The Tenth Day of Christmas.

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I've got to tell you, while I am enjoying Christmas?  I am also getting the celebration out of my system.  Christmas, this year, won't be every day the way it used to be.  I will have had my Christmas.  However, I believe this celebration will buoy me through the year in a more serious and faithful way.  Further, I am looking for a few other holidays to celebrate a bit more similarly.  Easter, the 4th of July, and Thanksgiving, for the coming year.  The goal is to carve out a week before for shopping and generally making sure I have what I need and that I have a plan.  But have that work be a side note.  Then, the day before, set out to be ready to have an easy celebration, then celebrate on the day, and finally coast on that celebration for a bit.  Cooking extra hotdogs, or hamburgers, for example, on the 4th, and then living off that and the sides for as long as I can.  I finally "get" holidays.  I might even figure out which day they land on.  I know what day Christmas lands on... just hoping that is a regular day?  Is it Thanksgiving that changes?  The 4th had better be on the danged 4th!  But that is only half of some of the trick.  On three to five day "weekend" holidays, sometimes the celebration is held on a slightly different day.  Right?  Humans!  Calendars?  Work!  Celebrations?  You all confuse me.

People and their oddities drive me to distraction.  Then again, you all breeze through life, in the sense that just being alive is... not difficult.  It isn't a task, say, for you to breath.  You never crumble into a dark hole of thought and body for no reason, and get stuck there.  (General rule, I know some of you regulars have your own afflictions, some more severe than others.)  Running a regular schedule is not easy for anyone, I don't think, but most of you do, and can do, that.  Those of you who have a difficult time?  Imagine not having any control, like a plane that loses it's wings, or tail, or something.  No control, not always.  Just being conscious enough to think deeply enough to remember... to eat, sometimes... or to do... anything.  Plus, having no one there for when it all falls down, or to push you into compliance, a bit.  Life has improved.  Food on a more regular basis, medicine and the right stuff to treat the real problems, and a will of iron.  It looks like I fail, but should a man be able to be dropped in the middle of the ocean and swim to shore?  I've nearly done that.  I didn't even get a warning of the drop, I was asleep.  The whole time I was pretty much blind and somewhat unaware, but I was told that being in the ocean was my fault, and that the drowning sensation and fear was just an illusion.  On that score, water pills were and remain a joy.  You truly have no idea what I have just survived.  Or how impossible it is that I am actually getting better.

This morning?  I woke at, oh, 7:00?  I went to bed somewhat early last night, but I needed the sleep.  Perhaps down at 21:00 to 22:00, maybe closer to 23:00?  Some time in there.  But I needed sleep.  I have been pushing.  Need to stop pushing, by the way.  I woke, for the first time in some time, and new the date.  The day I had in mind was one off, but that was fixed internally even before my eyes popped open.  I knew I had some appointments coming up, thought the first was on a certain day, and considering the day and date of the appointment, and today's date, I figured what day it is.  And, as noted, I remembered my upcoming appointments, though I will check the time of the first one so as to... be ready.  I believe it is the afternoon one, though... I need to check.

I will be taking a shower shortly.  Then heading to town.  I really do need milk, cream, coffee, perhaps to see my friend and take him for a meal and to the store if he should prefer.  I need to stop at the bank, stop at the gym to sign off, and... then get back to do some cooking and cleaning.  Not sure what all will be done, but that is the goal.  Prayers, of course, and just... remembering Christ, the early years mostly.  Mother and Babe, His childhood, His labor as a man, His teaching and examples.  He isn't just my Lord.  He, to a degree, is an example.  I can't follow, I can't yet walk on water, and any sacrifice I make in His name or for Father are tiny in comparison.  But from children can be had only what children can give.  Not enough to save, but enough to bring some little joy.  The greatest gift is simply to live with the reality of the situation, and joyfully.  Reminds me, I need to try to sing when I go to church.  To belt it out.  Not a great singer, but... that isn't the point.

Ah... well... a bit of waking then on to... whatever today brings.  Merry Christmas!