I may be a bit of a nerd, but on Apple Music I have multiple Christmas music playlists, including one with 84 hours of music and over 1,571 🤣 Writing to music is my default mode lately
No wonder that your writing waves the conductor’s wand with consistent composition to create rhythmic sounds to an audience that sees, hears the movement of universes music.
I'm very sorry to hear that you lost your mother, Jason. I lost mine five years ago now, and it never gets any easier. I keep wanting to call her to tell her my latest and bring her over to the house to show her our latest.
Thank you, Liz. I am sorry for your loss. Grief is such a strange thing. It's different for each one of us and for each loss. It's not phases so much as it's a perspective change. Grief is the ghost of a loved one still straining for connection.
I love a little Disney Christmas, and Brenda Lee is always a good holiday listen, especially if the music evokes memories of your mother and those past Christmases with her. Thirty-eight years ago I was listening to John Barry’s theme from Somewhere in Time when I received a phone call from my father telling me my mother had died. I had always been drawn to that theme (not the Paganini piece) and I found out much later that Barry wrote that theme six weeks after his mother had died. We carry art with us and through art so much more lives on in us, even after after the music stops.
Thanks for sharing that experience, Paul. Barry's music for Somewhere in Time is so poignant. I never knew that about that piece. So well said about art, why would we ever leave something that important to the robots?
Thanks, Jason. Will robots create art? I don’t know. They’ll produce work, like elephants and chimps do, and someone will call it art and market it. But even that won’t make it ART
Thank you for reading, Stace. We never get over those kinds of losses, we just learn to carry them forward with us. Thank you for allowing to commune with you with my rambling thoughts and drawings.
Thanks for this, Jason. My mom's favorite holiday was Christmas too. I was thinking how much I miss her last night. She died one week before Christmas nine years ago.
I have mom's decorations and use them on my tree every year. I love Christmas music and still have the Christmas album he recorded fifty years ago. I listen to it every year. He's been gone 43 years. Christmas is now a mix of sadness and joy for me and is somehow sweeter for it.
I think I took something different from your "fun" haiku than you intended. The visual made me think of simple joys replaced by material things and the loss of a focus on experience. I found it sad, I think, because it reminded me of my own thoughts around this and the reason we no longer exchange gifts, instead treasuring time spent together.
I think my Christmas spirit is the best legacy my mom left for me, and like you, that bittersweet feelings make this time of the year all the more precious.
While I fully love all the pageantry of the lights, colors, and presents, to me the best parts of this time are more primal. The feeling of being warm together with loved ones, safe under the same roof, sharing meals and laughter is what makes Christmastime special. I'm not religious, and so the holiday's sacredness comes from community not from theology. And I agree that the obsession over deals and spending money can have corrupting effect on the joys of slowing down and being together.
Yes! We're not religious either. Mom certainly wasn't. It was about the family being together and, of course, eating together! There's a spirituality to it that has nothing to do with religion.
Your Mom sounds like someone who really embraced life and went all-in on what she loved—including you, Jason! I’m glad she’s still so vibrant in your heart. ❤️💃🏻🌲
Jason - I think this is my favorite Weirdo Poetry post ever. I’m not a Halloween person (at all), but I immediately loved the opening image — which features one of the characters from the awesome ghosts carol haiku. I am a Christmas person, and I so feel these comments about Christmas music. I love this reflection on your mother’s love of Christmas, and I really love your haiku about her passing. That’s absolutely beautiful. Really. I am glad you shared your new piece with all of us — som really nice details there in the varying times, and I hope you’ve had the right playlist going to bring some peace. (I’m so sorry about the timing of her passing. I can’t even imagine how that felt and feels.)
Aww, thank you, Amy! I feel fortunate in that part of my mom's legacy for me is an absolute love for Christmas and celebrating it with full joy with my kids feels like it honors her, and while I do always find myself feeling a bit bittersweet in the late afternoon and early evening on Christmas as I will not be calling, Mom, that to now feels like a natural part of the holiday.
As I've said in some other comments, I am convinced that grief is never finished, and instead is something we fold into ourselves and carry forward. It's a way we are haunted by the ghosts of loved ones, but also a way to commune with the essence that still remains in our hearts. I don't know if that makes sense.
I really appreciate your kind words for my illustrations and this post. You motivate me to keep working on a long neglected project I've started and stopped over the years, a poetry comics collection about grief.
This will be my first “Fall/Winter” after loss this summer…. I appreciate your words. Our tree has been up for the last several years. I loved that “we fold into” line.
