Stillmeadow has been a delightful place to spend time each month over the course of this year. Gladys Tabor is a charming storyteller, and despite the decades that have passed since the original publication of Stillmeadow Calendar, it is amazing how fresh and relevant her observations are. It seems only fitting that she and Stillmeadow should get center stage this holiday. The beauty of reading is being transported to another time and place and moments of happier circumstances!
"Christmas Eve is an important occasion for me. We sit around the fireplace talking about the past and the future. The tree glows softly in the light of the candles on the trestle table. Our voices join in the singing of carols, and in this uneasy world I find faith anew. Music, I think, is the basic art. It speaks to all in a language of its own. Nobody has to translate it; it requires only listening to. The words of the carols are beautiful, but even without them the message is clear. The power of love, the true significance of good will, shine forth with greater meaning at this holy time."
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"When everybody has gone to bed, I sit a few moments in the now-quiet house, watching the embers fade into ash, thinking how fortunate Stillmeadow is to have small feet still pattering around on the old oak floors." (Maybe I can count the patter of kitty paws, right?).
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"Holiday breakfasts at Stillmeadow are traditionally festive. I abandon my usual soft-boiled egg for pancakes with golden maple syrup and crisp, tiny sausages. Or creamed finnan haddie, which was Jill's favorite dish and which her son fixes for us now. Ot corned beef hash, for a change." (I think I will be having tamales with my housemates).
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"On a moonlit night in December, as the earth turns toward another year, I sit quietly and begin to make a new set of resolutions. My first is to be better organized."
"What the new year may bring, we cannot know, but I pray God's blessing may fall on us as softly as apple blossoms fall in spring. And then I put out the guttering candles on the trestle table and go to bed, feeling that tomorrow will be another adventure in living!"