Serenity Sunday...week 78

CHRIS: Morning Cicely. 8:00 A.M. muchachos. Time to finish those flapjacks, knock back that second cup of joe, get ready to greet the day. Temperature's creeping towards double digits as the solar drought continues--23 days, an average of an hour and a half of sunlight every day. No relief on the horizon. Which only makes sense cause there is no horizon. Our friends at the weather service are calling for another storm and as we know, they've been batting a thousand lately. Hey, let's check our social calendar. Nothing. Total blank. It's cabin fever season people, that time of year when four walls feel like they're going to come in here and choke the spirit right out of you. Time to lock away those firearms and hang tough. No way through it except to do it.

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I hope you enjoyed another glimpse of the wisdom that the character 'Chris' shared with us on the TV show Northern Exposure. As always, the writers hit the nail on the head. Somehow, this show always comes to mind in the winter here in central New York...it must be all the snow....

HAPPY NEW YEAR! This time of year, there is so much to look forward to and so much to let go of. It's time to reevaluate your priorities, chart new goals and look at the long-run. Take a look at your relationships...improve what needs to be improved. Take a look at yourself...figure out what makes 'you' tick and expand the qualities you feel are your best and improve what needs work. We are all a work in progress and what better time of year to become the new and improved version of yourself, than the new year? I don't look at it as a 'resolution' per say...just a new goal...

**Tami

Serenity Sunday...week 77

(From my favorite quote garden: Northern Exposure)

CHRIS STEVENS: Season's Greetings, everybody, from KBHR, the heart and soul of Cicely, Alaska. This is Chris In The Morning. From where I'm sitting, I've got a great view of all the yuletide decorations going up all over town. That's right, everywhere I turn my head I see ebony birds roosting for the holidays. You know, twinkling colored lights are nice, and so are plastic Santas and reindeers and manger scenes, but I'll tell you something, friends... nothing like the sight of beautiful black-as-pitch raven to get you in the Christmas spirit.

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These past 2 weeks have been a winter wonderland around here. We have set and broken more snowfall records than I care to remember. Driving has been iffy at best, most mornings, but in our usual Central NY way, we find a way around the weather, get to work and make our way to the destination that we had planned. Not much holds us down here...the plow drivers work 'round the clock to make sure that we are safe and the roads are clear.

Rarely do we have a whole city shut-down. The schools may close for a day, cancel after school activites or delay the start of the day...but we get through it and are better for it. Yes, we get several feet of snow...it gets cold and we sometimes curse the winter, but rarely does it come with devastation or destruction. We don't have to rebuild or restructure our lives because of it. We can plow it, shovel it or wait for it to melt. It does not own us, we own it...winter...it's only a season, it lasts a couple of months and then it's gone for another year.

Enjoy your winter...whatever it may be... Tami

Serenity Sunday...week 75

Another great quote from one of my favorite TV shows "Northern Exposure". This is from Chris, the radio DJ/Philosopher character regarding the first snowfall of the season.

Chris: Oh the snow the beautiful snow filling the sky and earth below. Over the house tops and over the streets, over the heads of people you meet. Dancing flirting skimming along. Oh the snow the beautiful snow how the flakes gather and laugh as they go. Whirling about in their maddening fun it plays in its glee with everyone. Chasing laughing hurrying by it lights on the face and sparkles the eye. And even the dogs with a bark and a bound snap at the crystals that eddy around. The town is alive and its heart in a glow to welcome the coming of beautiful snow. Bon Hiver Cicely.

***This weekend marks the first real measurable snowfall in the Syracuse area, especially in my town, Jamesville. This photo was taken last December and has been untouched. It looks like a black & white photo that has been enhanced to show the red, white and blue of the flag, but honestly folks, it is exactly as I took it. It looks like that a lot around here all winter. Just black and white or shades of it. You get used to it...it's really kind of pretty.

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Last night was the 'Light Up Jamesville' celebration here in town. It's the night that the town tree is lit and Santa comes to town. All the shops stay open until 8pm and the Christmas carolers wander through town and make sure they stop at every shop and gathering of people. It's really quite nice. I was at the shop, working. Lots of new faces and some that we know, stopped in for a little hot mulled cider and a peek at the Christmas decorations. It was fun, I never miss it. Other than our first night of the 'Open House' at the shop, it's my favorite time to work.

Enjoy your Serenity Sunday! and keep Christmas in your heart.....

Serenity Sunday...week 62

(Image from squidoo.com)

Rain usually makes me feel mellow: curl up in a corner time, slow down, smell the furniture. Today... it just makes me feel wet. What is it about owning things? Why do we feel the need to own what we love, and why do we become such jerks when we do? We've all been there, you know: we want something; we own it; and by owning it we change it. When you finally win that girl of your dreams, the first thing you do is try to change her. That little thing she does with her hair, the way she wears her clothes, the way she chews her gum. Until eventually, what you like, what you don't like and what you change all merges into one.
Like a watercolor in the rain.

Chris Stevens on rain, relationships and changes from the TV show "Northern Exposure"

Serenity Sunday...week 38

"The path to our destination is not always a straight one, Ed. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn't matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark."

- Leonard to Ed, Northern Exposure

I don't know what it is, maybe just that it's WINTER, but the TV show 'Northern Exposure' keeps popping into my head for my Serenity Sunday series. I always loved the show and one of my favorite characters was Chris, the "Philosopher, radio show host". I always found his message to the good people of Cicely, Alaska, relevant and insightful. His monologue on his radio show always made me think...and isn't that what it's supposed to do? Make us think about those things that motivate us. Those things that move us into action, or make us stop and think about what's going on around us. I realize that this quote, itself, isn't from Chris, but it is one of those quotes that makes you think....

Serenity Sunday...week 36

...from KBHR, the heart and soul of Cicely, Alaska. This is Chris In The Morning...

Time for the weather report. It's cold out folks. Bonecrushing cold. The kind of cold which will wrench the spirit out of a young man, or forge it into steel.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider,

Northern Exposure, Episode: Lost and Found, 1992

***and so it goes folks...IT IS COLD OUTSIDE...-5* as I write this...it will go up as the day goes on, but only to about 21* today (windchill will make it feel only half of that). We look forward to a little sunshine amidst that snowflurries...only a few flurries...they say...*** Tami......reporting from Syracuse (Jamesville), NY