Serenity

For many people, this comes through mediation.  Or through a bubble bath with a glass of wine.

When one is a single parent, one discovers very quickly that one steals these moments.  

It's found in a ritual at your child's school that celebrates the dark and light of winter.

It's found in the school concert that begins, year after year, with the women's chorus singing by candlelight.

It's found in the shriek of 'MOMMY" and the little arms that vice clamp around your neck.

For us, the holidays are Christmas -the birth of Christ is very much hand in hand with the arrival of Santa (and the departure of that damned Catriona Elf).  They are about sharing fellowship with family, with friends, and most of all with each other.

Usually, the holiday concert at the school where I teach is the start of my season of serenity.

This year, however, the Demie Diva started it with the Garden of Light at her school  The spiral of evergreen boughs is interspersed with candles in apples.  Each child is escorted into the spiral - at the center of which is a single candle - by a Guardian Angel (an older child) who takes him/her around the spiral, to an unlit candle, and from the apple candle to the center.   The apple candle is lit, the child takes it back to its place in the spiral, and the next child goes forward.  The kicker here, of course, is that a room full of kindergarteners do this in total silence.  It is beautiful, and spiritually enriching, as the darkened room becomes illumined.

The women's chorus simply strengthened the wonder of light in the darkness.  It was beautiful.  The Demie Diva loves being part of the lives of the big kids at Mommy's work.  We were VERY ready to head home and get to sleep.

Christmases the Demie Diva spends with the XH are always difficult.  BUT, the joy on her face on Christmas morning when she realized that MOMMY was there was tempered only by the sadness when she realized that she wasn't coming home that afternoon.  

We've been freezing our fannies off in the state of my birth for the last week.  While I'm ready to be home in my own space, neither the Demie Diva, the Diva Maman, or the Diva Chien are ready to head south.  The Demie Diva has discovered the joys of an indoor playground, sledding, and seeing her cousins.  Her mommy has discovered that, in fact, it's awfully nice NOT to have to think about meals!...and the Diva Chien?  Well, she and the Diva Grandparents' dog have been playing, racing, and generally being idiots.

Sometimes, serenity is found in laughing at the antics of schnauzers.