This isn’t a full-fledged posting. We’re just back from our trip a few days, most of which has been consumed by nursing Rosellen through a nasty few days of wrestling with the dreaded norovirus. It’s brief but nasty. Wash your hands. Given how contagious it is, I can’t believe I’ve been unaffected – so far.
I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year, one not filled with any more foreign invasions to lay claim to the oil and other natural resources of formerly autonomous countries. I did want to share one tradition that we’ve been honoring for many years now. On New Year’s Day, or as close to it as possible (we were traveling home from our week away – next week’s blog topic – on New Year’s Day) we take down last year’s calendar and slowly walk our way through it, reviewing what filled the past 365 days. Our lives are quieter these days than in the past, but they’re still filled with time spent – online and in person – with people we love. They still spotlight more travel than many people our age manage – a cruise to Norway, a week in the Dominican Republic, two weeks in New Hampshire and two long weekends in Maryland with family. Finally, there’s a staggering number of doctor visits and PT appointments; those entries are sure to grow during the years that remain to us.
As we flip the pages of that calendar, Rosellen and I discover once again how divergent our senses of time are. As she comes upon significant events, she wonders at how recent they feel, while I tend to experience them as more remote, already fading into the distance. It’s a reminder that no two people, no matter how close, are rooted in identical realities.
Happy New Year. See you next week.
