back to life

These photos above were taken at my grandmother's house this past weekend.  Every year that goes past, I feel eternally grateful for another holiday with my family.  In my grandmother's house, I still can put a foot back into my childhood, be in the same rooms and see the same faces I have fondly gazed upon for as far back as my memory goes. Yet, terribly, I know that this particular door to the past will close shut to me at some unknown time in the future. 

Right now it is not the decorations or special rituals that make my Christmas, but seeing the familiar everyday tools and knick knackery of life lived by people precious to me.  How much for granted we take one the presence of one another, assume that this moment, these people, are eternal. 

It's a delusion, of course.  Time and change march on regardless of our awareness of their powers.  But it is only through the comfort of the usual, known, and unconditional acceptance that allows us to slip into this fantasy of timelessness.  To believe that others will be there with us forever.  Or that we will be always be there for them.

Happy new year.  May it be an ordinary year, filled with comfortable routines and the same wonderful faces.