December - from the 'Year at Robie Creek' series

Originally published in the:

The inexorable march of time continues and this year is nearly at an end. It’s been a good one in Robie Creek, and amongst Owl Creekers as well, we trust.

Roxanne talked at times in her articles about the turning seasons and the part they have played and continue to play in celebrations throughout known civilizations. I don’t share her depth of knowledge on the subject [check out her articles in the OCG for a closer look], but as for most people, for us November’s been a time of counting our blessings and December is time to divvy them up and redistribute the excess, the origins of the traditions that have become among other holidays Thanksgiving in the northern ⅔^rds of  North America and Christmas in much or most of the world.

These are the traditions in which I was raised and through which I remain comfortable epitomizing these parts of the seasonal cycle. Others may choose to apply different names, traditions, and customs but I believe that the spirit behind each of them acknowledges the same respective segments of the natural order: Harvest and subsequent bounty, and practical utilization.

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Crops have been sown, grown, and reaped, and after the cleaning and canning and jerking and drying are done there’s still some fresh meat and produce with which to put together a feast not often possible due to constraints of time and resources. The bounty of the feast reminds those attending that there’s much to be thankful for and that the unending labor involved in getting to that point was all worth it. It’s the freshest food available, a good wallop of vitamins and minerals for the system just before winter sets in when sunshine and food resources will be limited and metabolisms will slow with the drop in temperatures for any who live where temp differences are significant enough between seasons to affect the body’s responses.

Once the feast day has passed, we take stock of what we have, what we need of that, and what we can pass along to others who might’ve grown different crops or husbanded different livestock and may not have what we have. The most efficient way to distribute these resources is to get a group together and make exchanges. At some point we decide, why not formalize it? Why not make it a thing we celebrate and even ritualize? In the short term it’s just easier to coordinate if everyone knows it’s going to happen at a mutually-agreed-upon time and place each winter season, and in the long term it becomes something no one remembers ever having done differently.

Meanings are assigned, people are associated, stories are told and passed down, origins are lost and rediscovered, and really all it comes down to is, the work of preparing and planting and tending and harvesting and preserving and sorting are over, and we have a minute to enjoy what we’ve brought into being or taken the time to procure.

Fast-forward a couple millennia and things have changed a bit, but they’ve changed in ways that suit the times in which we live, the resources we now have that we didn’t then (and the ones we don’t that we did), and the lifestyles we’ve adopted both to our benefit and our detriment. The spirit of the holidays of this season have been preserved through the various stories and people and assigned meanings attached. It’s appropriate that our holy days should evolve as we do, that we should remember whatever it is that reminds us of whatever the season means to us, which probably in essence comes down to a celebration of what we’re blessed with and our ability to share what we’re able, a blessing in and of itself.

The best thing we can all hope for in the fundamental spirit of this season is that we can enjoy one another’s company, regardless of and hopefully even thanks to the variety of shapes our personalities and beliefs may take, and to be edified in sharing with one another the gifts with which any given one of us happen to be endowed, first and foremost being that of being whomever we happen to be.

We are human. We are perfect in our imperfection. We are each different from every other one, and yet in essence the same. If we knew it all, could do it all, had it all, what would be left to discover? What would be the point of other humans? But we don’t. We know what we know, we do what we do, we have what we have, and someone else out there is looking for exactly what we can offer them in whatever respect we can give it. Someone else has exactly what it is we’re looking for to help round out our ability to get outside the boundaries of our individual selves. Together we can conceive, plan, and build exponentially greater things than any one of us alone. Christmas, or whatever one’s celebration of the season of distributing excess bounty, reminds us that the most valuable thing we ever have to offer is who we are.

It’s been excellent sharing Robie Creek with you this year. In the spirit of the holiday season, let me say that I’m thankful to live in this time of so much promise, and I hope the gifts I bear in the season of giving are of use to whoever accepts them. By the time you read this we’ll have had our traditional Thanksgiving pizza (there are sentimental reasons behind that one *grin*), Dude, Sr. and I will be looking forward to hiding presents from Dude, Jr., and we’ll all be looking forward to decorating our trees before the big morning. On December 31^st we’ll take a drive over to Vale, Oregon to enjoy their annual New Year’s Eve fireworks, and we’ll stay there for the New Year celebration after which we’ll start it all over again for another hopefully equally- or even-more-excellent year.

May 2015 bring you all blessings beyond measure. One more time, from Robie Creek to Owl Creek, take care, be safe, have fun!

With much love,

Peace & the Dudes Jaway

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