Category: holidays

The Gift from Kenya I’m Most Thankful For and Turning Black Friday Red

by [email protected]

What’s up with the Red? While Black Friday is known for businesses turning a profit and consumers getting deals, the holidays also put many people in the red – in debt. Maybe that’s why I’m thinking more about the tall, thin Maasai in red than the round Santas in red. While I have so much more to learn about this fascinating indigenous tribe, I invite you to ponder with me how people can be happy choosing to live simply.

On my trip to Kenya we had the privilege of visiting a Maasai village (boma) and learning about their traditions. Being herders, they always moved their stock to fresh grazing grounds, which any farmer knows is as beneficial to the land as to the animals. While moving requires building new houses (manyattas) of mud, dung, sticks, and thatch, the old houses gracefully melt back into the earth with the seasonal rains. Compare that to the resources we use to rebuild or remodel buildings just because they are “dated”.

Many people are horrified to learn that the traditional Maasai diet is mostly milk and blood obtained from their cows, sheep, and goats (without harming them) along with what they can forage. Isn’t that a definition of sustainability? I am more horrified by the fact that the US throws away about 40 billion pounds – almost 40% of the US food supply – every year.

The Maasai adult’s clothing was always immaculate
Toddlers? Not so much, just like anywhere.
This favorite moment was too short, and a reason to go back. Thanks to Geoff Barnard for capturing it!
My best gift from Kenya? Besides the spectacular wildlife, I treasure the invaluable perspective gained by connecting with her beautiful people, whether traditional or modern. On my next trip, (Spoiler alert! I’m going again, and to Tanzania!) we will be touring Kibera, the largest slum on the continent of Africa, as well as exploring cultures, changes, and challenges more deeply. I look forward to sharing what I can when I can, and I hope you’ll stick with me for the ride.
Have you ever wondered how I can afford to travel to Kenya having worked at meaningful but low-paying jobs all my life? There are clues in the blog post and newsletter I wrote in November of 2019 to counter-balance the tsunami of Black Friday ads. I called it Turning Black Friday Green. With inflation and climate change, it’s even more relevant now, since it’s about saving money and saving the planet. It was sifted from my book, Enchanted – Reflections from a Joyfully Green and Frugally Rich Life. By the way, they make great gifts, as do the 2025 calendars I just created from 13 of my favorite photos of Kenya. See, I’m not against capitalism! Here’s a sneak peek – September, March, January, and May. You can order my book, wall  calendars, desk calendars or Dutch Birthday Calendars on my website   www.hollyonthelake.com   (even if I haven’t updated the photos there!) or email me     [email protected]
In the interest of irrepressible joy, I will re-share a video sent by my Maasai friend Solomon of an elephant parade accompanied by heart-lifting music. Please note the drought-ridden landscape. The matriarch is leading her family to water – if it’s still there. Consider for just a moment how over-consumption in our land (and insistence on fossil fuels) is causing climate change to devastate lands around the world. Then enjoy the video, as I have many times. I have seen African people exhibit joy, warmth, and hospitality, despite their hard lives and endangered habitat. Let me know if you are interested in changing lives. There are many safe, easy, and rewarding ways to help. Or just be thankful for all we have.
By the way, an x-ray showed my fractured vertebra is healed – in only five weeks! One more thing to be super thankful for.
With joy, thanksgiving, and hope,
Holly

Happy New Year!

by [email protected]
sunset reflected in loon eye
Uncommon

A sunset is doubled when reflected in a lake
So, too, a glowing moon
But oh, to see that sacred art
In the magical mirror of the ruby red eye
Of the mystical common loon

May the wonders of Mother Nature
decorate your heart and your holidays
with beauty, light, and love

While searching my photos for a holiday picture, this one suggested a red tree ornament reflecting candlelight. But it’s natural, which is always my preference. I was delighted to photograph a loon close to my canoe. Discovering the sunset while editing the picture was one of those happy surprises.

Another was being asked to do three photo/poem exhibits in 2023. It kept me busy, but I was honored to be able to share my work. Many thanks to all who encouraged me in so many ways. I will be taking my exhibit at Burnhaven Library down this Sunday, and this is one that will go back up on my wall while I’m missing the snow.

shed with lake open in December

The totally open water on my lake this December is a surprise, but not a happy one. I would be selfish to complain when others around the world suffer devastating effects of climate change and war. Yet I can’t help but wonder how it is affecting my fish friends – Greenie, Slim, and others. I swam nearly every day last summer, often with them, and took lots of underwater video. I’m making progress on Greenie’s chapter book about our eight summers together. Will there be a ninth? I sure hope so.

Yes, that's Greenie, a summer picture dressed up for the holidays with a little editing. I didn't look as good as he does, but I so appreciated celebrating the special lights of Hanukkah, Solstice, and Christmas with friends and family, and will do the same on New Year’s Eve.

