A
So happy holidays.
I hate wishing people happy holidays.
Because for me, for so many years, the holidays always started around July and ended somewhere in the neighborhood of May.
I love Christmas though, and Hannukah. And every other winter holiday under the book.
Mostly because spring holidays and Fall holidays usually surround working; working your ass off or enjoying the fruits of working your ass off.
Summer holidays usually revolve around either starting or preventing fires.
Winter holidays, those are the ones where you're just grateful to be alive. Just grateful to have the opportunity to share a story with another person.
At least that's how it was for me before the modern age spilled over into the physical world. In the modern world you get pretty bad storms from time to time but mostly it's just a minor inconvenience rather than the months-long shut in one might have experienced just a few short decades ago.
Now.
it's about finding excuses to stay home, finding reasons to slow down the pace of the world for a little while to enjoy the company that one may have. Friends or family or pets.
Or not.
Me personally, I usually go for the or not. Mostly because a lot of people always say never forget 9/11...
can't believe it's in my phone even
When the truth is for those that had to deal with and experienced it as a real part of their day had to deal with it through the holidays. After everyone else had changed the channel.
Hard truths about that: is that there is no Channel changing button in real life. And when those things are part of your everyday a person can watch it, help it, or get out of the way.
Me?
I roll my sleeves up.
For me holidays '01 meant standing long vigils waiting for planes to come in the middle of the night. Picking up shifts so that my friends with families could spend that time at home with theirs. And somewhere along the way, trying to find little ways to make people smile in spite of everything that the world was trying to throw at that point in time.
Now: means trying desperately to become comfortable with crowds again and coping with chronic pain throughout most of my body.
Luckily I have a strong support network around me. One I didn't even know was there until I fell down. One that I continue to avoid even though it has caught me each time I've stumbled since.
I can be pretty bull headed.
But always thankful.
And I still light my candles.
