Twelfth Night, 6 January and the Lights Dim
Posted: Monday, January 04, 2010
by Patricia Barbee
http://www.patriciabarbee.com
Growing up multi-racial, multi-ethnic and with multi-religions in the family can be fun for a little kid.
Chanukah, one gift a day for eight days was fun. I loved the gold foil on the "gelt" more than the chocolate inside.
For Christmas, I had a choice, "Write three things on a piece of paper and you'll get one".
On the Christian side, no decorations could be set until after the first Mass of the last Advent Sunday was said. The Christmas decorations were not to be removed until Epihipany.
Depending upon my grades, I'd get something super special. The best ever was a purple,
my favorite color, watch with lots of gold on the case, the dial, the hands. Oh, how I loved that
watch.
That summer I went to the community center, a uniformed senior citizen was the unarmed guard. He was more a receptionist than anything else. I knew I was going to get into some rough play in the gym, so I placed the watch in front of him and asked him to take care of it for me. He nodded.
Later I came to retrieve my watch......... "What watch"? I was chastised for wearing such good stuff to the center by the center directors.
Never again did I get any gift on the Twelfth Day of Christmas. A BIG lesson learned the hard way.
Magi, Magi, Magi, where are you, gentlemen? The Babe grew up and lived His life to return again as I've been taught.
As the day approaches, I'd be very happy with the gold. I have the frankincense in the form of a
sticks.
I'll never need myrrh. Morturary science is so difference today and I do believe I've more living to do.
The best thing about Twelfth Night before Katrina, my pals in New Orleans would have the first party leading up to Mardi Gras.
Whether or not we like it, all things must pass. My pals are no longer in New Orleans and have set their lives in different parts of the country. To really enjoy the Mardi Gras was to "go native" with the pals. The best parties were house parties. The home cooking was all so great, it was easy to over eat in the "Big Easy". A great bonus with the pals of "NOLA" as they called it, no hotel expense.
To all my "Naw-leans" pals scattered, I'll toast you after sunset on 6 January, just after I remove the wreath from my front door.
I'll toast myself for puting the decorations away including my glass Christmas tree, now filled with Hershey Kisses. The Kisses will be found in the refrigerator The glass tree will return to it's safe place until December. The rest of the decorations can fit into a two gallon zip bag.
Celebrate whatever 6 January means to you. Life is to short to miss a chance to laugh, cheer, and toast the ones missing and I'll say a Prayer for the one expected to arrive on 13 April. That day would have been the birthday of my God-sister who Transitioned on 21 September 2009.
She was Blessed to call everyone the last Saturday in June and say, "I love you and good-bye because I've just learned I've pancreatic cancer and am going fast."
I'll toast her too. She blessed me with her call.
Patricia Barbee (c) 2010
.
Patricia Barbee
SearchWarp.com
Author!
This Article has been viewed 372 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.