Like many of us, I have both a vocation and an avocation. My vocation involves teaching at a growing university while creating and maintaining this website is my avocation. As with many things we love, sometimes one demands more time than the other and exam week during any semester (much less the oddity that has been Fall 2020) is a Time Hog. Therefore, Day 5 of these “December Delights” postings was a bit delayed.
But no matter. We are Divas, not machines, and sometimes we don’t run like Swiss watches. That is chronos time and, useful as it may be, sometimes we are fortunate enough to run in kairos time. Yesterday was an overflowing cup of both, as I’ll explain.
Continuing my efforts to build a Reverse Advent Calendar, I added a box of individual servings of animal crackers. Something snacky, but not too sweet, is going to be welcomed and by having it pre-divided, there should be less fussing over who got the last elephant.
For the Day 5 “Diva drill,” I sat by the hearth and drank my coffee while considering a quotation I’ve had painted and/or stenciled on the mantel for years. With the mantel decorated with greenery, lights, stockings, and other holiday bibelots, it’s easy to see the truth of Samuel Johnson’s words – “To be happy at home is the result of all ambition.” Honestly, everything – absolutely EVERYTHING – we do is, ultimately, to achieve that goal. It’s something to think about when saying “yes” to another “just one more thing” obligation – it that moving you toward those words, or away from it? You can see why it’s good for me to sit still and think about that from time to time. (Chronos meeting Kairos. Time may run differently at different times, but it is a finite resource. We deserve to use it well and thoughtfully.)
The book I want to mention today fits this day of accomplishment and over-scheduling very well. Steven Brust’s The Sun, the Moon, & the Stars is part re-telling of an old Hungarian folktale and part exploration of the creative process, with a heaping tablespoon of the study of friendships and differences of opinion.
Today’s holiday “little bit” turned out to be a “big bit” and I worked to learn the basics of an online shopping platform to make a number of my wintry watercolor paintings available as Christmas cards. I have much to learn over on Redbubble, but I think I’m going to like it. Folks can choose to mix-and-match designs, select their own quantity, and have them shipped directly to their chosen address. So please – go visit the River of Cream Redbubble shop! Not quite everything is posted yet, but there are a number of choices posted already, with a few more to come in the next few days. Redbubble also allows you to choose to have artwork made up in a variety of products – maybe you’d rather have fridge magnets, or stickers, or T-shirts, or (soooo 2020!) masks – it’s all there for the selecting!
Whew! No wonder the day got so full!!
More tomorrow – see you then!
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