I think I understand your cartoon. Christmas past loves the Mouseketeers who represent Disneyland, Christmas and your mother. So does Christmas present but he enjoys them so much that he consumes as much of it as he can as a kid. But now with the Mouseketeer logo gone you, as Christmas future, cry at her absence in your life.
Love this, Jason. My grandmother was the same, she died on Christmas day too. Christmas really is the most wonderful day of the year - craft has already started - a Christmas cross-stitch. I hold off on Christmas music until after Halloween, but I'm already loving the festive ambience in the shop. Your mother sounds like she was an amazing woman 🍁🧡🍁
Thank you! I know my mom would say something sweet about your like the ones that leave us on Christmas become Christmas angels. And while that may not align my spiritual beliefs and practices, and I do find comfort that our loved ones can stay connected to us through all of the festivities. Each red, green, and gold decoration is a kind of tribute to your grandma and my mom, reminding us of the joy and preciousness of this life!
How lovely! I do love your drawings. As far as Christmas, man, I'd be happy not to see it, other than for a few hours. But to each his own. Glad it still connects you to your Mom.
And what's the favourite xmas song of yours? I guess you have not heard of the crazy game that starts on the 1st of December and ends on Christmas eve and it's all about avoiding hearing Last Christmas! I think two Danish guys started it a few years ago and it runs now every year. Once you get whammed you enter the world of Whamhalla and you can listen to it as much as you want. Anyways, a big side track. It's a fun game and a silly one. Especially for the likes of me who love anything George Michael. I managed to get to Christmas day once so far without hearing the song. I kind of lived like a hermit that year. Usually I ban radio around the house at least to have some protection. But reading this, with all the rules you had around the house about simple things like when you turn on the Christmas music makes me think and re evaluate of any stupid rules I have at home that need some banning action. I love the haiku comic about your mum. Those foot steps in the snow are like her personal passage to heaven in some way. And it's one of the hardest times for those left behind to leave on that day... but if there's something after and there's a party at heaven then for the leavers that must be the best time of year to go. We rarely hear of them but so many people pass on Christmas day...
Brenda Lee’s Christmas album is the best. I have my favorites on Spotify and am inspired to start writing with her singing.
I may be a bit of a nerd, but on Apple Music I have multiple Christmas music playlists, including one with 84 hours of music and over 1,571 🤣 Writing to music is my default mode lately
No wonder that your writing waves the conductor’s wand with consistent composition to create rhythmic sounds to an audience that sees, hears the movement of universes music.
I'm very sorry to hear that you lost your mother, Jason. I lost mine five years ago now, and it never gets any easier. I keep wanting to call her to tell her my latest and bring her over to the house to show her our latest.
Thank you, Liz. I am sorry for your loss. Grief is such a strange thing. It's different for each one of us and for each loss. It's not phases so much as it's a perspective change. Grief is the ghost of a loved one still straining for connection.
I love a little Disney Christmas, and Brenda Lee is always a good holiday listen, especially if the music evokes memories of your mother and those past Christmases with her. Thirty-eight years ago I was listening to John Barry’s theme from Somewhere in Time when I received a phone call from my father telling me my mother had died. I had always been drawn to that theme (not the Paganini piece) and I found out much later that Barry wrote that theme six weeks after his mother had died. We carry art with us and through art so much more lives on in us, even after after the music stops.
Thanks for sharing that experience, Paul. Barry's music for Somewhere in Time is so poignant. I never knew that about that piece. So well said about art, why would we ever leave something that important to the robots?
Thanks, Jason. Will robots create art? I don’t know. They’ll produce work, like elephants and chimps do, and someone will call it art and market it. But even that won’t make it ART
My dad passed away on Christmas, too, over 20 years ago. It is still a weird holiday for me. Thanks for bringing a tear to my eye this morning.
Thank you for reading, Stace. We never get over those kinds of losses, we just learn to carry them forward with us. Thank you for allowing to commune with you with my rambling thoughts and drawings.
Thanks for this, Jason. My mom's favorite holiday was Christmas too. I was thinking how much I miss her last night. She died one week before Christmas nine years ago.
I have mom's decorations and use them on my tree every year. I love Christmas music and still have the Christmas album he recorded fifty years ago. I listen to it every year. He's been gone 43 years. Christmas is now a mix of sadness and joy for me and is somehow sweeter for it.
I think I took something different from your "fun" haiku than you intended. The visual made me think of simple joys replaced by material things and the loss of a focus on experience. I found it sad, I think, because it reminded me of my own thoughts around this and the reason we no longer exchange gifts, instead treasuring time spent together.
I think my Christmas spirit is the best legacy my mom left for me, and like you, that bittersweet feelings make this time of the year all the more precious.
