Monthly Archives: December 2013

2013 in review for this blog

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Special Joy

Footprints in snow 009A Special Joy

I felt joy when I looked at my firstborn son.
We wrapped him in a blue blanket and took him home
through the Kansas snow.
I called him “Little Precious”
when a nurse brought him to me.  Greg was
the first but three other children came after him,
each bringing its own beaming joy to my young heart;
their first smiles were reasons to be glad; their first blowing of spit bubbles
from tiny puckered lips made me laugh; they could sound like cars or airplane
engines accelerating for missions like those that took their daddy half way around
the world from us. I felt joy when he returned safely to us; exhilaration beyond
explanation when he winked his way back into the graces of the wee ones who had
forgotten him in those long months.
Love is joy and joy is love.
God is love and He is in all the joy I have known, causing my heart to refresh because
of past joyful times. Complete joy comes from weaving threads of laughter onto a
background of love-patched fabric in such a way that only the brightest colors show.

© 2013, Freeda Baker Nichols

I wish the whole wide world a Merry Christmas as I post this poem on Christmas Eve,

here in the USA. I’m happily looking forward to all my children being home this Christmas.

Christmas 2012 002

A Dear Jane Email

snow #4 005Today, a snow came cold and damp and white.
It blanketed a bed of crocus blooms.
The tender blossoms bowed to winter’s blight
and yielded to its deep, ice-crusted tombs.

Falling snow drifted high near
evergreens where you
and your new girl walked
by light of a full moon.

My laptop screen revealed your “Dear Jane” note
in fonts enlarged and black upon display.
It only took a second to delete.
Today, a snow came cold and damp and white..

© 2013 Freeda Baker Nichols

Weekly Photo Challenge: One

Bluebird house for rent

A flock of bluebirds came flying in today. They were migrating and our place was a convenient stopover for them, despite the four cats that live around here. One of the male bluebirds clung to a perch on the bluebird house for a while. He looked around as though he might be considering to rent the bluebird house. Perhaps he hoped to put down a deposit that would  hold it until next spring. The other bluebirds left him sitting on the house, and after he contemplated for a while, he, too, took flight and joined his companions winging their way further south. Whether he returns in the spring is anybody’s guess, but if he returns then to build a nest in the little house, I know I shall recognize him by his gorgeous blue feathers and the sparkle in his eyes. He was calm and unhurried as he rejoined the blue flock. —© 2013,  Freeda Baker Nichols

Christmas Gift for Gran

a shop at Mt. View -1Too Late

The Christmas I was barely eight,
I found a plate
at Privitt’s Store
I wanted more
than anything to buy for Gran.
I soon began
to count my cash,
then like a flash,
I flew to get the present, when,
in walked Miss Jenn
who picked the prize
before my eyes.

© 2013 Freeda Baker Nichols

Christmas in the post-War United States