Blue Monday?

January can be an exciting month because it implies freshness, new beginnings, and a chance to start over. But January is a depressing time for many. There are fewer hours of sunlight and even those hours are usually gray and dreary. The Christmas bills are beginning to arrive. The W2 showing just how little you earned last year has arrived. Plus you've made all those wonderful resolutions to lose weight so you can't even turn to the chocolate box to lift your spirits.With the shortened days and the self-inflicted chocolate withdrawal symptoms, January seems like one giant Christmas hangover.

Much of the media have declared today - the third Monday in January - as the most depressing day of the year. The media has tagged today as Blue Monday. Now I can't say if the majority of Americans suffer a day of depression on Blue Monday, but I can say that this particular Blue Monday is a good one for me.

This is the last Monday that I will be making a 45-mile commute to my current job. Retirement Monday mornings begin next week.This Monday is almost the last day that I will awakening in my current nest. Two weeks from today I will awaken in my new nest in North Carolina and begin unpacking moving boxes. This Monday is the last time I will have to complain about going out to spend money on fast food for lunch because I was too lazy to prepare my lunch at home - next Monday I will be at home at lunch time!

This is the last Monday that I will be pulling away from my office in my little red truck that our custodian loaded down with moving boxes.

Sadly, this is the last Monday I will be talking to my south-Georgia sister for one hour each weekday. When I first moved to Powder Springs, I was complaining about my commute simply because I like leaving before the roads get crowded - which meant leaving around 6:00 a.m. It was hard for me to not nod off from road hypnosis once I got on I-20 and started that long drive in the dark. Sister #2 said that she is always up that early and that if I would call her she would be glad to talk me through. She has been true to her word. Almost every weekday morning for the last six years, I have dialed her number and she has cheerily answered the phone and listened patiently as I chatted my way from Powder Springs to Conyers. We have covered every topic from religion and spirituality to decorating to health issues to children to politics to investing and back again to decorating and children. She has been my soul spirit as well as my friend. She has given me love and laughter, support and encouragement, rejoicing in my good times, a shoulder to cry on in my hard times, and a kick in the butt when I needed it.

This road I have been walking for so many years is now coming to an end. But Blue Monday? Not in my heart at all this year. This year it's a New Monday.

How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye?

Remember the song by Patty Loveless - "How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye"? There is one refrain from the song that plays through my hand at different times in my life:

Mama whispered softly, Time will ease your pain

Life's about changing, nothing ever stays the same.

And the refrain is running through my head many days right now as I face a lot of changes in the near future. All of us just collectively made the change into 2012. A new year always feels exciting; a new start. We may look back nostagically at the year as it passes, but we always happily anticipate a fresh start of a new year and we make all those resolutions that are going to make this new year better - eat less, exercise more / spend less - save more / work less - play more. We always think in terms of more good things.

In my home away from home

Along with welcoming in 2012, I am facing some other changes that are a mixed bag of anticipation and anxiety. First, I am ending my career at Rockdale County Public Schools and leaving behind the position I have held for 22 years. As the keeper of official records of the Board of Education, I have been sole creator and curator of their documents as well as their scheduled activities. As I have been the designer of the procedures, these tasks have become so ingrained in me that I could probably literally "conduct them in my sleep". It is a wee bit difficult for me to pass these duties on to other hands, yet Life's About Changing.

Ron on the porch of my sister's house on Frank Aiken Road

After walking through these office doors for the last time, I will have about a week in my existing home to finalize the packing. For the past few years, Ron and I have been in a rental home that belongs to my sister. Built in the 60s, the house is a typical tract home with 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. Moving there from a 3,000 square foot house has helped ease me into the "downsizing" mode of thinking. Much of our furniture and other paraphenalia necessary for living has been stored away in a storage unit for the past few years, and I have learned that I have managed just fine without all the stuff. In fact, I do not even remember exactly what is packed in all the boxes so securely stored. I do know that I look forward to unpacking my books, scrapbooks, and photographs. It has been fun to decorate this little house and live with its coziness, but on February 4, I will walk out those doors for the last time (perhaps). Nothing ever stays the same.

Then Ron and I will be walking into the doors of our next home. We think of this as our retirement home. The last resting place on this earth. But we thought the Conyers house was the retirement home. So we'll see what God has planned for the future.

North Carolina Home

Life's about changing, nothing ever stays the same.
And it is about to change drastically for us. We are saying goodbye to so many things in our life that have defined us for a long time. But we are walking into new challenges, new cultures, and new opportunities. New free hours (due to retirement), a new city and state, a new abode, and a new beginning. Life's about to change. More good things are on the way.