Soooooo....January 1, 2013 and the year opens like a book... or perhaps a comic book or perhaps even some kind of shabby pamphlet for a blood thinning drug your doctor prescribed. I am sitting in my chair, in my room watching a “Portlandia” marathon on IFC and it leads to introspection, a little self loathing and of course...abject fear. We have parties to go to today. We don’t care. Sandy is needle pointing something for some child in California’s quilt (why do children in California need quilts?) and hoping to nap. Our son Jon is in his house apparently watching parades with out of town guests our beautiful grand dog and his bastard cat on telivision. Our son Pat just left to go back to KU (the shame) after a nice Christmas break. Laura is driving back from and Arcadia Camp staff at the “apartyment” in Muncie. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Sooo... January 5th. What could possibly go wrong I asked? Work. Work can go wrong. I am whine. A fabulous whiner. My friends tolerate me but only in small doses which is cool because of my ADD. I am always complaining about work and I know this makes me sound stupid, ungrateful and lacking basic understanding. The fact is that good jobs are hard. I am lucky to have a difficult job and I am lucky for having to been able to do it for this long. Good jobs do not stop at 5 and start at 9 with 45 minutes for lunch. I know this. I also know that the reason i get paid is because I handle people in crisis very well but this week, the first week of the year they got to me... right away. I am already behind for 2013. I have not gotten bills out for November yet. My “to do” list looks like a small town phone book (remember phone books?). This week I had a lady meet with me for over 5 hours on various days who is convinced she is being followed, wire tapped, photo’d and burgled by her bank or someone on their behalf. She in mentally ill and I have to shepherd her through losing her rental property empire. But his lady broke me.
But now it is Sunday and I am looking to the new week. It is another short week because I get to go to Hot Springs Arkansas for the opening at Oaklawn and one of my sons is going with the group and it will be fun. Another short week at work kind of makes my chest constrict slightly but once again it is having a difficult, stressful job which allows me the benefit of being able to do things like this. I forget that... a lot. Laura leaves for school today, the ornaments are coming down, my wife’s busy season at work is starting and the holidays are... over. But it was a good one and perhaps even a great one. A fire is in the fire place and I look forward to an afternoon of watching football and catching up my time sheets and perhaps making some dinner.
These can be melancholy times but somewhere, somehow I need to find a way to embrace change. Especially changes that I don’t chose. I think this year every blog post will need to have a song or a song lyrics or a song link or maybe all of the above and for today it is “Pick Up The Change” off of Wilco’s brilliant and often maligned first Album/CD (whatever you kids call them now). Change in life, change in relationships, changes in jobs, friendships, seasons, health... almost all of it seems to suck when it goes down but if we can view it as the constant, and the positive (that it really is) we can set ourselves up for happiness rather than sadness.
Sooo... January 5th. What could possibly go wrong I asked? Work. Work can go wrong. I am whine. A fabulous whiner. My friends tolerate me but only in small doses which is cool because of my ADD. I am always complaining about work and I know this makes me sound stupid, ungrateful and lacking basic understanding. The fact is that good jobs are hard. I am lucky to have a difficult job and I am lucky for having to been able to do it for this long. Good jobs do not stop at 5 and start at 9 with 45 minutes for lunch. I know this. I also know that the reason i get paid is because I handle people in crisis very well but this week, the first week of the year they got to me... right away. I am already behind for 2013. I have not gotten bills out for November yet. My “to do” list looks like a small town phone book (remember phone books?). This week I had a lady meet with me for over 5 hours on various days who is convinced she is being followed, wire tapped, photo’d and burgled by her bank or someone on their behalf. She in mentally ill and I have to shepherd her through losing her rental property empire. But his lady broke me.
But now it is Sunday and I am looking to the new week. It is another short week because I get to go to Hot Springs Arkansas for the opening at Oaklawn and one of my sons is going with the group and it will be fun. Another short week at work kind of makes my chest constrict slightly but once again it is having a difficult, stressful job which allows me the benefit of being able to do things like this. I forget that... a lot. Laura leaves for school today, the ornaments are coming down, my wife’s busy season at work is starting and the holidays are... over. But it was a good one and perhaps even a great one. A fire is in the fire place and I look forward to an afternoon of watching football and catching up my time sheets and perhaps making some dinner.
These can be melancholy times but somewhere, somehow I need to find a way to embrace change. Especially changes that I don’t chose. I think this year every blog post will need to have a song or a song lyrics or a song link or maybe all of the above and for today it is “Pick Up The Change” off of Wilco’s brilliant and often maligned first Album/CD (whatever you kids call them now). Change in life, change in relationships, changes in jobs, friendships, seasons, health... almost all of it seems to suck when it goes down but if we can view it as the constant, and the positive (that it really is) we can set ourselves up for happiness rather than sadness.
"We used to have a lotta things in common,
But you know now we're just the same
“You always had more than I really wanted
Aw honey, help me,
Come on honey, help me pick up,
Aw honey, help me pick up the change
Aw honey, help me,
Come on honey, help me pick up,
Aw honey, help me pick up the change”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV95HBtbGNI
So Jeff Tweedy shares some insight but on the first Sunday of the New Year a little wisdom from Christ probably would not hurt either, from my favorite part of the Bible, the “Sermon on the Mount”. Matthew 6:25 selected....
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
True Dat. Lets have a great 2013 and make it a lucky one.
PS. Currently my NFL Playoff brackets featuring the Bengals and the Seahawks are causing me to wring my hands and worry but... such is life in 2013.
But you know now we're just the same
“You always had more than I really wanted
Aw honey, help me,
Come on honey, help me pick up,
Aw honey, help me pick up the change
Aw honey, help me,
Come on honey, help me pick up,
Aw honey, help me pick up the change”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV95HBtbGNI
So Jeff Tweedy shares some insight but on the first Sunday of the New Year a little wisdom from Christ probably would not hurt either, from my favorite part of the Bible, the “Sermon on the Mount”. Matthew 6:25 selected....
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
True Dat. Lets have a great 2013 and make it a lucky one.
PS. Currently my NFL Playoff brackets featuring the Bengals and the Seahawks are causing me to wring my hands and worry but... such is life in 2013.
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