Cold fire turns me on, and when I see the leaves blaze orange and red, my heart surges with excitement and I swallow dryly. Winter is coming. The winter I never used to notice, never particularly understood or explored. It wasn’t until I learned to make my own internal fires that the cold became negligible. And that made me a denizen of winter, a citizen of the White Room, a penitent in the White Cathedral. Angels breathe frost and God has a crystal soul.
But I won’t live in the future, because then I might miss today, and today is its own miracle. So even the transition of seasons keeps me awed. Snowflakes are the ashes of summer. Summer’s skies to be precise. And if you saw the conflagration of an autumn sunset that I am looking at through my window right now, you would understand the process.
Then again, I’m clueless as to what’s spectacular in your life. Maybe God invented light in your backyard and you keep rainbows in a box. But if you’re reading this in the US, doesn’t it seem like the fall color change brings on a similar cultural effect as we shift through the spectrum of our holidays trifecta? The orange and black of Halloween blends into the brown and gold of Thanksgiving before bursting into the red and green of Christmas. Just sayin’.
Though I live a solitary life, it doesn’t seem that way. Four of the photos below are from a magical day this month when my adoptive family, Norby Nation, accepted my invitation to picnic at Elm Creek. Gourmet PB&Jelly sandwiches and melted Trader Joe’s Coffee Bean Blast ice cream went down like nectar and ambrosia above a sunset overlook on loan from Paradise. That’s me holding Emma on a bridge with Julia, Peter, David & Annaliese in front of us. Little Peter has prayed at meal times for almost a year now for my shoulder to heal (it healed a long time ago), but instead of grace Teri suggested we observe a solid gold minute of listening to the awesome grandeur and serenity all around us. I do that almost daily, but I have to tell you, sharing it with a family you love galvanized it for me in a way I didn’t expect. Guess I’d given up on trying to do that -- given up and forgotten that I’d given up. Funny how when you quit wanting something, it can come to you… Two of the other photos are of a sunset behind my house and a moonrise at Elm Creek. And then there is a herald of the Christmas rush: yeah, that’s Doc Foto leading Santa clones. Since Mark Manrique doctors photos of me sans mercy, I should edit the tag to read Clown & Clones, but I want to pretend I have too much Class. Oh, we do share a perverse sense of humor…and a million laughs!
Have heard from a number of Glenn & Deacon Frey fans that the link to my September column is broken on some of the newsletter mirror sites that carry it. I think that column is being confused with earlier mentions of Glenn & Deacon from 14 months or so ago. All of those columns/newsletters include references to a couple of trips to Crosslake. Also I may have used the same picture of Deacon twice. Here’s the correct link to the most recent column two months ago: http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/09/16/thomas-sullivan-are-you-ready-for-fame-fortune-%e2%80%94-crosslake-redux-with-glenn-deacon-frey/
November’s post over on Storytellersunplugged is short and a little different. Playing off a George Jones classic, “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” I tried to capture what it means to go for perfection and never give up. If you’ve ever battled the hopelessness that follows having your dreams shot through the heart or buried alive, you may relate. Here’s the link: http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2009/11/16/thomas-sullivan-%e2%80%9che-stopped-loving-her-today%e2%80%a6%e2%80%9d-or-murdering-your-muse/ .
Looking forward to cooking pseudo turkey on Thanksgiving -- a chicken specialty favored by The Boy (a.k.a. Shane-lad). And for the lone person who asked, that pecan pizza mentioned in last month’s column and on Twitter turned out terrific (moist but contrasted by bomb grade crunchy).
May I invite you to follow me on Twitter? It’s fun and won’t intrude on your computer. 2 examples of recent Tweets: Nothing is easier to take for granted or quickly forgotten than constant magic...until you suddenly realize it isn’t there. And… Why is everyone telling me I should write a romance novel? Am I wearing chick-socks or something? Hey, I can explain. That was Halloween. Here’s the link: http://twitter.com/thomassullivan . I’ll also be happy to put you on the mailing list for free newsletters packed with stories and adventures, including photos, if you email me at: mn333mn@earthlink.net . Past newsletters (and columns) are archived at the author’s website below under News & Articles. Have a warm & FULL-filling Turkey Day.
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com/
http://twitter.com/thomassullivan
