Tag: life

Gratitude

The tree is trimmed. The presents are bought, although I do still have to make a few. The streets are alive with light; a warm carnival embrace. And I am happy to be alive. And I am filled with love and gratitude to all my dear friends for the love they show me. My heart swells to bursting with happiness and life.

There truly is something magical about this season. Some special sparkle in the air that makes us a bit more open, a bit more caring. Perhaps it’s the eggnog, the Southern Comfort, the sugar high from one too many tasty Tollhouses or succulent sandtarts. But I don’t think so. I think it’s something in us, some shared knowledge, desire, need, to feel closer to the ones we love, and even to the ones we don’t even know.

Perhaps we carry it from our earliest of days, when there were no explanations, no sciences to take away our fear of the early fading of the light, the killing frost, as we huddled around fires of warmth and protection; of life.

Perhaps we need to feel that fear from time to time to rekindle the fire of our own humanity. And we should be happy that no matter how smart we become, some tiny reptilian part of our over-wise noggins still retains that wonder as we look up at the darkening sky with its multitude of tiny lights and we feel small in the face of it, and also magnified; we feel a need for kinship, for sharing, for redemption.

Or perhaps it is just the eggnog.

Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Blessed Yule. I hope someone holds you in their arms and shares their warmth, if even for a moment.

Love, Jane

That’s What She Said – The Show!

It is Monday, so I get to relate some very exciting news.

It is official: Tune in to BCTV on Tuesday, January 31st to see we five ladies live on the small screen. Yes, we’re going live in just over a month!

And if you aren’t near a television have no fear, the show will be streamed live at BCTV.org. We’ll be international!

And if you miss it that evening…well, you are not out of luck! The show will be replayed on the station, and also archived on the site! I have no idea how these things happen, but trust me, they do. It is magic, and Martha, Christina, Ellen, Sheila, and I are excited to be a part of that magic!

So my dears, we’ll keep on blogging, you keep on reading, and before you know it, we’ll be popping into your living rooms, dens, and bedrooms! Electronically, of course.

Have a wonderful week, my dears!

Love, Jane

Cold

Hello kids. Jane is going to be less than her usual verbose self this week, as she is feeling a bit under the weather. Yes, it seems unthinkable that the bastion of inner strength that is I, could ever be taken down by a simple cold. But there it is, sitting on me like a wet blanket on a lovely party.

Speaking of lovely parties, a little bird tells me something wonderful is in the offing, but the big bird of authority hasn’t yet sent notice of this rumor’s veracity, so you all will have to content yourselves with that little teaser.

I just cracked myself up, that is exactly what I used to call dear friend Jackson: “Little Teaser”! Oh dear Lord, laughing with this chest full of distasteful gunk is not a pleasant experience; a paradox, that, well not really a paradox, more of an irony, but not that either…well never mind. My mind is awhirl with médicaments contre le rhume, cold medicine, but it sounds so much more intriguing en Français. And I’m particularly adept at the phlegmy “rh” sound just at this moment; I wish you all could hear it!

But perhaps not.

I’m babbling, I believe. Blame the meds, darlings! I’m as woozy as a musician with a paycheck.

I should go…Have a lovely week. Think healing thoughts for me, and for yourselves; we need all our fortitude during this last, desperate run-up to the holidays. “Seigneur nous donne la force“, as they say on the Champs Élysée!

…Here’s hoping my head is not floating several feet o’er my body when next we meet.

Love, Jane

Lesson Learned

Is it Monday? Already? Where have I been?

I’ll tell you where: Asleep. Asleep for three days. Well, not asleep for the entirety of these last three days, but much, much of them. “How is that possible,” you ask, and you would be right for asking.

As it turns out, all you have to do is make the mistake of not having turkey for Thanksgiving! I know, it is a sacrilege… But yes, I was taken for Thanksgiving dinner by some lovely friends. At a lovely restaurant, but not so lovely that I’ll name it.

It turns out that at this particular establishment, one can order things other than the holy bird. Who knew this was possible? Not I. And so I thought to myself, “Jane, you are in a holiday rut; you need to shake things up!” And so I did. Throwing caution to the wind, I ordered the prime rib! And it was delicious.

But it was not turkey.

And on the ride home, (my dear friends had graciously driven so that their dear Jane did not have to drive after dark) I began to feel that I had betrayed this most American of holidays. And I began to have a guilty hankering, or yen, well, really, a strong desire, urging, no, need, to make things right.

