Stay warm

T.S. Eliot said April was the cruelest month, and I trust his literary genius, but holy moly January should be considered a close and terrible second.  Those 31 days just kind of stretch out like the Iditarod, don't they?

This is the bleak midwinter, but we can't even play the beautiful Christmas song by the same name because the most wonderful season has left us, and left us in tatters...

I don't know what to say about the events in Arizona, as it has been greatly on my mind--when there's tragedy you feel like everything's been said, there's nothing to add, other than your thoughts and your prayers, and those always seem woefully inadequate.  Over the years I've come to imagine that in dark days like these there's a big pile of thoughts and prayers somewhere that keeps getting bigger still and stronger and more solid, until it's an everlasting entity all its own that can really make things better in a way.  So each day of worry and anxiety I feel about the whole thing I take a moment to add one more ounce of thought to the pile.

~

I have fallen in love with my Kindle!  This definitely detracts from my literary street cred, but I don't care!  It's just so cool!

But of course I am still an avid collector of the paper book and that will never change.  Here's my stack...

And so Christmas fades away...

...but it is still just January, so we can keep lighting candles.

Cheerier post soon.