Fiat Lux

I experience this emotional clash each year during the holidays, starting with Halloween and ending with Valentine's day. So much hype and expectation for fun, frivolity and fellowship. I'm feeling the love this year, and enjoying the holidays with friends and family, and generally not getting caught up in the excess.

However, I am also acutely aware, how many people are struggling. It may be financial or emotional, or mental. It's the worst time of year to be in the pits of despair, because dammit, you're supposed to be HAPPY and you're supposed to CELEBRATE.

This year is my first Christmas in a decade I will not be with my wife. I've already passed the first Thanksgiving, and I sailed through that happily with my family. Though she was never a huge fan of Christmas, it is nevertheless odd not have her around during the holidays. I know a few other folks who are experiencing their first post-separation/divorce holiday season and my heart goes out to them. If we all lived in the same town, I would say "Come on over!" and we could hold each other up and toast to our new adventures in life.

As this calendar year ends and a new one soon begins, it sets me to wondering what lies ahead. What will I being doing next December? And the following? And...? I cannot know. But I'm okay with that. I don't need to know. As read on Mountain Musings this morning, "Seneca the Younger said it well:
'Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow it loses today.'"