Through The Knot Hole

Today was my three month anniversary at my job.  It came and it went.  We pruned trees after the morning clearing of walkways and it makes your neck and wrist hurt after six hours of that whether you are robust or a wee one like me.  No fan fare for getting to this point and who knows what is coming.  Not Santa that is for sure and sorry kids but it is the truth.  Ho, ho, ho!

On the way to work I listen to a bit of NPR and my timing includes "The Perspective" spot of the day.  Today it was an amazing story of a man who sold drugs and lived on the street.  He began to see what aging on the street looked like and had a kind of spiritual awakening.  Though one might say our lives could not be more different, he still spoke for me today. 

Augustus Vargas turned his life around completely and yet he still struggles to find a better job, like myself.  He is a very insightful young man who seems older than his years.  His words are eloquent and right to the point of much of what I feel these days.  It is worth a listen and then some. http://www.kqed.org/a/perspectives/R201112190735

I have come through the knot hole and I am miles from home and a warm fire.  I am not an optimist though and they do have a different way of seeing things.  While driving around tonight looking for Christmas lights, I mentioned to my sweetie that this holiday seems so very bleak with friends having left for more exciting terrain and family doing the same.  It feels bleak and a struggle.  Shocking sometimes too. 

However, she said something like: "Well it does feel a bit bleak and there will be a bump and then things will get better." She has that way of finding the sunshine in a bunker and I wonder if it is just a larger supply of serotonin or something else. Regardless of what is real and what is belief, I am through the knot hole and I have great company like Augustus Vargas to find solace, strength and a shred of hope during the most overwrought holiday of the year.