Bringing out the bears is something I do each year with a little fear, and a great deal of joy.

I can never wait until after Thanksgiving to start the Christmas music. It isn't always appreciated by those who are circling in and out of my living spaces. And it isn't as if I am religious anymore. I am not pushing any particular message except to support goodwill and good cheer -- and a setting aside of any pressing issues that are, in any case, beyond our control. Goodwill and good cheer I am heartily in favor of, and will continue to champion. I won't be solving global warming or war in the middle east just now.

Living for a long time is not easy. Your consciousness has to be challenged, your intellect too. Never mind the physical. Your body doesn't respond as it used to, you are slow. You sometimes get really tired. But because of these things you may be given the opportunity to sort out some things. Reflection is a big important word, and I would like to use it here, but I think sorting is really more about what I am doing these days. Not only the stuff in my life, but the stuff that has made up my life.

I am beginning to think I have left it too late. The writing life, I mean.

What if you went to Hawaii and fell down some stairs in Kauai and broke a rib just halfway into your trip?

'If we sip the wine, we find dreams coming upon us out of the imminent night'  D.H. Lawrence

When Kate returned to the table, she found Cliff deep in thought over his drink. 'Penny,' she said.

'Penny?'

Something my kids used to say -- short for "penny for your thoughts.'"

'Ah. I don't think they're even worth a penny, frankly.  You okay?  You were gone quite awhile.'

'I was watching the tropical fish.  They don't look happy, to me.'

'Alas, she who cannot see the bars of her own cage will find it difficult beyond measure to escape.'  anonymous

It is in the details, the minutiae, that we discover and begin to understand another's life. So much meaning in such tiny things.  Purse dust, I call it.

The daily mull generally deals in questions which do not have final, simple, definitive answers.

This time is almost an exception.

Some time ago, I posted a little essay on Grabel's Law (you can find it here) :

"Two is not equal to three, even for very large values of two."

My adult son recently gifted me with a pocket knife.

I hadn't carried one since I was a boy, and it took me back to my first knife, and the very first thing I learned to carve: a simple whistle.

You start with a small branch, cut off a section, notch it, slide off part of the bark, carve out a hollow and a flat spot for your breath to go through, replace the bark, and if all goes well it makes a very pleasing sound.

Of course, you have to know what you are doing, and you have to actually do it.

That's the difference between a whistle and a piece of a branch.