Monday, January 4, 2010

Worse Than a New Year

Ahhhh - the annual abject depression, and the yawning chasm of "the future" sensed in increasing spiritual and mental anguish on the first day of work after "The Holidays". My birthday over, Christmas past, New Year's gone, my daughter another year older, and no free days off work now until the end of May - it is bleak and forlorn. This year the malaise is ten times as bad because it is the start of a new decade. And, this century is flying by! At this rate, I will wake up tomorrow one hundred years old, wondering what the hell happened to my middle age.

My son is on his way to Keystone for four days of snowboarding. Ahhhh, to be a college student, living in abject poverty but rich in freedom. I sincerely hope he has a great time on the slopes. I wish I was young enough to go with him, if only for a single day. I could embarrass him in Colorado the way I embarrassed him swimming with dolphins in Hawaii. It took a skinny surfer dude and a martial arts black belt master from Japan to haul me back into the canoe. Thank God for the focused discipline of the Japanese people or I would still be adrift in the Pacific.

From the moment I woke up today dreading the start of a new work week, in a new year, in a new decade, I gave myself a pep talk, telling myself to consider the good, find the positive in my life as I enter fully into these fresh beginnings. Slogging through the snow and ice to the barn, shivering in the zero degree moonlight, despite the despair and bad news, I had an epiphany: I knew unequivocally I would not be bitten by a prairie rattler this morning. It is the best news of all so far in 2010.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Way to go. No chiggers, ticks or humidity, either. See? Things could be worse. I hear you about Monday, though. Last week I found myself thinking "maybe I could just start retirement now" instead of going back to work on Monday. And I love my job. So there you have it. Whatever 'it' is.