“There’s something very special about this week after Christmas and before the new year,” Anne told me today as she, Natalie and I painted our plates or mugs together at Sunfire Ceramics. As I made many tiny dots of color all over a small plate, I nodded. This time is an in-between time, a no-business-as-usual stretch when there is still too much sugary food and very long nights to contend with.
Even the weather seems to be, more than usual, its in-between self, delighting or dismaying us as it tilts various ways. The falling temperatures punctuate this day. I aimed myself toward warmth however I could: zipping up my down coat while painting pottery, baking pumpkin bread at home later, sipping hot soup at both lunch and dinner. Tomorrow, it warms up some, and so we go, riding the weather boat over the crest of the new year.
But for now, it’s the old year at its oldest. I listen to Joshua Bell’s rendition of “West Side Story” tracks and watch the cat sleep in a ball in between finishing up projects from this year. That urge to make a clean new slate overtakes me, leads me toward what new meals I can conjure and what new plates I can polka-dot in the studio during this dark, cold and, in all its possibilities, magical time.
Comments