And so, after they had dropped me off at my little abode, waving bye-bye to the boys until they were ’round the corner; I hopped, perhaps “hopped” is a misnomer for what I did, but let me have my few delusions, into my darling Citroën 2CV, and off to the grocery store I went!

Once home, arms laden with the makings of holiday amends, I got to work. I mixed, I kneaded, I baked, and roasted! By 6 am the following morning my feast was complete, and I, well, I was a complete mess! But I felt so very redeemed.

After a short nap, I dug hungrily, and thankfully, into my after-holiday repas.

And there, my dears, is where the trouble began.

I ate, fell into a tryptophan haze, woke, ate some more, fell back into my tryp-snooze..woke, ate, snoozed. And there it was, from Friday until just moments ago: wake, eat, tryp, wake, eat, tryp, wake, eat…and on.

And here it is, Monday; the turkey, and all the fixin’s are gone. Yes, in the last three days I’ve eaten an entire 24 pound turkey and its corresponding side dishes! I’ve been a fiend, alternately eating, then sleeping. I’ve wasted an entire weekend in a chemically, and gluttony, induced semi-wasteland. But now, I’m awake. It is a new day. I am a new woman.

And I’ve learned never, never, to eat steak on Thanksgiving.

I hope you all had a safe, happy, and love-filled holiday!

Love, Jane

Time for Giving of Thanks

Hello, my dear little chipmunks!

I thought it would be nice, if, wholly, unoriginal, to use this week’s space giving thanks. Now I would like to think that, on a daily basis, I am a fairly thanks-giving woman. But even I am self-aware enough to know that days, weeks, well, to be truthful, sometimes even years, go by, wherein I haven’t though beyond my own personal realm. And so, the day of thanks and gluttony fast approaching…

First and foremost, I thank my mother. While not, by any means, a warm woman, she would have done anything to see me grow and thrive. She lives on in my heart, and also on a plaque in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Thanks to family, whether real, acquired, or extended. Family is not necessarily what you were born with, it is what you make, and I am grateful to have created the best family for which one could wish.

Thank you to loyal friends: What would this world be without you? The support and love, laughs and tears, shared with you…the value is immeasurable.

Also thanks to worthy foes, who in trying to tear down, only manage to build up. No mettle is truly tested and proved inviolable without strong opposition.

Thanks to whatever higher power one believes in, and if that is none, then to yourself. Creation is magic, whatever the source.

Thanks to the cosmetics industry, which has kept me looking relatively young, youthful, handsome, well into my later years. While it was a tiny emotional earthquake the day I realized that it was necessary to make the leap away from light-coverage foundation, I am thankful that full-coverage was there to catch me on the other side of that particular crevasse.

I am thankful for the Arts, and entertainment in all forms. My life would never have been possible, well, the life I wound up leading, at any rate, without the Arts. They helped me escape my humble beginnings in Poughkeepsie. Took me to places of which a young girl, and then older woman, could only dream! Alas, they were also the cause of my first, and lasting, brush with the disillusionment and rancor that love can bring. But I shan’t think of that at the moment; I’m happy!

Taking a side path for a moment…Speaking of entertainment, I, yes I, am a semi-fan of the television show The X-Factor; not a big fan, mind you, but I watch. If I may be allowed to exorcize some of the rancor that has come flashing back into my mind by merely alluding to my late husband above, and I hope, below: I do not at all like that fellow who hosts. He dampens every moment he is onscreen. I am eagerly awaiting the episode in which he will be voted off.

But I do love that little Chris Rene. He reminds me of a young Tom Waits, whom I adore. I remember sitting with him, Tom, not Chris, in a less than reputable boîte in, if memory serves, Oklahoma; what can one do, one takes jobs, and sustenance, wherever one may. I remember I lifted a glass to him and said, “Oh, Tom, there will never again be anyone like you!” To which he mumbled something in reply. But I was wrong: I predict that Mr. Rene will have a long career singing honestly of life in America. There is nothing better than a good storyteller…well, perhaps a well-made Manhattan.

One more step on this path of digression. I cannot wait for Hugo to be released; what a visually stunning treat to the eyes those trailers have been!

And now stepping trippingly back onto the main path. I am very thankful for this lovely group of women with whom I find myself in such close company. “In no particular order,” as that vapid man from the X-Factor would say: Ellen, Sheila, Christina, and Martha, a girl couldn’t ask for a better group with which to share time and bandwidth.

And finally: To life. No, it is not always easy, never predictable, and ofttimes somewhat frightening, but my goodness, what a wonderful ride it continues to be.

Be safe in your travels, be they down the path, across the country, or from room to room.

Thanks and Love to you, too,

Jane