatoes along with it. 

Joy   

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