Don't Miss the Point

I asked Mr. Kringle for clever inspiration this upcoming year because my tires have been flat. I’ll be darned if he didn't spring it on me a week early.

Right now I am sipping a warm, fattening, holiday cocktail treat, the pups are chewing on their toys, Charlie Brown Christmas music is playing, it is lightly snowing, and a fire is going. It doesn't get more Norman Rockwell than this.

I also realized it’s probably best not to hope for a “better” year. My second thought is, maybe that’s the point. Maybe the point is recognizing it was a year I threw up my hands. . . or just threw up. I mean, come on. Covid pitched a tent and started a family. Devastating wildfires knocked at my door. Corporate policies absent of decency. Reprehensible politics and a Colt 45 blasted my Economics. So, if the point is to surrender, then my hands are up.

“It’s the small stuff, Vic,” I hear. “Stop, look up, and give thanks for the schit hurled in your direction,” this wee voice whispers. This wasn’t coming from me. I’m not this wise. I mean just ask Frank and Coraline. No, wait. Don’t.

Whoever this is, they are right. I can still crawl onto Mom’s bed, share a blanket, hold her hand and visit with her. She still knows me and I can still make her belly laugh. She can even still say, “I am so thankful I have you.” Wow. I can also still walk the dogs and watch them run like hell in the snow. And I can still fly down a freshly groomed trail, or a fresh powder run with a smile so big my teeth freeze.

Maybe the less obvious graces were not getting enough of a nod or a tip of my hat as much as they should have?

Maybe the mounds of schit hurled in my direction were meant to push me to let go, or at the very least, loosen my grip a little. Boy, you’d think after years of caregiving where letting go is the point, I would have gotten the lesson by now. Sheesh.

So, here’s my clever inspiration: Nod or tip your hat at the small stuff, including the poo, because it’s the “poo” that can nudge us back on course.

I truly hope you and those closest to you have a healthy, kind, safe, appreciative, happy holiday season~ Vic, Frank and Coraline.

Photo: 1967, Suzie, Santa, and me.

Videos: Frank and Coraline's Christmas card (I had nothing to do with it).