PROM NIGHT

Last night the Advocates held a prom.  The Advocates are who you call if someone just died at your house or your husband beat you up.  They are there at every car wreck with a person or animal injured.  The Advocates volunteer time and energy to situations where the victim needs something more than just a policeman taking down facts.  Three times a year they have fund raising events.  This time they held a prom with cocktails, dinner, auctions and dancing!  

People were asked to wear something from their Prom era;  we had everything you can imagine, dresses and tuxes from the present back to togas!  The local women who more often wear hiking boots were in stilettos.  In fact there was a contest on who's were the highest.  More bare skin was shown last night than in the last ten years!  The building this event was held in has huge windowns that looked out on our first BIG snow and a mountain range.  You couldn't have asked for better decoration.  Women wandered around in LED display tiaras while the photographer did a big business as did the sales of boutineers and corsages!  Another addition to the old fashioned prom that made big money was the bar! 

The sale items were often home made and of an unbelievable quality.  Clothing, quilts, paintings, stained glass, jewelry and multiple baskets filled with a variety of theme items were all offered.  The local winery had donated bottles of their wine with sets of glasses to go with them.  Clothing from local designers highlighted the sophistication that has come from the old hippies and their children who located here.  The biggest surprise was the fact not one person who came was in any sense secure financially but they spent with open hands.  The Advocates are a valued asset in our community.  Once again we didn't bother to go to the government that only takes from us but to our people who give.  

The laughter, music and fun continued while the blizzard conditions outdoors added to the beauty of the situation.  Groups of people stood outside watching the weather, getting their gowns and tuxes soaked without caring.  Small town people and their sense of community will make it through the coming years, with or without a government of fools.

MELANCHOLY

I'm going to miss Fall more than usual this year.  I've relished every second of sunlight and warmth.  My heater isn't on and I've only built a couple of fires.  I'm huddled in a warm cashmere shawl while I watch the Bloomberg Report.  It isn't quite light outside,  I'll move out to the porch for my second cup of coffee and watch the sun cause the color show in my yard come to life.  

I'm lucky.  In the middle of winter I still have my rose bushes full of red rose hips and purple and orange leaves.  No matter how dark it gets in the cold time of the year, no matter how gloomy that splash of color brightens my days.  Who knows what will happen this winter?  Will I have enough wood?  Is it going to be a long winter(they all are at my age) ?  Will our economy collapse under the weight of the corrupt Bush government, broken beyond repair?  Will there be an epidemic of homelessness?  

Will food be at a shortage soon?  Gas is already here although not the problem it is in Georgia.  What will inflation be like?  I'm going to get that second cup of coffee, go sit on my porch and enjoy the beauty while it's left.

This is The End

I've hauled in a ton of wood and built up the fire.  It's dark and cloudy outside, already spitting rain Everything around my home glows in a riot of color.  The aspens are gold and green mixed, the rose bushes dull red leaves against shining scarlet berries show against the sage and lamb's quarters still growing almost as fresh as in summer days. 

The sun breaks through again and again shining through my windows showing the smoke from the pine sap I throw on top of my old wood burner.  It scents my entire house with help from pine scented candles burning in preparation for the dark quickly coming down the valley.  My geraniums are full of blooms, the dainty lilac flowers on my rosemary plant are at their best right now as are the nastursiums and heliocarnas.  My portalaca is gorgeous with it's pink, orange, and yellow blooms.  It's hard to believe that tonight we are expecting up to a foot of snow.  Often we have another few weeks of good weather after the first big snow.  I'm hoping that's what happens this year.  

Somehow I feel this fall isn't just the end of the growing season, it is the end of something more.  The good times may be over in America.  I feel the whole country, possibly the entire earth waiting as if holding it's combined breath.   We have tipped over the edge, economically, environmentally, locally and globally.  We have lost our sense of destiny.  Some hopefully have lost their sense of entitlement.  There are not large areas of calm to be found when traveling the astral seas the end of this fall.  Harvests have been destroyed and disrupted.  Transport has been lacking or expensive.  Prices are rising and tension overwhelms the best intentions towards positive thought.

But still, there is the Mother's beauty given generously and freely.  This is the most beautiful year I remember.  Is it really more beautiful or am I trying to hold on to each moment of security and "easy" living I can?  I just know it soothes my soul now when I need it most.