The wind is bitter and reminds us of the coming season. Winter is near. Accompanying the ridiculous daylight savings ritual is the knowledge that soon we will be faced with drivers that forgot that snow and ice come just about every year around this time, stores already full of the coming festive spending spree promising the latest must haves and can't live with outs. In short time we will bear witness to shoppers losing their shit over the latest deals on TV's and spending way too much money on "stuff."
This year, maybe more so than the last few years, I find myself resisting the idea that happiness is a short trip to the mall away. Not that I haven't always been a tad hateful of the mall and all it represents and I know without equivocation that happiness comes from within; rather, I think this year, after the roller coaster ride life has taken me on the last month or so I feel like I don't even want to hear about Alexa and her minions.
If you have been following over the past three years or so you will know I am about doing stuff as opposed to owning stuff, this is not new territory for me. What is new is where I am. Last month I got engaged and my best friend died the next day. Both were expected, both were emotional and both will have a lasting impact on my life. This past weekend a friend I had watched with pleasure and awe grow up got married and my oldest daughter had an engagement party to celebrate a future walk down the aisle. Everyday there is something uplifting and life affirming; and often there is something to remind us that hope is the one thing keeping us afloat some days.
The appeal of hope is what brought Barrack Obama to the presidency and 8 years later we were rudely reminded what fear and everything that can derive from it can do. But hope is still there. It springs forth eternally it would seem from the very bosom of our collective lives. We had it 100 years ago as The Great War ended and we have it now. And thank God we do. There is darkness in the world, we all know that as we weaponize everything from the bible to our own words. We drive wedges between everything and seemingly standing on someone else's throat is the best way to make us feel we have a chance at grasping whatever wish we may have for ourselves.
Of course that is not the case for us all. In fact I would argue that there is more good than not out in the great wide open world. And that is where hope and love come into the equation. Allowing for "love opening the door" leads us, I think, to a better place to be and one I will always try to stay in. And in times of doubt and fear, when the best course of action seems to be hiding from it all remember this - the sun comes up again tomorrow:
"You push everyone away
But you don't want to be alone
You still don't know what you want
But you have to let that go
And trust that the sun will rise
In the morning"
The Trews
So, while it seems it might just be us now, it doesn't have to be that way. On the "other side of fear" is hope and love. While my best friend has departed, his memory will not, and I know him well enough to know that he would haunt me in the worst possible way if I didn't keep moving forward and living life out loud and large.
I hope you join me.
Ciao
D
Photo courtesy of my good friend Margo
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