Sharing a cute word-art image with a list of New Year’s resolutions. As for the one that calls for wearing more lingerie, I bought a pack of ordinary cotton panties this week. A little more creativity in that regard probably wouldn’t go amiss. It fits well with the cheerful tone of the other resolutions, anyway.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
If I had been inclined to assess my performance on last year’s resolution to Allow What Is, then I would have noted both setbacks and improvements. Not judging myself was part of that resolution, however, so this post won’t get into what I did or how it might have gone better. I’ll just say that I arrived in December feeling calmer than last winter, and leave it at that.
The word “Permission” came to mind several weeks ago as an intention for 2026. Going beyond avoiding self-judgment, it’s about simply giving myself permission to be. Whatever plans and schedules I may have, they’re not going to collapse into an unmanageable mess if I am not ruminating about them.
What often happens, as when I found a replacement for my art display, is that when I can quiet my mind and set aside the to-dos, there’s enough space for new solutions to appear. I’ve found and uploaded a few Creative Commons images for the display, and I plan to use this one tomorrow as a reminder that life should be like a tree, growing naturally without need for wasted effort:
(Photo credit: Christopher John)
Although I changed the image on my previous art display every morning, it never felt like a daily chore. Rather, I welcomed the opportunity to give myself another view from the imaginary window each day, and I plan to do so again with the new display. I expect there must be something in all my daily routines that can inspire gratitude as well—or if not, there are ways to improve them.
I still take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off from work, as does my husband, even though our kids are long since grown and we don’t do much of anything for the holidays. Not doing much is what I like about this week now; it’s a peaceful, uninterrupted time to let the pace of life quietly wind down, while reflecting on what has gone well in the past year and what there is to be glad about as another year begins.
(Image credit: The Graphics Fairy)
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
My first digital art display, from the now-defunct company Electric Objects, turned into a brick when the online library was shut down in 2023. I’d been changing the image almost every morning to give myself imaginary windows into new places, many of which gave me ideas for blog posts and stories. Without my daily picture to spark fresh thoughts, I felt that I’d lost some of my creative energy.
I thought there had to be something out there with similar features, but Google searches didn’t turn up anything quite right. I’d been busy with overtime work as my employer focused more on AI, my husband was busy too, and our rowing exercises and long road trips to regattas didn’t seem to leave much time to research available products. Replacing the art display ended up on the get-around-to-it-sometime list.
It wasn’t until the day after Christmas, when I’d had enough quiet time to free up a few brain cells, that I realized I could simply use AI to find a new digital art display with the features I wanted. I had to edit my prompt a few times, but Copilot soon located the Meural Canvas II by Netgear, which has what I was looking for—an online library, upload capability, and an app to change the picture whenever I want.
I cropped one of the images my daughter sent from Auckland, with her dog and the Christmas tree in her apartment, and I displayed it this morning. Then I sent her a photo showing the picture on the wall, to give her some holiday cheer when she’s so far from home.
It cheered me up, too, on a dark midwinter morning when there was so little sunlight that everything around the image looked gray. (That wall is actually white.) I’d turned on a daylight lamp on the end table beside the couch, but it didn’t do much to relieve the gloom by itself. Having a new art display with a cheerful image reminding me of close family bonds did much more.
This is the 17th story in a series. Click here to read all parts from the beginning.
The drawer underneath Ira’s bed stank of weird herbs that might’ve been something like mothballs, keeping bugs out of the furs that he usually stored in there. Or maybe just keeping bugs out of his bed, who knew. It wasn’t as if I’d had time to ask. The marauders already were pounding on the cabin’s front door.
I wasn’t in total darkness. Some light seeped in through a small knothole and reflected from the shiny surface of my fire suit. Ira had thrown the suit in here, removing evidence he’d had a visitor, before shutting me into the drawer. The angle of the knothole didn’t give me any view out, so it just looked creepy, as if some alien creature inside the drawer had turned to stare at me.
(Creative Commons image via flickr)
The front door creaked, swinging open.
“Welcome, friends! Come in and drink with me!” Ira raised his voice louder than normal, slurring his words. He hiccoughed twice before adding, “It’s always much better to drink with friends than alone!”
