Unfinished Works

So much left to do, though the gifts received are opened, tried on, tasted, or read. I still have shopping, wrapping, writing and mailing to do before I'm finished with this holiday season.  As I was cleaning up, after trying again, a new recipe for squash, for dinner the other day, I thought, "Why make squash? Isn't there something else, that someone would really LOVE?"  Squash is pretty unique.  A few people really LOVE squash, and it's various versions.  Then, there are the majority of people who really HATE the look, taste and just the THOUGHT of squash, the vegetable.  I like it... I've decided that one of my unfinished jobs is to find something to make from squash that people will say, "yes, I'll try that."  MMM Good, what is it? I LOVE this!  Well, squash soup sounds like the thing for next year. I'm going to sign up for squash again, just for the challenge.

A friend writes, "Do something you really LOVE to do".  Besides draw and laugh with the little people we call children, and listen to how they talk and reason, I'm not clear on what I just LOVE or WANT to do before I'm finished here. Life truly is short. Do we really need squash?  Nature thought so; me too.

As I scrubbed my pans, I made a mental list, of things I MIGHT like to do SOME DAY.  Cookie sheets usually hold my favorite things. COOKIES are welcomed in most crowds, at most dinners or parties, but wouldn't it be great, if one day, to the whole world, SQUASH was well received? COOKIES are just so common, so ordinary (like most of my drawings!). If everybody LOVED SQUASH, now that would be something.

Scrubbing away, I also mentally listed people I've known in my life who are no longer living, or no longer in my life, too distant, or passed to another place or version of a different life.  Thoughts of them surface during holidays or life events. I ask myself if they'd had a checklist as the decades passed. As they sensed they were about finished with this life, or place, did they think that they'd done well or finished what they should have or could have or wanted to?  I look; I see things they've done, things they've created, objects they spent lots of time on, and I also see people they had some hand in "creating" so far.  Adding it all up, most of results are GOOD, like God said, when he'd finished creating the world! I'd really LOVE to make something, like He did, that continues to recreate itself better and better over the decades. So, I'll think on that - NEXT YEAR.

Winter Gatherings

The red squirrel hangs upside from back feet, and grips, like gorilla-glue, the branch with its' toes. The itty bitty but very fat creature is so strong that when finished stripping leaves and whatever it wants off that particular branch, it lifts his/her whole body straight up, grabs the larger branch with front paws, rights himself instantly, and with a measured flick of redbrown winterized tail, he's off like a shot, to the end of next wobbly branch, the next dried winter cache.

Skinny branches that I would never guess would hold a squirrel's weight are tested as quickly as a CPA works the math on a tax calculator. Questions answered in a flash: procede directly or change course, for more sure footing?  Without falling or fear, he goes to the end of the chosen stick, ruffles a globe of brown leaves for booty, devours rusty-colored prizes, and with full cheeks moves on to the next higher branch.

A bird's abandoned nest is tested for nuts, seeds, grain; a rustled collection in the crook of the tree seems to harbor some comfort, maybe a snack, a brief respite from the gathering and the coming snowstorm. How does he choose the day before the storm to collect things for the fridge and the kids? A slightly warmer day of opportunity and sunshine, a call from a cousin, or just a kind of knowing, is that its' gift?

That squirrel, isn't afraid to continually, instantly test things, to see if there is at the end of that treacherous path a treasure - or nothing.  It knows what it wants, and has the drive to accomplish the getting and is willing to risk everything, knowing it will probably catch itself if it falls, and then go on. The training or the genes operate smoothly, every gear hitting the right cog, every nerve creates just the right response: hop, jump, hang, switch, look, stop, chew, scratch, sniff, blink.  A limb on the oak tree is not a scarey tightwire dance, it is a wide placid country road to this rodent.  The tiny animal conquers both winter and peers by confidence and nature. I wonder, does it ever thanks its parents for its success, for its accomplishments, its learned skills. Competition and challenge don't appear to phase it.  Business logic - not considered;  its' own unique push and win, make its day, every day.  "Consider the lillies", Alvin.

The furry footlong sharp-clawed creature with the cute bushy tail learned to flex enough and often that it doesn't break with the pressure of an afternoon, or a memory of crossing a 4 lane street just moments before as a zillion cars que up for the streetlight.  It just moves through its day, as the day plays itself out, and that day's trouble is enough for one day. With all that exercise, it probably sleeps through the whole night without waking, too.

I wish the little Oak Imp well as he glances at our window, newfy dog, barking, me laughing. I am cheered.  In a pause, he's gone, not a hair harmed - today.  I've a grateful heart, learning what life is about, one more day. Simple, free entertainment/education.  Can the acrobat know s/he's on the blog?  How great it is that I won't know!  Or will I?