Let us all wish everyone, every one, everywhere,
all creatures, great and small
Peace on Earth, Good Will to All 

Holly

This Sunday! Too little time, too many photos

by [email protected]

Goodbye pumpkins, hello snow! Greenie and Slim have gone deep ahead of the ice. Red and Pinkalicious have been visiting the vine by my kitchen window. The deer are gobbling up the last of my simple gardens. There’s always a friend around if we keep our eyes and ears open.

My theme continues as I prepare for Sunday’s opening of my photo/poetry exhibit, (details below) so I will keep this short. It’s both a joy and a challenge to share my images and thoughts. It’s so encouraging when people say I should be charging more for my art. But as I look at the 60 pics in all kinds and sizes of frames filling my living room as I sort them for areas of the library, one thought prevails. I would love to know they will grace other people’s walls, perhaps after being wrapped as a gift. So I’m keeping my prices down with that in mind.

But lest I sound like an advertisement, know that I would LOVE to have you just come to the library during November and December to relax as you peruse the pictures and poetry. I’m not making a lot of cards since I have no venue for them beyond Sunday, but I already have one special order and and am open to making more. And of course my book, Enchanted – Reflections from a Joyfully Green and Frugally Rich Life is always available from me.

The future? I have a good start on Greenie’s book and am anxious to get back to work on it. I have more VERY exciting news, but I’ll save that for later. Here’s a picture to make you smile and a couple of the more philosophical new pieces for my exhibit.

Eye to eye with Greenie under the water as it got colder. “I’ll miss you this winter!” 
Milkweed Message

I’m holding on to so much stuff
While some don’t have enough
To live a simple life
Within a humble home

Why?

It’s time to let my treasures go
So they can travel on the wind
Until they find a place to grow
While I embrace
The calm of empty space

                                        Holly Jorgensen
Angeleaf

All summer long, despite the drought,
gazillions of leaves spent their mornings and eves 
capturing carbon and gifting us life.
Now they go out in blazes of glorious oranges and deep reds 
even as we lie asleep in our beds.

I, too, am in the autumn of my years 
but tears are not my thing. 
I'd rather sing a song of hope 
that my transition from this earthly home 
might have a fraction of the grit and grace 
of a leaf as she leaves this lovely place 
and lets herself be blown 
to yet another mysterious, miraculous unknown. 

                                                      Holly Jorgensen


Exhibit details: 
On display November through December, 2023  
Opening reception: 1:30 to 4:30 pm, Sunday, November 5th, 2023  Central STANDARD time! 
I will give brief presentations at 1:40, 2:40, and 3:40
Burnhaven Library, 1101 County Rd 42 W, Burnsville, MN 55306
I'd love to see you there!

Happy Holidays 2022

by [email protected]

What? Another fishy picture for the holidays? Yup, I couldn’t resist this one of Slim and Greenie dancing in the moonlight. You may have read the poem it inspired when I posted it on Facebook. But in truth, it wasn’t the moonlight giving them that magical glow. For seven summers I’d been lamenting evenings when it was just too dark to get a decent photo of my underwater friends. Then it struck me. I have a flash! Duh. Suddenly I had a new way into their twilight world. A little editing brought out their smiles and the magic of this unique couple. So what it says to me today is this: remember what resources you have and “Shine a light!” We’ve been through dark times and surely face more. How often do we have something at hand that can brighten a moment, an hour, a year, a life? Bless the stroke of luck that opens our eyes to it.

I’m still working on a book about Greenie and friends. If you read my blog or newsletters, you know that I can blame the delay on the little bit of cancer I had, sucking up my time and energy. I’m fine now, and immensely grateful. But that scare also motivated me to share what I have while I can. So I posted a few of my lullabies on Facebook, hoping someone might be touched and guided. My friend Marty Winkler is putting one of them on her next album! I framed and entered some photos in the county fair, hoping someone might look more closely at Mother Nature’s other children. Their uniqueness led to an invitation to do my first exhibit! It will be at the Minnesota Valley Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, opening on February 12th. Stay in touch for details if you’d like to join us.

My fish friends are under the ice now, but my cardinal friend Red is back on the vine outside my window and my deer friends visit often. My trail cams show shyer visitors – beaver, opossum, raccoon, fox, coyote, and more. My cats Lucky and Leo are great company with their snuggles and antics. I have deeply enjoyed connecting with human friends, too, as we share bumps and breezes, laughter and music, on this precious road of life. But the brightest light shines from the new baby in the family! My niece Kym had a little boy, known as Sprout, who is already an athletic, outdoorsy, adorable wonder, like his parents.

I wish you all the very best as we step into 2023. May the holidays help you to discover the “flash” you need to light the world around you in the twilight moments. May you rest well in the darkness, and wake to the miracle of another day.

Peace and Joy, Holly

PS – If you are not getting my occasional newsletters, I may have an old email address for you or they may go into your junk folder, since they come through Mailchimp. If you want to, please go to hollyonthelake.com and subscribe. Then watch for a letter with details of the upcoming exhibit and add me to your safe senders. Thank you!