Birds: huddled, hungry
their feeder became a roof
shelter from the storm
I tossed extra seeds
where snow layers had buried
their black sunflowers
Huddled and Hungry Haiku
The Stillness of Snow
We had far more ice than snow last weekend, but there is something transformative about the stillness of snow. As a year turns, the tranquility of snow brings a feeling of a clean slate. All the old crap of last year is frozen solid, then melts away faster than a million snow cones on a hot summer day at the softball field, leaving only the fresh breath of newness, ripe for the rightness of a new start.
Which, I’ll speak for myself while knowing it isn’t just me, we all need. Therapists often tell patients to write down all their woes and then ball up the paper and throw it into the fire to watch the negativity burn away. But there is also renewal in the power of cold. Take this pine tree farm, for example. It suffered the least amount of loss of any other pine tree farm planted in this area the year it was sown. I remember my husband telling me that he, his father, and his brother were so cold that day that his father’s eyes and nose were stinging and running so heavily that the frigid temperatures made ice crystals all along his eyelashes and mustache and beard. They worked in rotating positions that day. One of them drove the tractor, while the two on the back end were the planters. One would unbundle the frozen saplings, and the other (lying down on the back end facing the ground) pushed them into the earth in spaced out rows. When the foresters asked them what they had done to prevent such loss of trees, they didn’t really know – until they all looked at the calendar and made some comparisons of data. They’d planted the Johnson Funny Farm pines on the coldest day of the year.
If pine trees thrive when they’re planted on the coldest day of the year, I like to imagine that this cold and snow and ice have repotted people, too. I’ve needed a hard reset for well over a year now, and my sapling spirits-at-heart have needed a re-rooting.
That is what the stillness of snow does. It brings a magical reset, filled with a Narnia-like magic to all the possibilities for the year ahead. And there are snowflake pictures for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, too.
As I stood on the porch so many times taking in all the beauty last weekend, I couldn’t dismiss the feelings of sadness and fear that I felt for my California friends evacuating from the wildfires at the opposite end of the cold spectrum, on the opposite side of the country. I reached out and checked on them, and they replied that they are fine but are keeping heightened awareness of the fires. I continue praying for their safety.
it speaks for itself
the snow, silently falling
blanketing the hush
2025 Book Club Picks
If you’re ever in the small rural county in Georgia where I live, you might find yourself at one of the two traffic lights we have, right along the courthouse square. You’d look at the historic buildings lining the square and wonder about the curious little shops and what all goes on inside once you stood back long enough to take note of the intricate patterns in the old brick facades. There’s a bank, a couple of hair salons, a coffee shop, a donut shop, a few boutiques, a couple of restaurants (every small town in Georgia must have a good barbecue joint), a dentist and an optician’s office, a realty office, a mercantile, a Chamber of Commerce office, and…….{drumroll, please}………my favorite: a bookstore, A Novel Experience. Click here to check it out.
It’s not just another familiar bookstore. This one is magical, with its historic interior brick walls with rustic plaster repairs, a creaky wooden floor, a refrigerator where you can have a free water if you need one (there is wine in there, too, and a coffee bar), a circle of eccentric mismatched comfy chairs by the back door so you can sit and talk or write or knit or….just sit, and the most amazing lineup of books for the monthly book clubs. They have a few different clubs, too, which meet at different times and focus on different interests so that there is a club for everyone.
I got there on their first day of business in 2025, and I saw that they had their books already chosen from their last meeting of 2024. They’ll create cards that readers can take to put on their refrigerators to remind them of which book is scheduled for which club for which month, but I took a snapshot or two of the “rough draft” of the lineup with the cards that tell what the books will be. Some of them have not even come in yet.
This is the place I go when I need the calm reassurance that there is still peace to be found in a place other than my own home. I swear, I think they have some kind of essential oil that is called stress-free small-town down-home-rooted belonging or something. Every bit of hurried pace disappears right when you walk in. Of course, I’ve lived here long enough to know all who work there, and this shop is one of several places that still greet customers by first name. It thrills me when I walk in and Karen throws her hands up and says, “Hi, Kim!” Chris does, too, and they stop to talk to their customers with sincere interest in what is happening in our busy lives.
