a birthday greeting.

Merry Christmas! We woke up to shivering teenagers...one who got in the hot middle and the other who went for a run down the Strand to the Manhattan Beach Pier. Onward to breakfast overlooking the surf which was quite active with bright blue cloudless skies. There were joggers and dogs, bike riders and families walking in front of our coffee drinking. Surfers coming in from their Christmas surf, shaking their heads, washing their feet, spitting out the salt water. All in all another day on the Strand in Hermosa Beach. Only difference was that the headgear favored red and white and more terrifying, the awful Santa hat that many find are either attractive or funny. You probably gathered, I do not think they are either.

Gloria came and got the teenagers and took them with her to the barn to greet and groom her horse, Justin. We will meet up with them a bit later, dragging our sandwiches and cookies with us. We grabbed our sweaters and went for a walk down to Manhattan beach--taking in the plants, beach, and the 15 Million Dollar houses on the market. Imagine. And one sign posted noted that rental of a Strand apartment was over $5,000 a month. The roses were glorious as were the lemons, the succulents, the thick bushes of rosemary and foxglove. But for that sum of money....I would consider living somewhere else. Five grand a month is a mortgage in our neighborhood. And, to take this further, what does one do to pay that sort of rent? Work for the post office?

We were caught in the rain coming back so we are a bit damp and cool from the spa weather (as R calls the misty rain, with the breeze) --I will need to go dry off.

Have a happy day with friends, family and pets if you can. If they are all somewhere else, make yourself a cozy cup of tea and do something for yourself...read a trashy book, draw a picture that has been lurking in the back of your brain, play music very loud and sing, go for a sleigh ride, or bike, or call someone you love to talk to and chat. With this symbolic birth, or in the context of the solstice, with this change in the dark becoming light have hope--a lightened heart, that change is good, and the change to come is something to embrace whether it be in your life, in your thinking or in the world in general.

Blessings.