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DECEMBER!!!!

December 16th, 2011

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

(That’s the December full moon over Ojai’s Topa Topa Mountains.)

“On the Twelfth Day of Christmas…Fa La La”…

I am writing this to you as I wing my way back from East to West, having just wung West to East to sing at the wedding of two of my dear pals , Rosita and Beth, at Carnegie Hall. What a place for a wedding reception! More tuxedos and elegant gownage per square inch and happy faces than you can shake a peppermint stick at. It was a supreme happiness for more than one reason. They adore each other AND are now legal as well as emotional mates.

I don’t believe I had truly appreciated the importance of allowing EVERYONE to have the basic rights of matrimony until I was there listening to the speeches and seeing the joyous determination on the faces of everyone involved. Tidings of great joy!

AND we saw the astounding performance of CHERRY ORCHARD, starring John Turturro and Diane Wiest and my own dear pal from long ago, Danny Davis. At LAST I understand Chekov! I have studied, even done scenes from…but now at last I understand.

I think I am about wung out. Just five days ago I returned from the annual journey to the far side of the world, to New Zealand, where, to misquote MS. Joanie Mitchell…

”It’s coming on Summer,
They’re blooming up trees”

Thanksgiving while the birds are mating in the Pohutakawa trees…always a tad surreal and always lovely. And this time, bittersweet. My dear pal Intan lost her battle with cancer just three days after I got there. But luckily for me, I was able to hang with her a few times, sing her some songs, we made each other laugh hugely, and on December 1st I jumped into the BRISK Pacific ocean on the first day of NZ summer with her husband and we swam…FAST!… In honor of her swim to the greater mysterious sea that surrounds us all.

It was not all sorrow! There were feasts ( Kiwis don’t do TURKEY, so there was lamb for Thanksgiving, plus MUCH good wine.)There was fishing, and there were lobsters! Our new friends Erwin and Vincent drove their boat up onto our beach

And then led us out into the bay to find the SECRET SPOT. Success!!!

We found Godzilla here in our friend Erwin’s lobster trap and he presented it to us as future dinner. We were honored and terrified. After tiptoeing around the washtub it was housed in all afternoon, we made a pact ( don’t tell Erwin!). We figured it was old enough to be respected, not devoured, and we hauled it in the tub down our beach to the kelp beds and flung it, flapping and snapping, back into the sea. So another creature had something to be thankful for too.

And we discovered the most beautiful beach in the world. Spirits Bay, where the Maori’s say all souls depart for the next adventure.

Then we flew home for 48 hours, threw the flip flops into the closet and hauled out the tuxedo and panty hose, and headed for NYC!

I think TODAY my soul has finally returned to my body as I contemplate with joy my favorite holiday season.

The other really exciting news for the end of this most amazing year is that I may well be facing the world of poetry publishing in 2012! I will tell you more as I know it.

And so, dear pals, as we wend our way to the shortest day of the year, and the ending and beginning of what will follow, please know I send hugs and prayers your way for joy, for health, for good work and lots of it, and dear friends at your door.

So pop corks