Everybody wants to know
Why I sing the blues
Yes, I say everybody wanna know
Why I sing the blues
Well, I’ve been around a long time
I really have paid my dues
– B.B. King “Why I sing the Blues”
Captain’s Log. Daddy Chronicles. Diaper Date 2315.
And today I prepare to go back to work. After a two week break, and an impromptu blizzard, it is time to head back to work.
I personally believe that this is the hardest time of year for anyone – unless, of course, you dwell in one of those majestic warm cities. And it is every year about this time that I question my location.
The problem is I like seasons. I have a hard time with change, but something about the cathartic process helps me. Keeps me from being complacent. The change forces me to move.
But this time of year is not conducive to a greats deal of change.
It’s more like the deep freeze followed by the blues.
The days can be depressing- you wake up in the dark, work all day, and then travel home in the gray tunnel that leads to evening. There is little sunshine. There is routine. At times it seems like the only change you experience is your underwear and the costume that goes over it as you walk into the same dreary day over and over and over again. It’s like a real life Groundhog’s Day. Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe may not greet you every morning with your alarm, but same feeling seems to accompany that morning bell.
This is why we sing the blues this time of year. The swirl of repetition seems to emulate the long spin down the toilet bowl of emotions. They don’t call it Seasonal Affect Disorder (S.A.D.) for nuth’n
But this year, I want something different.
In Scrooge (one of my favorite movies) Scrooge pleads to the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come:
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
In Scrooge’s case he realized that he was set to die miserable and alone. In my case, I don’t want to get stuck in a rut while the sun is hiding. And because of that desire, I did something revolutionary.
I cut off part of our tree and stuck it in a Mason Jar.
I have bottled us some Christmas Spirit.
When the kids get grumpy, I grab the bottle, tickle them and tell them they need some Christmas Spirit.
Is it cheesy? Yes. But it works.
It’s silly, but as we get busy on these long gray days, I want us to remember the “magic” of Christmas. I want us to remember the warmth of the glow of the tree and the way feelings were cured with a drop of hot chocolate or a candy cane. I want us to remember not only how nice it is to receive gifts, but to give them as well.
And maybe, probably, my children will not get all that from a 2 inch branch cut from our tree, but it will be, I hope, enough to remind me. And that is a gift that I hope to keep on giving. I hope to keep the Spirit of Christmas all year round. Even if it is in a mason jar.
Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas on January and every month hereafter.
That’s all I’ve got for now-
Captain out…
