Promo Code: JOY2020

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.
– Thomas Hardy

Who would think I’d find myself (this holiday season) loitering, masked on the tracks, (probably holding up trains) while holding back a migraine – for fun!

Unlike my extrovert friends, I don’t miss crowded holiday parties drenched with glasses overfilled with empty chitchat. I don’t miss my favorite restaurants in the holiday season, waiting an hour and a half to be seated. Now I order ahead, take it & go. I don’t miss the bustle of shoppers at Bloomies or the hustle of opportunists offering opioids. Although festive in color, I don’t miss miles of red tail lights backed up on the freeway. I don’t miss the gluttony and excess of holiday frenzy or assumptions gilded in gold.

Instead I’ve taken a liking to my collection of masks. And I realize with distance, all the times in my life when I could have masked up – to save face. Oh, if only you knew those transformative tales!

Silence is more eloquent than words.
– Thomas Carlyle

Under the current stay-at-home order, my gregarious acquaintances shun the joys of solitude. But you see I once spent a week in the desert in silence – with monks at a Monastery – even cleaning latrines with the Benedictines. Expected to rise with the tolling of bells before dawn (to consider my ways), I still prefer the darkest of indigo nights for enlightenment. But the frugal surroundings and fathomless skies at daybreak can (on occasion) heighten the glow.

I don’t miss wedging shoulder to shoulder at concerts or sticky venues. I don’t miss shaking hands with strangers or friends – such an odd thing to do. I don’t miss packed boarding gates and late arrivals at overbooked hotels. But I miss the freedom to fly to exotic locales. I miss the buzz of spontaneity. I miss adrenaline ventures into the steamy unknown. But now, with security lines and passport control mutated into fast lanes for spread, I’ll give airports a miss this season – I hope you will too.

For me and for you, 2020 spritzed us an insidious virus. So the quaintness of last year’s Christmas no longer applies. Pre-Covid Codes all expired with global transmission. But it’s the season of blessings and counting them, so here’s what I’ve got. 

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
– Lao Tzu

Shift your horizon. Blessings lie inward – yet crisscross the heavens. Near the top of my list I count the blessing of creativity and its ineffable spirit. But the blessing of lovers and loved ones gleams from the brightest of stars.

For this silent Christmas of all Christmases, you’re not out of options. You can mask up and distance – or Zoom party all night. You can fill Santa’s sleigh with a windfall of online promos all tied up with labels for shipping and a sanitized bow. You can augment your home screen with new apps galore – order from a menu of delicacies delivered to your door. You can even wallow in nostalgia for more social times past. But you could also toast this year’s holiday retreat. Figure out what matters to keep.

And on the subject of keeping, I won’t keep you long. You see I’m busy with loitering and I know you have plenty to do. But in the end (which may be the beginning) I say sift through the lost and add up the found. Count your blessings and distribute a few. But first, indulge Promo Code: JOY 2020 wherever you are – whatever you do. (No cash value) – just a gift of joy from me to you!

P.S. Instead of 2020’s lethal spike proteins and the alternative reality showcase of evil, perhaps the convergence of Saturn & Jupiter on the Winter Solstice bodes well for the alignment of starlight and planets – and change – as we glide into 2021.