January's Plain Face

Almost all the Christmas sparkle has departed our cozy home. A holiday gift bag huddles in my closet, a shelter for orphaned decorations, end-of-December clearance finds, and left-behind, empty treat tins.

January is a month of cleared countertops and abundant floor space, just-the-basics grocery lists and pristine planner pages. We have room to breathe. How has your month been so far? I hope you’re savoring the plain face of January after the pagentry of Christmas. Somehow it seems appropriate.

A winter storm is sweeping our way tomorrow, a two-day event of ice and snow, also completely appropriate for a Kentucky January. Some might hint that I called the snow upon us by hanging paper snowflakes in random corners, but we all know who sends the snow.

Create your own indoor snowstorm, no matter where you live, with simple printer paper and a sharp pair of scissors. I freehand mine, but patterns are available online if you’re more of a template kind of creative. Chunky white glitter gives them subtle sparkle, and descriptions of snow snipped from old dictionaries lend word whimsy. Suspended with fishing line or taped to a wall, they bring a touch of wonder to a simple January homeplace.

We walked through a homegoing this month, right at the start of January. If you know anything about dementia, you’ll understand when I say my mother-in-law has been walking toward her eternal home for a year now, slow and steady, but sure in her pace, taking all of us along for the stroll. She’d long forgotten the Kentucky homeplace she created here, where we were welcomed as often and as deeply as we wished. But not one of us will forget. Those homeplace memories will linger long, inspiring and comforting our hearts.

Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to hear about in these newsletters. Let’s keep one another company on a journey toward HOME.