For whatever reason in my life, it seems like almost every other year, Christmas time hails some unfortunate events in my life. One year things are great, the next a travesty befalls me and/or my family... *Movie announcer voice* Until now.
I'm relatively young, and so saying the phrase "with all of my experience" may come off as presumptuous and "greenhorned", but I'll ask your indulgence all the same, and ask you accept that everyone is on a continuum of progression in their lives. Anywho, with what I've learned and become in these past several years, things this Christmas are a little different. Let me put it into perspective, here...
So far, these past couple of weeks, I've been down a car and had to wake up much earlier usually to drop my wife off at work, and sometimes pick her up, as well. Additionally, the repairs on that car are not forecasted to be any kind of cheap. Wait, it gets better. The one car we now have got rear ended- not bad damage, but there is repair to be done. That alone might've been alright enough, but then my grandma passed away. And the day after that? I got sick.
Now, all of this might seem like a lot for a time of year when "cheer" is usually the watchword. But again, I'm a different person than I was eight years ago when similarly difficult circumstances befell me. In fact, I am thankful, because my eyes were open enough to see the blessings in it all. To begin with, I'm alive, sentient, and have good family and a loving wife. Compared to being the literal dust of the earth, that's pretty awesome. From there, the fact that my mechanic is observant and careful enough to fix my car without taking any shortcuts is nice; the fact that the damage of the rear-end collision was superbly minimal despite the seemingly heavy blow from behind is incredible; the cold I got this time around was much milder than I usually get, and only lasted a short day or two; and my grandma? She has been in such misery for years, now; and this last one has been especially bad. It is so nice to think she's free from that, at last. And what's more, her death has actually brought me back into contact with a good friend of a cousin I used to see more often.
I'm not saying things haven't been tough- admittedly, thinking about all the collective bad that's happened to me sometimes makes me feel like I'm unlucky, or even uncared for... but then, I considered the idea that the devil set all of these events up to try and get to me, and I can't help but give a good laugh. I mean really? I guess, if nothing else, it goes to show that there are two ways to go through life with minimal dissapointment. On one hand, you can follow the good old "expect disappointment and you won't be disappointed" way of thinking... but that's a little depressing, isn't it? But change that ideology just a little to expand it into something more- you came into this world naked and helpless, and look how far you've come; and better yet, if you know enough what to expect following death, then Samwise Gamgee's best quote from The Lord of The Rings really sums it up far better than anything I could muster.
Once again, I've forgotten to post until the next day, and so here I am at work before hours, having dropped of my wife at hers. And hey, on top of everything else, if you feel like "that's all and well, but have you seen my cooking?", consider that I attempted to make a filipino soup-like dish last night and somehow made mashed potatoes.
Stay warm inside this Christmas. Until next time.