Thoughts at Christmas 2012

Christmas Wreath at Union Station, Washington, D.C.
on a recent evening.



Midwinter in the Palm House

Outside, it is snowing; a lone robin grubs
for millet seeds on the cement path.
Inside, it's steamy, banana plant fronds
stretch to the roof, platforms for monkeys.

Water blinks like an eye in a purple bromeliad;
bee buzzes trapped in nectar of a pitcher plant.
We explore musty forest of mosses and ferns,
hidden niches with white catleya orchids, throated

with speckled saffon. The snow melts on glass
above us, but in here it is eternal summer.
My hand presses yours; your thumb traces
a hieroglyph on my palm.

Christopher T. George

Donna and I went to Joey Chiu's Greenspring Inn last evening for Christmas Eve dinner where we exchanged gifts. They sat us overlooking a gentle stream and the lights came on in the shrubbery on the stream bank as we looked out. As we were leaving we remembered we had been there after I broke my left ankle. In fact, I had begun down the steps of our apartment house and slipped on the black ice. See link through the title for some thoughts and photographs on that episode. Happily, I have made a complete recovery, something to thankful for on this Christmas and as we go into 2012.

I actually made it into work in Washington D.C. on that morning but, as you might expect, in pain, and after talking to my boss, Sterling Williams, M.D., he advised me to contact my doctor, which I did. I was referred to PatientFirst where Donna and I drove after I arrived back in Baltimore by train. It so happens that the branch of PatientFirst is near the Greenspring Inn so after they x-rayed me and put me in a walking cast with crutches it was natural that we would go there for a meal and for me to have a gin and tonic (strictly against doctor's orders). They sat us by the window, overlooking a gentle stream. . .