Doh, After Thanksgiving Doldrums

With the exception of one particularly wonderful year when I had my first baby , the first few days after Thanksgiving are always kind of apathetic.  I'm not depressed, no...I have way too much to be grateful for to be depressed.  I don't have the "blues".  There's no big letdown of wishing I had lots of money at the end of the month so I could fight the crowds at the malls.  Am I the only one who thinks it's a silly tradition to have a big sale the day after you've spent your last dime on yet more whipped cream? Why can't Black Friday come after the 3rd of the month?  Anyway, this attitude of mine is something more subtle, easily blamed onto laziness, too full of a tummy or general sloth.  It's the doldrums.

Having the doldrums is when a person is in a state of inactivity or stagnation.  It usually looks like a person is dull, listless and bored.  Hmmm.  That does sound depressing in a sense; but I stick to my premise that I'm not depressed....I merely Look like I might be.  Plus, doldrum-ishness is a very temporary state of being.  I'm sure that once I get all the tryptophan out of my system, catch up on at least one more heaven-sent nap, and start listening to my grandson sing Christmas songs, I'll snap right out of it.

I have the added bonus of being creative to drag me out of my corner of the sofa.  Colored pencils, markers and collage pieces are calling my name.  I think that instead of getting started on some Christmas-y project, I'll work on my pin-up girl project some more.  I am trying to draw in the fashion of the 1940's & 1950's pin-up girls....with the twist of having them be much thicker with more weight, curves and softness.  Sort of like a sexy me.   

Hey!  That's it.  I can feel my doldrums melting away like cheap milk chocolate.  No worries about presents and gift wrapping.  No thoughts about too much pumpkin pie with mounds of whipped cream.  Just sexy me and my creativity.  

I love the world inside my head!!!! 

Concealed, secret, hidden, mysterious

Today is Occult Day on the calendar.  I know, I know....you'd think it would have been on Halloween. Concealed, secret, hidden, mysterious...These are all words to describe the occult.  Here, where I live in El Paso, the Day of the Dead is celebrated as a way of respecting people we love who have passed away. But it is no longer celebrated solely on November 1 & 2 (All Saints Day & All Soul's Day).  Probably because of commercialization of the "holiday", the decorations are often seen throughout the year.
This makes me very happy because I love the liveliness of the colors, designs and topics.  Celebrating death makes much more sense to me than fearing it. After all, if I really have faith in my spiritual beliefs, then there is nothing to fear, right? Buddhist philosophy encourages meditation on death, preparing one's spirit for one's  eventual death.  My personal spiritual beliefs are eclectic and include a foundation of Catholic religion and a growing curiosity about Buddhist philosophy. So I have the Catholic faith that there is a heaven, God deciding if I've been a good person and a better place to go when I die. And I believe the Buddhist teachings that heaven and the ability to achieve residence in heaven is within me. When death has touched my life, I have seen it as more of a reason to be grateful for the time spent with the loved one, a reason to celebrate them being out of pain and on their journey finding their way to heaven.

And for fun, to join in the wonderful weirdness of celebrating death:  my drawings of Day of the Dead sugar skulls.