If I hadn’t known he was sober, Ira would’ve fooled me for sure. One of the marauders muttered something that I couldn’t quite hear under Ira’s gabbing. Heavy footsteps told me at least three intruders had entered, maybe four.
“Strong cider for all! I have a barrel here, the best.” Mugs clanked, and the tap on the barrel burbled. Ira went on to say, even more cheerfully, “Everything I have is yours!”
That last sentence got the chuckles one might expect from a gang of robbers finding a clueless victim. Before they’d finished laughing, however, Ira’s voice dropped smoothly into a cadence I recognized from the night I’d arrived in his cabin.
“Strong bonds of friendship, never broken; life’s threads enduring, tightly woven. The gifts we bring, the food we share—they all come back with more to spare.”
After a moment of silence, in which I imagined the marauders looking confused, Ira plonked the full mugs down on the table. “That was a little blessing my mother liked to say before meals. She worshiped the forest god, who brings luck to the hunt. Let us all share hunting stories, along with tasty baked fish! Each of the furs on my floor has a story.”
Plates rattled as Ira continued, in an apologetic tone, “I don’t have enough chairs for all of us, but some boxes will do.”
The marauders seemed unaware that he’d put a spell on them. I heard boxes being dragged heavily across the floor, toward the table. Nobody was yelling about sorcery or doing anything violent. As far as I could tell, the entire gang had been pacified into unnatural serenity, much as I’d been when Ira used his friendship spell on me.
“Have you ever slain an ice serpent?” Full plates thumped down on the table as Ira launched into his first tall tale. “The creek near here is full of them. Ice serpents don’t make good eating, but their pale skin is excellent for lantern covers, and the meat can be used to bait traps for other beasts. I’ve hunted them many times. When I caught the fish you’re eating now, the water looked perfectly still right up until the moment when, all at once, it erupted into huge spiky tentacles reaching higher than my head…”
I figured Ira was making up every word as he went along. His audience greatly enjoyed the show, exclaiming at the unlikely details and banging their mugs on the table for more. Ira obligingly went to refill drinks so many times that I lost count.
By now, I would’ve been totally sweltering in the long fur coat I’d had no time to take off, except that my feet were still wet and freezing in soaked shoes after tromping through slush. The mothballs, or whatever they were, reeked so strongly that I couldn’t even smell the fish dinner I was missing. As the afternoon dragged on, the light around the knothole slowly faded.
At least I was still alive, though.
Early this afternoon, my husband and I enjoyed a video call with our daughter after she got home from working the night shift on Christmas; it was already morning on the 26th in Auckland. Regardless of the time and season differences, it was merry. Not quite like being together—but almost.
Wishing a wonderful holiday season to everyone reading this post, too!
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
This photo from Auckland is way too cute to keep it to myself:
Remi the Artist Dog, merrily enjoying Christmas in the summer.
I had a rather hectic day, with a new furnace being installed. The weather was unusually warm for December, so the house didn’t cool off much. Now it’s raining, the wind is gusting, and the temperature is dropping fast. But everything is good inside my comfortable house, and I am going to relax and just enjoy the rest of a quiet evening.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
I recently asked my daughter what people do in New Zealand to celebrate Christmas, as it’s in the summer there and many of the winter-themed carols and activities wouldn’t be a good fit. She replied that she hadn’t heard many carols, and then she sent a photo of a “Santa” community walk and run.
Although I would imagine that wearing a Santa suit while running in the heat of a summer day might get uncomfortable, my daughter said that she walked with her dog—slowly, as the dog is older and has short little legs. Auckland has a maritime climate and doesn’t get as hot as many areas of the United States, so walking would have been fine. I would have liked to see it in person!
We had a contractor out today to estimate a replacement for our furnace, which is the original one from when the house was built in 2002. Working from home makes such appointments much easier, as there’s no need to take time away from an office.
Sometimes I wonder, though, if the house feels a bit dull to me because it functions so much as a workspace. I try to brighten things up regularly with new decorative items, such as mini pumpkins in my kitchen in October and a poinsettia over the holidays. I probably would do better to spend time creating craft items, rather than just buying decorations, so as to put a little of my own magic into the house.
Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to encourage self-nurturing and to “give the planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.”
