Did you know you're still crying Did you know that we all did Is it paradise?

I am sitting here, with a happy warm purring cat at my feat, encircled by my family. We're listening to Reggae and making an Indian feast for Christmas Eve. And might I remind you that I am of Russian Jewish descent, and a definite New Yorker. We are not Rastafarian, Hindu, or Christian. Yet we manage to get it all in, because that's who we are, and we love good music and good food and Love. And the snow is sparkling outside, and I've finished all my cards in beautiful sharpie and trusty colored markers, and I've wrapped gifts and helped make an origami star for our solstice tree. And Lola is having her happy time.

Sometimes I get this feeing from the middle of my chest, like it's filling and filling and warming and warming, and it's going to burst. And sometimes it does. And you know what happens then? I feel like streams of color burst forth and paint invisible streaks of color all over everyone and everything around me. But you know what's funny? I don't feel like that depletes me, I feel like it makes me fuller, more whole. Like, sometimes it's better to give than to get. I've just started reading Lord of the Rings, and in it, a hobbit tradition is that on birthdays, instead of getting gifts, you give one to each guest. That way, over the course of the year, you get presents gradually at each party you attend, instead of a whole bunch on one day and that's all the whole year. I absolutely love this idea, but I know I can't do it, because if I gave gifts, I wouldn't receive any from anyone else on their birthdays. No one else does it. But if they did...

Man that would be awesome!

And I guess all I want to say now, is that I love you. I love life, I love earth, and I think that each of these posts are like love letters to the world. Hmm, that would be a good description for a blog! I'm taking it. Dibs.

I'm leaving you all to your Christmas Eves, be you Christian, Jewish, or of no faith at all. Enjoy it, just as you should enjoy every warm night while the world outside shivers and frosts.

Love,

Lola

Picture Credit: Manoli Lopez

Title Quote: Cocoon, On My Way