Christmas Time Memories

Christmas time is the favorite time of many people, and while I realize other faiths don't celebrate it, for me it is perhaps the most important time of the year.   Every year my family gets together and we share not only presents but the company of each other, as many families do.   For me, this was the best gift of all, over any toy or game or anything else.

I suppose this comes from the fact I was extremely lucky as a kid.  I had two grandparents, and so I got to go to two places for Christmas.  My Grandmother on my Mom's side was a very stoic and stern woman, but for her Christmas was very much about Christ.  My Grandmother on my Dad's side was much more Jolly.  I would dare to say she was Mrs. Clause, and she would decorate her house and everything was bright and jubilant.   It isn't hard to see which place I preferred as a kid, but looking back I realize how lucky I was to have both.

Both my grandmother's are gone now, and in their place is a void I can never fill.  They both loved me, and I would give a great deal to spend another Christmas dinner with both if I had the chance.  They are there in spirit, I know.  We talk about memories we have, little jokes, fond things and even the tough times.  In that way, the spirit of both lives on even as my family has shrunk a bit, we are no less content in our celebration.

Thinking about Christmas, I can recall only a few gifts I received, but I can close my eyes and pick several Christmas times from my memory.  I can picture us all together in the snows of Lake Tahoe, with drifts as high as the porch.  The air was so cold, the lake actually froze over, and we could walk out onto that ice.  That year there was skiing, sleigh rides, and the warmth of the fire.  In the cold, the mountains were clear gray against a sea of blue, set with white snow like something out of a fairy tale.

That to me is Christmas.  The memory, the conversations and the togetherness.  For many it is the same.  So this Christmas time I wish any who read this all the love in the world.  Whatever your faith, whatever your idea of this season, spend it making new memories for the next year.

A Writer's Soul

Now that my travelogue is complete, I return to what my passion is in creative writing.  As we speak, I am working on the follow-up book for Kitsune Matsuri and doing extensive editing for the first book.  There's a lot to be said for publishing as I did, and I still intend to send the book to agents and publishers in the hope it gets picked up.

In the meantime, I wanted to hearken back to something that so many writers seem to lose sight of, and so many lose heart.  In an age where social media connects us, and which the world is saturated by books and people writing them it can be easy to lose hope.  I know I am just one small blog writer with a little audience, but I hope that what I create pleases my readers.  I have always been of the opinion that if a writer touches one person he or she is a success.  No matter if you have sold one book or one million, this nature should be the same.

I know writers who despair, I visit their blogs, read their work.  I've seen one or two quit writing entirely.  The same can be said for artists who work so hard at a product or creation but they watch it languish.  I try to reach out when I can, support, comment and say I care, and it is my hope that this simple act bolsters some sense back to the creator.

A writer's soul is easy to lift when we reach out to one another.  So to my fellow writers, and to myself I remind us all to not despair.  Someone somewhere shares that soul you have expressed in your work.  Continue on, endure and someday more will do the same.