I go out Christmas eve and buy for the whole family. All gifts are token gifts, like fluffy socks and bits of costume jewellery, a piece of clothing, perfume and such.
Immediate family, I have 5 women and 4 men and four little girls and two little boys to buy for. The kids get toys.
Each person appreciates the fact that the others want to give a token as a form of affection, but it is the time we spend together catching up, and cementing friendships and family ties, that is important.
This piece reminded me of the comments about the Byron lines on loving nature no more than people..........
New Bride
They strayed below the greening hills to love. He'd show her how, When breezes raised her tumbling hair and kissed her fevered brow, to rise above and float the larks suspended in the air who'd sing the tune of wakening upon the lady fair.
They warbled tunes of ancient things that could not stay her feet upon the meadow. Feathered wings the right percussion beat. She danced a pathway to the place whereon he was to lie with her, there slide himself upon her body, 'till they'd cry.
He watched, enchanted, as the wind took up his favoured place, Soft kissing breaths upon her skin blushed bright her shy young face. The sun burst cloud. Its brilliant hue glass-stained her eyes, to flame the rivers bubbling in her veins, Ignite her pliant frame.
Dried grasses scratched their love lines on her legs. As she spun round shed scattered seeds upon her thighs. Her laugh the only sound above the rustling of the leaves, where bowing trees swayed near to catch and brush her wind-frilled skirts, and whisper in her ear.
Now shaken with the wonder of her ecstasy, she lay upon the flowers, trembling still, and pondered their display. She sprawled now cooling limbs, then to restore a measured calm raised limp lids. Seeing him still there she lifted outstretched palm.
The beauty of her graceless gait aquiver, filled his eyes, near burst his heart asunder as he helped his love to rise all glowing still. She whispered low, "pure beauty led the way". He, smiling, acquiesced, conceding nature her foreplay....
If you get the chance, then read some of Miroslav Holub's work. He is eastern European and his work has been translated into several languages. He is an incredible poet, and my favourite.
One of the few ways a woman back then got out of marriage and her society's expectations was to turn religious, or go so far as to be a nun. It has been a classic "out" for independant thinking women since early Christian times.
Emily was no different in that she turned to writing God based poems to cover her observances of human nature, and her own life, in her given society.
That she was an unparalleled observer of life in a spiritual and philosophical way, is legendary. She often says more in a few well-chosen words, than many poets say in endless verses.
I thought you might have been out of sorts at a slow response, but you have to remember that people in different time zones need longer to respond to the threads they are interested in.
There are many wonderful people on here who not only can quote poets of renown, but are accomplished poets themselves.
No forgivness needed. You were just "having a wee moment", as they say here.
She wrote about her society's expectations for women too, and how she was not going to comply with it, (marriage and settling to have children and being subservient), and what that would mean for her in the grand scheme of things to reject their expectations.
I shop on the 24th. It takes about an hour. The whole family buy token presents. Being together and sharing food, stories, and songs, is what is important for us, not the value of "things". Our joy is in each other's company.
I think that was a pretty ignorant thing to say about people here that you don't know, even if you did mean to compliment John in a backhanded kind of way.
I don't find it as difficult to talk about, these days, as I used to. Sometimes it helps people to hear that it isn't the end of their world to be abused, and that is pretty much the only reason for my mentioning it anymore.
Well it wasn't easy at the time, but I knew from being very young, that no matter what she threw at me figuratively, and literally, that I would not be like her, so I practiced a form of patience and distancing that has stayed with me all my life so far.
From that I found happiness some place in every day, no matter what it was like.
I just see life, anyone's life as being just what it is. It can be nothing else.
If the people that affect you could be different or be better people, then they would already be that.
Fact is, that everyone is doing their best at any given time, no matter how dysfunctional that appears to some. So, no blame to apportion. No hatred to dish out. Life just is.............
I had a psychopathic mother who absolutely hated me from practically the moment I was born. She was extremely superstitious, and things about when I was born led her to believe I came from the devil, to the point where she refused to feed me herself. It went downhill from there. She took pride in telling me, and others, stories of ways that she made my life miserable, all her life. She died just over a year ago.
The washing machine broke. The car insurance company screwed me over, and my car battery went flat, all yesterday, but none of that made me grumpy. In fact I rarely get grumpy. No point in it.
I hope to have my oldest daughter and her partner over from Barcelona to stay for a couple of weeks. Christmas day is at my younger daughter's house with extended family and grand-babies. Some part of me is still hoping my son and his partner can be there too, but it seems unlikely, because she is very sick in pregnancy, so I might go visit them in Ukraine at new year. We will share the day via webcam though so they don't feel left out.
People who simplify things are not always concise. The two are not synonymous.
Are you talking reduction or reductionism? Neither word is appropriate in the sentence you used either, if are trying to be concise in your choices that is. It doesn't convey the meaning I think you intended. Keep it simple.
Trying to sound intelligent when you don't have a grasp of everyday language just comes across as confusing to everyone.
I had a friend who stopped to change a tyre and took a €5000 painting out of his boot to get the tyre out and when he remembered he forgot it, did the same thing, ran over it.
I remember the first time I went to live in Manchester and I went to work. Hadn't a clue where I was, and was told to take the number 47 home. Since I had no clue where home was, I sat on the bus until it stopped, 3 hours away from where I lived.......
No mobiles in those days so had to go find a phone and ask my ex where I was, and he had to go fetch me. Took along time to live that one down. I didn't get home until midnight.
RE: Ladies, how many kids would you like?