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Dressing for a Holiday Party

Okay, you are invited to the Office Party or a Neighborhood Party or to a friend’s house for a holiday dinner. All three invites have encouraged you to wear dressy-casual, or is it casually dressed.  With so many people having individual interpretations of this, just what do you wear? If you live in the city such as NYC or Chicago or somewhere in between, it is a pretty good guess that means clothes accented by sparkly jewelry, designer scarves, perfume, nails polished,  hair done at the professionals, and probably high heels of various heights.

 ImageWhat about if you live in the woods, the farm or somewhere in between those places? What does one wear then to a party or dinner gathering during the holidays, regardless of which one you honor? What does casual mean then? Would it be sweat suits with spangles on them declaring that they are dressy for the holidays? Dark running shoes rather than the white ones? Jeans, if you can still fit into them after the first few parties?

 It seems I just don’t know anymore and it was once a self-assured answer on the tip of my tongue if anyone asked me. Then again, after a few glasses of wine, does anyone really care?

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Year of Wonder & Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day is a day above others to stop and think about the uncommon things for which I am grateful for. So I place them here in a poem for you to enjoy. I am grateful for that.

 Year of Wonder & Gratitude

 I am grateful

for the skilled surgical team

for giving me a new, youthful heart

early this year, adding time to my life,

to create, to be; surely a wondrous thing

to be grateful for

 

ImageI am grateful

for the friends and family

that cared, who sent prayers

for my healing; I did heal, so quickly,

that in awe I went out and built an herb garden

that I am grateful for

 

I am grateful

for the seasons changing

showing beauty in its own way

the glory of colors varied each season

thanks to Duke Eye Center I see those colors

how grateful am I

 

I am grateful

for friends that share

my love of art, the printed word

 reading books, willing to discuss them

for music that sings in my house and my soul

I am grateful

 

I am grateful

for the joy of helping

others in my own small way

humble that it is, but from my heart

that pleases me more than receiving gifts

gratefulness overflows

 

I am grateful

for doors opening

to the path leading me

forward in this year of wonder

of exciting adventures and old memories

I am grateful. Yes

 

© Arlene S. Bice, 2012

 

 

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Cat & Dog Ghosts

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Now that my rescued Manx cat, Lady Jane, has been diagnosed with diabetes and I know I will be facing a day in the not-far-off-future when she passes away, I’m thinking about seeing her in the afterlife. Over the years several people have told me they have seen a cat or dog in spirit form race past them in a blur. I have too, in the first year that I lived in my new home in North Carolina. Fortunately for me, it didn’t step on the paint can lid while I was putting some fresh color on my walls.

My girls (Lady Jane & Mz Lizzie) did not seem to mind this other pet running through the house. But then they were playful with the Native American Brave that wandered through, also. He even stopped to rub their bellies. The Brave left after that first year, along with the animal. It could have been his companion. My eldest brother moved in with me during the second year. I wondered if that had something to do with changing the tone in the household even though he was an animal lover.

I’ve read where some religions state that animals do not have souls because they do not have free will or an immortal soul or a conscience, so no afterlife for them. It runs through my mind about cats traveling hundreds of miles to get to the home they love and are familiar with, after they have jumped out of a car and become lost. Or a dog that leaps into swirling waters to save the life of a family member. Or protects a child from a snake biting, or goes for assistance to help their owner. You get the idea.  Instinct? Don’t think so. Trained to do so? Nope. Souless? I think it is all about love. Love can bind a person to a place after they pass away; staying as a spirit or a ghost. Why not the love of an animal?

        Two Cats      

     (Read horizontally or/and vertically.)

        Two cats                               Lizzie and Jane,

playful, joyful,                      full of life

romping thru the house         like two kids

one leading the other            upstairs, downstairs

all over                                  boisterous

a calico, a manx                    black, white and gold

different breeds                    different markings

same mother                         same heart.

(C) Arlene S. Bice, 2008 publ. Life & Labyrinth

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