The minute that I turned my Open sign to Closed and locked my front door tonight I started working on Christmas. I LOVE making gifts for Christmas. As I work on them I think of the joy in the faces of the receivers, and the way that I feel when I'm with these dear ones, friends who are family. I am certain that Maman and Papa watching me are grateful for the good friends that I have.
Yesterday was hard. Lucille Bond has started ignoring me if she sees me when I am out and about in Calkington. In the shop she speaks to me in an extremely patronizing tone. I feel sorry for her. It's obvious that she feels insecure or she would not feel the need to make others around her miserable. It really is a shame because she could do such great good in this world. She has money, and that gives her influence.
Sarah visited me last night in my dreams. She is such a teeny, tiny, thing, even as a ghost. Yet it's remarkable the authority and power she carries. It's very evident that she has been a great leader of people, The People, who were her people.
She shared with me again the difficulty that she had leaving her beloved tribe, marrying Blake, facing all of the distrust and open hostility from the good people of Calkington. Sarah reminded me of the hideous time that she was walking down the Main Street of Calkington and Lucille Bond spit, right in her face, and then just kept walking. At least Lucille only stabs me in the back amongst the town members, and ignores me in public.
Lucille was orphaned as her family traveled to Oregon. Every single member of her family was wiped out at once. Willard was riding a horse and found her barefoot and crying in the middle of a prickly pear patch. He roped her and pulled her to his horse. Willard took her back to camp and one by one extracted the 1/2 inch long prickly pear spines. Next he found a woman in the group that had an extra pair of shoes that Lucille could wear.
Lucille was only fifteen years old but Willard proposed to her. They were married right away. When they arrived in Calkington Willard immediately began the process of starting a bank. There was absolutely no financial institutions of any kind here so with his clever way of handling finances they quickly became rich. Blake told me all of this.
Lucille and I both lost our entire families coming to this place. We both were rescued by Willard Bond. He married and loves Lucille, he gave me a start-up loan to get my business working.
It feels like focusing on those things that we share in common would be so much more useful than constantly being unkind, rude, and participating in bitter gossip. I admire many things about Lucille. She's an excellent cook. She has a garden that is the best that I've ever seen. Her garden seems like a beautiful portrait painted with flowers, fruit, and vegetables.
I've also heard that she is an excellent knitter. I have seen beautiful knitted scarfs on her, and on Willard. I have tried to be friendly towards her but she rebuffs me on every turn. ARGH!
I will now consciously quit thinking about Lucille Bond. After all, I can do absolutely nothing to change her mind, or attitude towards me, only she can do that. Now, back to Christmas. I will have a simple dinner tonight, some bread and milk, and some dried apples that I made several months back.
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