The Broken Christmas Tree: How Love Saved It's Light
From Integral Yoga Magazine December 2023
My dad ascended the rickety ladder, thus launching our family’s annual quest to decorate our Christmas tree. Ours was no snowy trek to an idyllic woodland. Instead it was an ascension up the world’s oldest wooden ladder to a high and bafflingly small closet where our fake tree waited for its brief—yet emphatic—holiday glory.
The ladder creaked as my dad passed the boxes down to my mom. Wind from nearby Lake Michigan rattled the storm windows. The doorbell chimed, heralding the arrival of my Aunt Elizabeth; snowflakes sprinkled on her shoulders and nose nipped red from the cold. Once again we were ready to prove that we were up to the task of bringing light into the house. Or, we would we be buried under our expectations of holiday magic.
I slid across the hardwood floor in my stockinged feet until I ran into Margaret, my pre-teen sister. “Stop it, pest.” she said.
Gita as Suzy Snowflake in front of the Christmas Tree, Illinois circle 1979