The diamond-frosted clasp
Outside the window of Jeff’s hallway at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Bethesda. Maryland, December 9, 2013
“December, the diamond-frosted clasp linking twelve jeweled months to yet another year.” — Phyllis Nicholson
While most of us associate December with the holiday festivities, there is also the winding down of the calendar year, and a sense of wonder about how fast the months flew by, whether we were having fun or not.
I can say without reservation that I am looking forward to the next twelve months with far more hope and anticipation than I felt at this time last year. Still, I’m never unaware that we cannot know what will lie ahead of us in 2014. For all who visit here, those I have known for years, those I have come to know through your comments and visits, and those I don’t yet know about, I wish for you a year of jeweled months and sparkling moments. Thanks for sharing our lives since November 2012. You have made these months much brighter for me.
One year ago today
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
Defeat Despair 
Good morning, Julia!
What a delightful metaphor – a diamond-frosted clasp! That suits my feelings about December very nicely. Cold and hard as diamond, but decorative, and I like the transition of a “clasp” much better than some ways of looking at the New Year, where we seem to either throw away the old year and embrace the coming year or cling to the old year in fear of an uncertain future. The diamond-frosted clasp keeps the old and new together and suggests (in my mind) a balance.
Do you remember that childhood song (I think it belonged to the girl scouts?) that went:
Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
And the other, gold.
A diamond-frosted clasp kind of reminds me of that.
Love to you, my friend! I hope that the alchemy of time continues to enrich our relatively silver friendship!
Hi Susan, great observation about the clasp. It’s especially relevant in our throw-everything-away society. And yes, I do remember that song about friends, which I first learned not in Girl Scouts, but from my “other Mama” Betty Jo about whom I’ve written a few times here. I have sung that song often to myself, and I think it’s so true. Although I must add that the years have surprised me in this regard, as some friends to whom I thought I would always be close have faded gradually away from my life. I suppose even the purity of gold itself is revealed over long years. But the memories of our former close ties remain, and those do remain sweet.
I do remember you speaking of Betty Jo.
These are good metaphors related to relationships, I think. In the blog you linked, you described what seems to define our character on some level: “This blending of time and joy and sorrow creates a powerful alloy.”
Dad, a chemist, taught me what an “alloy” is, so the purity of gold that you mention seems to me to be perhaps related to that blending. I think it explains to some extent why I’m drawn to people with rich life experiences.
Probably so. But on the other hand, don’t you think that everyone has rich life experiences? I think everyone does. Even those who stay in one place their entire lives will experience pretty much the whole range of emotions in one way or another. The difference may be whether the person is actually aware of it or not. I think some people are definitely more plugged to the wonder of it all.
I agree that some people are more “plugged in!” 😀
Have you read _Man’s Search for Meaning_ by Viktor Frankl? His theory that suffering (probably any emotion, I’d think) expands to fill the space available to it has always stuck with me.
I have been intending to read Viktor Frankl ever since I quoted him here, and especially since I blogged that quote about him from Donald Miller. But as with so many other good intentions, I haven’t yet done it. He just moved up my list a good ways based on what you say here. 😀