Second chances allow hope to Spring eternal this time of year
Not all plans are fulfilled. Nor are all events planned. Holidays don’t always make it onto the planner, nor do all plans get properly watered. See? Some play Eine Kleine Nachtmusik to spur growth, while others ram cucumber peelings into the potting soil.
I simply make plans, don’t sing to them, and seldom put crushed eggshells at the base of my calendar. Case in point, which could go for last year or two score ago, though I’d be moving into the realm of fiction as I’ve only lived through seven leap years (and my hair color, it’s natural, you gawkers you). Jealous much?
In my native country of Lilliput, Christmas is perhaps the most important day (outside of my birthday of course), especially when measured by retail turnover, holiday-themed promotions and the size and rancor of family gatherings.
Just to give this a bit of context, I am also considered particularly tall, handsome and savvy, in my homeland, by the way. So when I began to take note of the red, white and green decor at Pee Oh Esses (Points of Sale) just after the jack-o-lanterns were taken down on Nov 1, I began to giddy-up on the greenery, started dropping hints about what I might enjoy seeing under the tree, and elfing-up the lobes so as to catch wind of any Yuletide soirees that I might crash, uninvited, and repetitively.
After dropping a few hints about gift ideas and party particulars, and given the cold December shoulder on all fronts, I decided to focus on the giving geist of Advent season.
Christmas cards were bought, snail mail addresses of aging aunts and fast-fading-fromfamiliarity fraternity brethren were hunted down and verified, and an odd oblong object, cold to the touch, and containing a dark fluid, was laid beside the Hallmarks.
And there the pen and parchment sat, for nearly two months, casting a cold cataract-ridden ken my way wherever I wandered, guilting me into action or more fetal-position knee-hugging time in the wardrobe with the dog scratching outside.
Hey! Why don’t you pour ME a glass of water for a change! So then I perceived a change in the air. It became bitterly cold, and the red, white and green trappings in marts and malls became red only.
I had missed Christmas again. No family reunions, cards unsent, gifts unpurchased, greetings undelivered.
But host of hosts, I was not left floating above the tablecloth like a matzo ball in a Chinese restaurant in Queens on Christmas Eve.
There was still a chance to make things right. Lunar New Year was a full month away! I could summon all the holiday spirit I had scrooged away in late December and break the bank in early February for Chinese New Year!
In short, I was given a second chance to visit family, rekindle old friendships, gift and card my way into the good graces of those who were once important to me, clean my entire apartment (including under the refrigerator) and give pup a pedicure!
Well, I hope you all enjoyed Spring Festival, and I for one am anxiously awaiting Dragon Boat Festival because Cujo’s claws are giving me shin splints.