I've had just enough time to... enjoy a quiet Christmas
Taken in the park on Christmas day
This Christmas, I decided to do something different.
Under a cool, overcast sky; I took a walk in the park and have it all to
myself. Everyone is out there somewhere celebrating Christmas or visiting
friends or be just at home with their family. I took a long, slow walk playing
out the year that had gone before and relived that long journey as I walked, alone
with my thoughts. I liked doing that sometimes. Long walk in lonely places and
nothing was lonelier than the park today.
I chose a bench to sit down and savour a different feel
to this Christmas. Surrounded by trees and the songs of birds, there was not a
Christmas tree or blinking lights in sight nor any replays of Christmas songs. But
I could not get away that easily. Among the greens, white Christmas rose to the
surface and I could not get rid of it. So I might as well change a few words
and sing a few lines.
I’m reflecting on a quiet Christmas
Not like any I used to know
Where the dewdrops glisten and I listen
To the birds singing in the trees
I’m reflecting on this quiet Christmas
With every Christmas wish I made
‘May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be divine’
A couple having their marriage photos in the park
I thought about the miracle this Christmas. A friend had
a stroke and internal bleeding in his brain. A young man with an unemployed
wife and a young child. What will become of them? The doctor told the wife to
take him home and ‘get ready’. Within days, he is out from bed and moving
around apparently on the way to full recovery. We are hopeful and fearful at
the same time but each day is a blessing and a miracle.
After enough reflection and recharging of my soul, I went
home to take a bath but decided to go back and took a shot to share my quiet
Christmas on a day when I do nothing and yet felt strangely fulfilled. The bench
I sat on was now taken up by a young couple with cans of coke, snacks and a
portable radio. The scene I wanted to shoot was now taken by a couple taking
their marriage photos in the park. I smiled at the change of the situation
though it denied me my shot. So I went to another part of the park to take a
different shot which is the one you saw. On the way back to the car, I saw the marriage
couple going up the stone bridge and shot them. I was so engrossed in what I did
that I did not take note where I was standing and a large weaver ant crawled up
my leg and bit my upper thigh. With an instinctive flick of my hand, I sent it
to Ant’s heaven.
It was just an ordinary day in the park. It was also
Christmas. Nothing happened yet a lot of things did. Even in reflecting, we
should not overdo it. So I walked back, satisfied with how I spent my quiet
Christmas. “Merry Christmas and May All Your Christmases Be As Nice.”
_______
