Christmas/New Year Thoughts

Christmas has come, and gone, again with some speed. After all the preparations, perhaps months of hoarding away gifts as you find them for friends or loved ones, it's all over. I always think it's a shame once Christmas arrives as the pre-Christmas period is one of anticipation. Not for gifts, well not as far as I'm concerned. I'm more interested in having a couple of days break from the robotic routine of going to work 5 days a week. It doesn't matter if I wear clean or dirty clothes or not at all, I can spend the day in a big Tshirt and nothing much else and no-one cares. I get familiar with my home again, spending 24 hours a day inside it's walls and outside in the yard, or at a local bar. There's no need to plan any of my days; whatever I feel like doing, I do, and if I don't feel like doing anything, then so be it. I love the non routineness of the break, and I mourn it when it's gone again for another year. It seems that I spend most of the year thinking about the end of it. For the last 6 years I've had breaks of a two or three days perhaps 3 times through the year i might call in sick, travelling to Costa Rica every other year for a much needed vacation. But those trips are always far and in between. The breaks were never holidays as my time away had to be scheduled; arrangements to have time off of work, deciding whether to leave my car parked near the airport or to have someone drive me in and then pick me up on my return, arranging to hire a car at the airport, booking flights, booking accommodation. On arrival I would pick out the cabbie that spoke the best English, then have him drive to wherever I was staying, have a short chat, then go.

My breaks at Christmas haven't included flying to anywhere special as it's too cold to fly north and it's also school holidays so everything is more expensive, and there are too many people everywhere. That's why I always look forward to this break because it's a chance to spend time with my family, and a chance to veg out at home. I don't go to the sales at the Malls because I know that most of what is on sale is junk the retailers couldn't flog off during the year. A lot of the so called specials are actually the same price, or even dearer, than they were during the year! I know this to be true as I used to work in retail and I knew the prices of some things before the sales and the price of them during the sales. Total ripoff for the unsuspecting looking for a bargain. The only real bargains I feel are in Walmart and it is a great time to buy sheets, towels, beach towels etc. Anything else, forget it. There will be more visits to see my Mom and trips to see cousins and my brother and his growing family, but there won't be the need to go up every few months ever again.

I guess if I were truthful I would admit that I will miss going away every few years. I have this adventure gene in me and I love to fly away. Each time I go to the airport to drop someone off, or pick someone up, I get this strong urge to go get on a plane and take off. The New Year is looming but for me it doesn't hold any great excitement. It's just another day in another year of uncertainty. I am aging and 2008 is shaping up to being a sad year for many Americans. 2008 is a year that for Myself, along with many others in our society, will perhaps be a year that we all wish that 2008 had been Al Gore's last year in office not Bush. It makes you wonder why so many people who you don't think deserve to suffer, do suffer in cruel pain before they die, and yet others who don't deserve to breathe, live on seemingly untouched by hardship.

One of the frustrations of life, an unanswerable question ... why? May the New Year bring you peace and fulfilment and may you make others less fortunate travel their roads easier by a smile or a helping hand. I was reading a news story that the richest man in Ausralia died last year - Kerry Packer. I am now richer than Kerry Packer; he has nothing and I have a few dollars. Money can't buy health, and his death proves that you can't take it with you. You might as well have little as having a lot doesn't give you eternal life nor can it save you if you are terminally ill.

An wise man once said, "Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone."

Take Care & Happy New Year 2008.