Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
New Year’s Eve
I’m mindful at the end of this year that I could be bereaved, attending support groups and drinking weak coffee in a paper cup with powdered creamer, cracking the wood stirrer into fourths to hold in my hand while I wish I could erase everything that happened that was out of my control as everything is before and after but instead I am here drinking champagne and waiting for the ball to drop in New York, not worried about catastrophe because catastrophe passed me over like the Angel of Death’s blackness gliding by a house protected by an ancient mezuzah, the words on its scroll tiny and faded but spelling out saved and redemption and gratitude.
4 Comments on “New Year’s Eve”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Jan, thank you for the reminder to appreciate what we have and not dwell on what we don’t have – a tendency we have in our retired years as we moan about “what did we work for?”
Jan — it’s been a privilege meeting you. Thanks for the support as I went for the cochlear implant surgery. It’s certainly brightened my and Marilyn’s lives.
Happy New Year!!
I’m glad to have met you and Marilyn as well. And I’m very glad to hear about positive results from the implant. We have a lot to say – all of us – we’re not done yet!
Jan, this post marks the conclusion of a great year for you. I liked how the Journal Sentinel pronounced you to be a “specialist in poverty issues.”* Being a specialist is a good thing, and it seems to me that if you are to be a specialist in something that’s a great choice.
And I assume this post also marks the completion of your meeting Howard’s challenge to make “99 new posts” by the end of 2018. I think I speak for your other followers when I say we find your posts to be very inspirational, and keep up the good work in 2019—although I don’t think you need to feel you must keep up this pace and so make 365 new posts in 2019. Treat yourself to a day or two off!
* https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2018/11/17/street-angels-milwaukee-seek-shelter-rights-homeless-people-winter/2039442002
Oh, thank you, Jerry. I’m so happy that you read my blog. I have to admit to getting a little fried toward the end of 99 but it was good exercise, as they say. 🙂