Holidays' End

Happy New Year. I celebrated by sleeping in this morning until 5 AM. Once again the calendar year changed quite efficiently without my monitoring.

This year the Holidays were pretty lousy for me, and I got a glimpse of my future. Not only did I work the 24th 25th and 26th - which was bad enough - but my mother went into the hospital on Christmas Eve with a mini-stroke. (Her confidence seems a bit shaken, but other than that she is doing fine.) Because of her illness and other ilnesses in the family, there was no family get-together this year... And Christmas just kind of passed by.

There were actually a couple moments there when I was a little depressed and lonely. I clumsily reached out to a couple people - but that only left me feeling a little foolish, depressed, and lonely.

A few years ago I ran into a friend right after Thanksgiving. I knew he had just gotten a divorce, so I asked him what he had done for the holiday. He said he'd washed dishes at a mission in Indianapolis. He said it was one of the best Thanksgivings he'd ever had... and that he'd met a lot of great people who had also volunteered. So... I guess that's what good single people do during the Holidays.

Being single has many blessings. But don't bother trying to explain that to anyone with a spouse and kids - You inevitably come across like someone who is trying to explain to a soccer fan why soccer is boring. I'm sure a happy marriage is wonderful, but I have the freedom to do pretty much anything I want... and that can be kind of nice, too.

The trick is - figuring out what really gives us joy. I think my friend got it right.

Happy New Year.