What are you reading this year? I’ve started the year with Rosamunde Pilcher’s book Winter Solstice, but I’ve already cheated and delved into the movie. I finished The Beautiful and the Wild over the break just as the year turned, and we’ll have our office book club to discuss that one January 21. I started James, and I’m halfway finished. If you have any recommendations, please share. I tend to prefer nonfiction that reads like fiction or that spotlights travel or nature in some fresh and unexpected way. Sy Montgomery is always, always a favorite. I’m looking for a few readers who can recommend some amazing reads, and I hope you’ll be one of them!
If you’re ever here, call me and I’ll run right down to the shop and meet you for coffee or wine and book talk, ’cause that’s how we do things in small towns here in Georgia.
our local bookstore
announced its monthly choices
for each reading club
By the Fire Nonet
not for one second did I take this
ice day for granted ~ nope, I read,
sat by the fire, sipped green tea,
snuggled our spoiled schnoodles,
threw on the throw,
observed the birds,
worked crosswords,
prayed prayers,
napped
Amaryllis
she finally bloomed~
Minerva variety
Amaryllis joy!
Ice, Ice, Babies
We were out Friday for a snow day, even though we knew that our precipitation prediction landed squarely in the ice band. By 7:00, our town’s social media page was already drumming the dramatic beats of slippery roads and treacherous conditions – a doomsday snow day I don’t take for granted for one moment, particularly living on a pine tree farm. When these weak branches begin to bear the weight of ice, it’s only a matter of time before they snap and break across power lines, leaving us in the dark and cold. As I took our three schnoodle babies out at 6 a.m. for their first morning outing, they pondered only for a moment at the top of the porch before navigating a path straight over to the grass, descending like ducks in a row – avoiding the pavement.
They’re smarter than we give them credit for. Me? I would have boldly stepped down, slipped and fallen, thinking nothing about the danger lurking under the sparkles that appear to be grip-like for early morning feet finding their way. Lots of folks in Tik Tok videos apparently see the same footholds I perceive and go viral in times like these. I don’t want to be them.
We slipped back inside to the warmth after the boys took care of their business, and I turned on the gas logs and the heated sherpa throw (while power lasts) and steeped a cup of green tea with honey. No deadlines, no emails, no makeup or hurried pace. Just a book and a cozy chair by the fire…….next to the Christmas tree that is still up and may stay until February or March or even April in the relaxed ambition I feel in 2025.
My One Little Word for 2025 is enough. And I’m feeling that today. In fact, I’ll take a day like this more often.
speckled-ice walkways
out for their morning business
even dogs think twice
Family & Faith
family and faith
my focus as I begin
twenty twenty five
time to consider
to give thanks for these blessings
to count all good things
Action Planning Acrostic
As the year begins, we
Consider all
That we want to accomplish:
Insurmountable
Obstacles
Never-ending
Projects
Loom large
As we stand back
Navigating a path
Negotiating the tasks ahead, asking:
Is it all that insurmountable, really?
Not when there is a structured plan to
Get the wheels turning…….
For the Sake of the Pig
My husband’s work sent a Heavenly Ham to us, and with just the two of us and a ham heavier than a lab puppy, I wasn’t quite sure how to make it work before it spoiled. The life of the poor pig weighed heavily enough on my conscience that I set out to be a good steward of all the readying he did before giving his life for our sustenance. I dug up a bag of black eyed peas and carved the meat from the bone, mixing protein and fiber together. It’s in the crock pot today, and it will be ENOUGH to get us through winter Sunday dinners with cornbread.
Ham Haiku
we don’t eat much pork
but for the sake of the pig
we’ll have ham and beans
Green Tea Goals
I’m sitting with my
cup of green tea by the fire
contemplating life
today, I reflect
on the past year, plan for the
year ahead: paper
and pencil in hand
to capture my thoughts and then
calendarize them…….
Common Threads 