While I fully love all the pageantry of the lights, colors, and presents, to me the best parts of this time are more primal. The feeling of being warm together with loved ones, safe under the same roof, sharing meals and laughter is what makes Christmastime special. I'm not religious, and so the holiday's sacredness comes from community not from theology. And I agree that the obsession over deals and spending money can have corrupting effect on the joys of slowing down and being together.
Yes! We're not religious either. Mom certainly wasn't. It was about the family being together and, of course, eating together! There's a spirituality to it that has nothing to do with religion.
Your Mom sounds like someone who really embraced life and went all-in on what she loved—including you, Jason! I’m glad she’s still so vibrant in your heart. ❤️💃🏻🌲
Thank you, Ann! Like all of us she was complicated, but she really did go all-in with us kids and Christmas!
The heart has calendar so a joyful spirit has no constraints!
Beautifully put, Stanley! Always the poet!
Thanks for that comment!
Jason - I think this is my favorite Weirdo Poetry post ever. I’m not a Halloween person (at all), but I immediately loved the opening image — which features one of the characters from the awesome ghosts carol haiku. I am a Christmas person, and I so feel these comments about Christmas music. I love this reflection on your mother’s love of Christmas, and I really love your haiku about her passing. That’s absolutely beautiful. Really. I am glad you shared your new piece with all of us — som really nice details there in the varying times, and I hope you’ve had the right playlist going to bring some peace. (I’m so sorry about the timing of her passing. I can’t even imagine how that felt and feels.)
Aww, thank you, Amy! I feel fortunate in that part of my mom's legacy for me is an absolute love for Christmas and celebrating it with full joy with my kids feels like it honors her, and while I do always find myself feeling a bit bittersweet in the late afternoon and early evening on Christmas as I will not be calling, Mom, that to now feels like a natural part of the holiday.
As I've said in some other comments, I am convinced that grief is never finished, and instead is something we fold into ourselves and carry forward. It's a way we are haunted by the ghosts of loved ones, but also a way to commune with the essence that still remains in our hearts. I don't know if that makes sense.
I really appreciate your kind words for my illustrations and this post. You motivate me to keep working on a long neglected project I've started and stopped over the years, a poetry comics collection about grief.
This will be my first “Fall/Winter” after loss this summer…. I appreciate your words. Our tree has been up for the last several years. I loved that “we fold into” line.
I wish you moments of peace and offer you my willing ears and eyes should want to share anything big or small as you navigate these seasons
"Missing my mother" is a beautiful work Jason...
Thanks, Brian!
I think I understand your cartoon. Christmas past loves the Mouseketeers who represent Disneyland, Christmas and your mother. So does Christmas present but he enjoys them so much that he consumes as much of it as he can as a kid. But now with the Mouseketeer logo gone you, as Christmas future, cry at her absence in your life.
Love this, Jason. My grandmother was the same, she died on Christmas day too. Christmas really is the most wonderful day of the year - craft has already started - a Christmas cross-stitch. I hold off on Christmas music until after Halloween, but I'm already loving the festive ambience in the shop. Your mother sounds like she was an amazing woman 🍁🧡🍁
Thank you! I know my mom would say something sweet about your like the ones that leave us on Christmas become Christmas angels. And while that may not align my spiritual beliefs and practices, and I do find comfort that our loved ones can stay connected to us through all of the festivities. Each red, green, and gold decoration is a kind of tribute to your grandma and my mom, reminding us of the joy and preciousness of this life!
How lovely! I do love your drawings. As far as Christmas, man, I'd be happy not to see it, other than for a few hours. But to each his own. Glad it still connects you to your Mom.
Thank you, Rose!
And what's the favourite xmas song of yours? I guess you have not heard of the crazy game that starts on the 1st of December and ends on Christmas eve and it's all about avoiding hearing Last Christmas! I think two Danish guys started it a few years ago and it runs now every year. Once you get whammed you enter the world of Whamhalla and you can listen to it as much as you want. Anyways, a big side track. It's a fun game and a silly one. Especially for the likes of me who love anything George Michael. I managed to get to Christmas day once so far without hearing the song. I kind of lived like a hermit that year. Usually I ban radio around the house at least to have some protection. But reading this, with all the rules you had around the house about simple things like when you turn on the Christmas music makes me think and re evaluate of any stupid rules I have at home that need some banning action. I love the haiku comic about your mum. Those foot steps in the snow are like her personal passage to heaven in some way. And it's one of the hardest times for those left behind to leave on that day... but if there's something after and there's a party at heaven then for the leavers that must be the best time of year to go. We rarely hear of them but so many people pass on Christmas day...