Sounds ridiculous, does it not? Week one gone… only 51 to go. Yes… but that’s the reality of it all… or is it? Last year this time I was coming to terms with my first week back at (paid) employment after being at home for more than two years.
Note: I’m not going to say sitting at home… that I most certainly didn’t quite get around to doing, if you’ll excuse the times I was perched on my behind playing dad’s/ oupa’s taxi…driver, that is… or ‘writing’ novels and other unrelated bits, including feeding this thing that’s turned into the hungry OMBH devourer of words and ideas.
One year ago. I left home again, on a work-daily basis… that would be a better way to describe it. Why? To regain some of my dignity. To allow my family a little respite. You see, they too have dignity… my boys did not particularly like having a father who was on the dole. No, they’re proud lads as well, take after their old man, yes, they do.
Dignity. Important for the spiritual well-being of a family. My very long-suffering better half could stroll into the stores again, well, not quite stroll. Head held a tad higher… not needing to bring a parking money pouch with, just for the in case. No, the grandkid’s piggy’s would be spared the wreckers hammer… yep, their nest egg secure until next week.
Life… dignity… dignity… life!
The thought processes shift… they drift… lapping at the edge of the mind’s low ebb… when you think your toes are dry a slightly larger wavelet splashes your left ankle… just when you thought. To think… 12 months ago you were chest deep in the roaring waves… pulled hither and thither by the tempest…gales ripping the air from your lungs… to think.
When last have you swallowed a mouthful of life’s chilly sea water… when last have you wondered if keeping your head beneath the next wave won’t be the better way to go? Dignity… that’s all we can ask for, is it not? And maybe a bit of respect.
Now… that we have back. Not in buckets full but just enough to allow the occasional warm glow. Now the ankle lapping wavelets are mere reminders of the undercurrents… mere reminders of how easily life can swamp you with its cares if you don’t have some shelter… dignity.
Now I have a family full of better times… and as of late Zach came along to join… shows what dignity can do… move the mind, excite the flow… stimulate the creativity…
OK… I’ll stop there… it may be interesting to look back next year this time… what may this year bring? Obviously new challenges will arrive unannounced, as they so often do… but then, if we have our dignity in tact it is always easier to face the challenges… is it not?
The Grand Canal Basin on a still morning, a view I’m often blessed with when I reach my morning’s work destination… worth getting up for!
PS – Thanks to Mr Joe T for the concept of feeding the beast… the devourer of words, ideas, thoughts and so much more… OMBH, it’s a hungry beast indeed!!
Happy New work year AJ. Feeding the beast indeed ! Any crumbs I threw at a beast were to a type which had a beginning, middle and end. I salute you for feeding something which is forever hungry.
Joe.
Touché Sir! I learned from the master!!
I hope you’re enjoying friend Zach… he will be taking a leading role this year, I think… I should take him down the Royal with me for a holiday, don’t you think?
Pretty pink sky behind that red brick building … and a mention for the reflection too of course.
Ta… yes, I enjoyed the vista on the morning…. the pink does ad hue…
(As a boy we don’t actually refer to it as pink… either watermelon or cerise?)
Watermelon it is then.
Indeed… watermelon… imagine taking a bite out of that watermelon sky!! Fun…
Congrats on your year of earning income. May it last as long as you want.
Thanks… however, I think you know how I really like to earn my living!!