Winter Solstice

And so the sun once again begins its journey north (for those of us in the northern hemisphere). Why tonight isn't celebrated as the start of the new year, I'll probably never understand.

The days are as short as they're going to get. According to my weather app, here in Kansas City, we add nine minutes of daylight between today and January 6th, but between now and then, the light shifts. We lose four more minutes of morning light, trading them for thirteen additional minutes of light in the evenings. The sun doesn't start getting up earlier until the 7th. I've never noticed this before, though it's probably been doing it that way my entire life. (you think?) Interesting phenomenon.

I've spent the last few weeks in my annual struggle with the darkness. My energy lags, I find myself caught in spirals of dark and gloomy thoughts. I mentally gloss right over the good news parts of life, and find my thoughts lasering in on the dark side.

And then, to add insult to injury, I start feeling guilty for letting the gloom take hold. 'Tis the season to be jolly, not Grinch-ish!

*sigh*

Fortunately, years of coping with the holiday blues have taught me to enjoy the holidays anyways.

I've managed to do all my Christmas prep despite my tendency to stop and curl up on the sofa underneath my white fuzzy blanket when the mood strikes. The blanket came from Libby a few years back. I've been missing her something fierce as the first anniversary of her death has rolled around. She'd be all about my taking time to poke the Libby-sized hole in my life to see if the edges have started to heal. She'd have absolutely zero patience for the times the edge-poking turns to wallowing, and I can hear her voice when I cross the line: Remember to live the days you have!. Once I hear her, I get up and start living my day again - she's still hard to ignore.

Candles and Christmas tree lights do a wonderful job of adding beauty to the darkness.

Tonight, I will both acknowledge the darkness and celebrate the anticipation of the return of the light. For it's all part of the cycle of life, and if we never knew the darkness, we'd also never know the stars.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Operation DoGooder Has DoneGood!

Have you ever stumbled into a project, and it's as if the Universe was just waiting for someone to line up the pieces so it could tip over the dominoes? Well, that's what happened with Operation DoGooder!

A local law firm, without charge, notarized the limited power of attorney form I needed to be able to represent Kevin in his search for a home.

Bank of America had an ad in the paper, asking me what I'd like the power to do. When I told them I'd like the power to help Kevin find a home, one of their people responded, did some research, and connected me with a local transitional housing group, reStart.

A conversation with the leader of reStart got him to the top of their wait list, and, poof, Kevin had a bed he could count on each night.

He also automagically fell to the top of the 2-3 month wait list for the subsidized housing complex where we'd filled out a pre-application just two weeks earlier.

Ms. Mary, the complex manager, was wonderfully patient with me as I stumbled through the process of clearing his credit and gathering the necessary paperwork. Each time she ran into a roadblock, instead of just deep-sixing his file as she could have done, she gave me a couple of days to clear things up.

I talked to more lawyers to clear up a paperwork error regarding a prior eviction; the error would have kept him out of most local housing, not just the place where he was applying. (One of the lawyers called my power-of-attorney form 'dubious'.  Hmph. After I'd printed it out myself from the internet and everything. I was able to work with him anyways to get the error cleared up.)

I paid an old outstanding electric bill, and worked with the reStart people to get a letter vouching that he was, indeed, homeless. (who knew such a thing existed???)

As it became clear that a place to live might actually happen, I started to scout around for the furniture Kevin would need to start over. I started by asking my neighbors who were selling their house nearby if they'd donate a mattress. (I knew they'd have an extra one after the house was sold.) They not only said yes to the mattress, they came up with the entire apartment full of furniture, right down to a starter set of dishes for the kitchen and a shower curtain for the bathroom.

I finished working with Mary to get all the boxes checked and all the revised paperwork in just before Thanksgiving. I had a garage full of furniture, and high hopes that if the Universe had gotten things this far along, it would make sure the story ended well.

The Universe didn't let me down. I got an email last Tuesday - his application had been approved; please let her know when he would like to come down to fill out the lease agreement.  I went down to the library to find Kevin, and when I told him the good news, he wanted to go fill it out right then. Not really surprised, I called Mary to let her know we were on our way.

She graciously made room in her day to print out the forms and walked him through signing them. We walked up to the third floor, and she opened the door to a small, neat, clean, one-bedroom apartment. She walked him through the place, and handed over the keys.

That first night, he stayed there with just the contents of his four suitcases and two white plastic trash bags (the sum total of his belongings). The next day, I found some help, and we were able to deliver the apartment starter kit my neighbors had pulled together.. Now, he not only has a place to go to each night, he has a bed, a comfy place to sit, and a bookshelf to store his quickly-multiplying books.

Kevin has a home!!!!

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I've gotten some high praise from people who have heard this story. I don't feel as if I deserve it. I certainly didn't get this done by myself.

Everywhere I turn these days, I hear stories that shrivel my heart - caged children, climate change; rancor and division seem to be everywhere. Operation DoGooder was my chance to try to tip the scales just a little bit; to bring a glimmer of light and hope to the darkness.

It was the right thing to do.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kansas City's Union Station

Thanksgiving has long been one of my favorite holidays - what's not to like about food, family and friends?

My friends, Dale and Brian and their two offspring have long been part of my Thanksgiving tradition,.The year I was remodeling my 'new' house and part of my family wanted to come down to restart our every-other-year-in-Kansas-City tradition but I had no kitchen, they offered to host the dinner.

Turns out Dale can think of nothing better than planning and cooking Thanksgiving dinner for twenty of her closest friends. (We're pretty sure she's still of sound mind...) The new tradition is for my family to come to town, but eat dinner at Dale & Brian's place. I have to admit I rather like the twist. I still make the pies - my favorite part - and get to see my family, but I don't have to plan and prepare the bulk of the meal, so I can focus on getting everything else ready.

I thoroughly enjoyed our gathering this year. We gathered at Dale & Brian's around noon for appetizers, ate too much good food at three, then just sat (or napped) for a bit and let the food settle. We went back to my place just in time to work off a bit of the food by traipsing down to the Plaza to watch the annual lighting ceremony, then went back to my house for pie.

I'm not sure what I did to deserve friends willing to go so far above the call of duty, but I am most thankful they are part of my life. ** insert happy sigh here **

In the olden days, I'd always have a project for my family to do when they came to town, but we've all gotten older, and my list of projects smaller, so after a quick game of Shuffle Janice's Furniture (I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take advantage of the many willing hands), we had time on Friday to visit one of Kansas City's landmarks, Union Station.

My hat is off to the people in charge of holiday planning there at the Station. There are a half-dozen model trains set up and running at the back of the North Hall, a small train set up for kids to ride. The overcast sky provided the perfect backdrop for the banners and lights streaming from the ceiling; the crowd was not too heavy, but heavy enough that one could lean on the rail of the second story balcony, and pretend for a moment that it was 1940, and all these people were here to meet loved ones coming in on the train. (It IS still a working train station, but few of the people there were actually there to travel.)

My clan headed back north on Saturday after breakfast; all made it home safely despite the snowstorm. I managed to fit in just a few chores, but found myself collapsing around four, happily exhausted from the gatherings.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!