January Blog....And Letter to Friends

Well, the party is over. And it’s reality time again. Darn it! I don’t know about you…but I had a fabulous Christmas. Lolling about on a glamorous cruise ship in the big middle of the Caribbean Sea, meeting amazing people, reading a 1012 page book (Ken Follett’s World Without End) with nothing else to do but eat, sleep, read, eat, and sit in the sun. Oh, yeah, and eat. It’s so relaxing they actually have to put a carpeting insert in the floor of the elevators to remind you what day it is! And did I work on the script? Um…well…no. I have plenty of excuses though, if you’d like to hear them.
Today is the 9th of January, it’s freezing outside (like 16 degrees) and my little office is worse than a tomb. The window leaks, frigid air is spilling over the window seat like a waterfall. Or should I say glacier? Yeah…it’s a glacier. I’ve stuffed towels and blankets all over the seat, and up onto the window, but it’s still c-c-c-oooold! So, the heck with it, I’m going to ignore it. That’s something I learned from my time sitting with a Buddhist group. If you cannot fix it, or change it, well then, focus your attention elsewhere.
I’ve had to learn to do that frequently in my life. From nagging little aches and pains, to giant problems that seem overwhelming and insolvable, I just focus my attention elsewhere. Right now I’m focusing on what I’m writing, and the cold (except while I’m writing about it) is not in my field of vision, if y’know what I mean.
Christmas required some of that focusing elsewhere thingy too. It’s was the first time ever in my entire life that I spent the holiday away from my family. For a sentimental mush like me that’s heavy. However, I suppose that being on a gigantic ship, with all the excitement and endless entertainment and thousands of people all around made the focusing my attention elsewhere pretty darn easy.
I wondered (OK, I’ll admit, only briefly) about the millions of lonely people who never have spent a holiday with loved ones, or even worse, once had loved ones and now they are gone away.
I don’t know how they deal with it, and I hope I never have to find out. My life is filled to the brim with family and friends, and I am deeply grateful for every single one of them. They make my life what it is.
Joyful, exciting, fulfilling, and definitely not boring. Who could ask for more? And may you, dear reader, have the new year turn out to be your best year ever.