Christmas decorations

Massive Evergreen – ND #26

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
(Eerie) Massive Evergreen – Photo: L. Weikel

Massive Evergreen

Before the season ends, I want to post a couple photos I took of a massive evergreen that’s in a yard near my home. The way this tree is decorated thrums my heartstrings. I don’t know why, either.

Perhaps it’s the sheer effort it took for the homeowners’ to decorate such a huge tree. That’s a consideration, for sure. And even though I know people hire firms to come and do their decorating using all sorts of major equipment, it doesn’t feel like that’s the case in this situation. I don’t know why – and maybe I’m totally wrong.

I think the biggest thing that impresses me about this tree is how they took the time to swoop the lights in arcs. It looks like a classically decorated old-fashioned Christmas tree. And it is simply lovely.

Spooky Photos

The neighbors who decorate this tree so lovingly have done so for a couple of years. I drove past a number of times last year, though, and didn’t see the tree lit up even once. So I was doubly delighted to see the lights back on this year.

Thus I found myself stopping completely in the middle of the roadway the other night and rolling down my window. It was rainy and miserable, yet there were no other cars approaching from either direction. I wanted to try to somehow capture the beauty of this tree to share with you, and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

Cue the Eerie Music

None of the photos I took came even close. But a few actually seemed especially odd. The one at the top of this post, for instance. Honestly, to me the tree looks like a phantom, with a bluish tinge that could be straight out of a Tim Burton movie. (OK, it would probably also need some huge bright red teeth or something to morph out of the center of the tree to swallow my car to be truly Tim Burtonesque.)

I tried with and without the night setting on my phone, adjusted the timing, tried other techniques, but nothing could capture the utter beauty I find whenever I look at this tree.

And maybe that’s a truth I need to sit with this year. We can’t always capture the essence of a moment, experience, or companion on film. Indeed, it’s rare. So the best gift we can give ourselves is to truly be in the moment of first-hand perception.

Why am I fascinated by this tree? – Photo: L. Weikel

(T+26)

Christmas Lights – Day 507

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Christmas Lights in April (2020) – Photo: L.Weikel

Christmas Lights

I walked outside this evening and was entranced by the exquisite clarity of the night sky. A cool breeze wrapped around me, but I noticed that it wasn’t harboring a cold edge. Rather, it was refreshing and soothing; it almost seemed happy to see me outside, looking up, drinking in the brilliance of the half moon above me. The stars seemed unusually bright and twinkly.

The wind sighed in the massive boughs of the pines across the road.

I don’t know what it was about this evening that felt so different. But it did. And it does.

I went outside for the express purpose of taking a photo of our smattering of Christmas lights which we never took down and recently decided to reignite for a bit. Obviously, my purpose in venturing outside to take a photo of the lights was to share them with you.

Giving and Receiving

There’s probably something to that – a connection between my desire to share the simple pleasure of colorful lights decorating the darkness and the unexpected blessing of feeling seen and greeted, dazzled even, by the totality of the Earth, wind, sky, moon, and stars.

The entire experience has left me near tears. Perhaps just more of those weird feelings. Or perhaps its something else. Something bigger.

It feels bigger. The stillness feels bigger. The precious interconnection between everything – all of us – feels more acute to me.

My Intention

The point of tonight’s post was simply to share the joy it gave Karl and me to turn our Christmas lights back on and bring some color and whimsy to the darkness.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the night; I love darkness, especially when our eyes adjust and we realize it’s not dark at all.

But right now it feels like we could all use a little reminder. It’s funny. The lights we strung outside this past Christmas season were not traditional Christmas colors at all. And lighting up the night right now, they seem particularly appropriate: orange, green, blue and red. What an odd conglomeration. Brilliant colors nevertheless – illuminating the night.

And if I hadn’t chosen to write this post tonight and wanted to include a photo of our Christmas lights, I never would have experienced the embrace of Nature I received.

So…thank you.

(T-604)

 

A Favorite Decoration – Day 458

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Photo: L. Weikel

A Favorite Decoration

One of our favorite Christmas decorations through the years is having candles in all the windows of our home. I grew up with candles in our windows at Christmas. (And no, I’m not so old that we used actual candles! Don’t be smart!) But they did require being plugged in, and in an old stone farmhouse with few electrical outlets, that meant a real hassle of extension cords and overloaded sockets. It also meant screwing each and every light bulb in each night and unscrewing them in the morning.

A couple years ago, I discovered battery-operated Christmas candles. What a boon! Not only do they have LED lights that burn brighter on the side you direct outward and softer on the side that faces indoors, but the bulb burns for six hours straight once it’s initially screwed in. It automatically turns off at the end of six hours, then turns itself back on 18 hours later, and burns another six hours. Day after day.

If you don’t like when they come on, you simply re-set them by unscrewing and screwing the bulb back in.

Waiting Them Out

Now, though, is when we enter the sad stage. The lights in the windows are dwindling as the LEDs growing dimmer. Night by night, they’re burning ever softer. Their once almost blindingly bright lights are barely visible from the road. Some have sipped every last drop of battery juice and now stand dark and sad. Others keep chugging along, their batteries causing the lights to burn at a gentle, almost pale orange glow.

The funny thing is, it’s now almost mid-February and I am definitely ready to put the candles away for the year. But I don’t want to put them away with the batteries still in the candles. Obviously that wouldn’t be good for a couple of reasons, not least being that the batteries are almost dead and they’ll get all mucked up if we stick them in the attic for the off season.

Nope. These candles are almost ‘done’ and we just need to wait them out.

Which leads me to my current situation. Our house looks like a shaggy dog. Or as if people can’t make up their mind whether to kill the Christmas decorations for the year or keep them until we hit Easter.

And that wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate. I’ll leave them up as long as it takes to drain the last bit of juice out of every single battery.

A Metaphor

I’m guessing we could read this as a metaphor for life. But I don’t know what the point of it would be.

Some lives seem to use up their batteries more quickly than others. Some keep hanging on, lighting up for longer than anyone could have reasonably anticipated. Dimming, but still doing their thing, still providing a hedge against the utter darkness of the night. Still providing us with just enough light to make us smile and feel a little bit warmer as they catch our attention.

I’m ready to put them to sleep in the attic. But I don’t have the heart to just put them away without using up every drop of energy in every single battery I use. So I’m waiting them out.

 

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-653)