Challah and honey, sweet figs and apple, hopes for the new year…
Early this summer, I told myself that I would watch for the last firefly of the season.
About three weeks ago, I think I saw my last firefly, before the middle of August. But you know? I did not mark the event. At the time, I did not know it was the last one I’d look at; there certainly were others, but I didn’t see them. Since then bits of my life have intervened.
Last year, our daughter came to visit us during Rosh Hashanah. She walked in a park near the river with her Grampa and her Dad. A beautiful day, and I think the last walk with the three together.
There were other walks with J. my dad, and that ‘walking stick.’ It’s still on our front porch… But he is now a different diminished person.
Early this summer, I told myself that I would watch for the last firefly of the season.
About three weeks ago, I think I saw my last firefly, before the middle of August. But you know? I did not mark the event. At the time, I did not know it was the last one I’d look at; there certainly were others, but I didn’t see them. Since then bits of my life have intervened.
Last year, our daughter came to visit us during Rosh Hashanah. She walked in a park near the river with her Grampa and her Dad. A beautiful day, and I think the last walk with the three together.
There were other walks with J. my dad, and that ‘walking stick.’ It’s still on our front porch… But he is now a different diminished person.
These last few weeks have been the most stressful of all the weeks of this past year. So many changes. We have been looking at health money career home future …
We tried a different recipe for honey cake this year. J. followed the recipe (pretty well) and the cake was lighter than the Joan Nathan cake I’ve made for three decades, but I really like our usual honey cake recipe.
I made another favorite, sure to please anyone who likes Japanese curry; it’s mild and sweet and satisfying: Masala Chicken (Chicken in Coconut Sauce) from a community of Jews in India whose ancestors were part of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, shipwrecked off the coast of India in King Solomon’s time.
It’s a great dish for a party or potluck too!
Tess's Japanese Kitchen 
Shana tova to you and yours, Tess.
I’m most awfully sorry for the stress in your life and hope things improve in the coming year.
Good wishes for happiness, prosperity, good health, and a sweet new year.
Marcia
Marcia,
I know you have more stress and details than I do, so allow me to double the sweet wishes right back to you! You are so wonderful about making the best of things!
This season, autumn and a new year, is reminding me of A Good Man is Hard to Find (Flannery O’Connor).
Odd to think of it. But treasure and give love as though you are about to die. As though it is the last time.
Thank you for the sweet wishes and kind words, Tess. So true that we should treasure and give love as though it is the last time. One never knows.
Flannery O’Conner used to be a great favorite but I’ve not read her for years. Thank you for the reminder.
Have you read The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O’Conner? It’s very fine and gives much insight into her writing as well as her illness. Gone at 39…it makes one think.
I haven’t read anything of hers for many years. I spent several years reading her work a lot, over and over. My mother-in-law gave me a beautiful edition of her stories; I was nervous to read it because it was so nice. It might have been “The Complete Stories?” Unfortunately, I can’t find it now, nor any of the paperbacks either.
I’ll check the library. She has just come to mind lately, and it seems a good idea to follow my feeling…
May the New Year bring you a beautiful new house, and peace. I know that you will look back soon, and be thankful that your house-hunting dreams came true.
(I’ve never seen a fire-fly). How magical.
Oh nights of fireflies!
Could they be more rare than snow?
Michigan summers…
Michigan magical?
Familiar things have no surprises, until someone points them out.