We Made It!

This day, being the day when many of us review the year and give some thought as to how well it went: we look at the social and economic tail-spin the world at large has been plummeting through, seldom stopping to appreciate the fact that we are here, and, for this moment, we are alright.

I sat down this morning... took a deep breath... lighting some incense and candle... took another deep breath. It was a simple act…mind you, nothing pompous or anything like that, but I love to do this: count the months… hmm… twelve of them: the days, three-hundred and sixty-five of them: the hours; eight-thousand, seven-hundred and sixty of these: the minutes too, because sometimes this year it has been a minute by minute challenge and there are, whew, five-hundred-thousand- twenty-five and six-hundred minutes… every precious one of these I honor and am grateful for.

It has been a full year: full of excitement, discovery: the love that was shared with my precious mate, Bonnie: pleasures of all sorts as well as expectations unmet, defeat at times and persistent bouts of pain too. But I made it out of nothing I have earned. I didn’t get this far because I am a good guy and God loves me more than the multitudes that did not make it to this day. If we are here, now; we just won the lottery of life this year and it has been our joy to have shared it with each other. 

Mostly, I am grateful for the bones that paved the way... the bones of those who have gone before... some of whom we mourned, who passed away this year: the ones who danced down the streets like dingledodies... the ones I shamble after as I have been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everyone goes "Awww!"

And I thank Jack Kerouac for most of that last paragraph... my gratitude goes on and on into next year. In 2012 we get an extra twenty-four hours... whoopee! uh... unless the Mayan Calendar ... nevermind.

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