Sunday, January 11, 2009

Mid Winter Blues?

I do not normally complain or whine in my writing and I do not plan on doing so now. However, I must admit that I have been in a funk for a couple of weeks now. I think it is a combination of post holiday blues caused by the return to "normal" life, a slight case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and a feeling of just being bored with my life right now. On top of this, I just haven't felt all that great. I do not feel sick but I often feel depleted. Even the B-12 shots I take every month do not seem to make any difference. Plus, it seems I feel the winter cold more than I ever have before. At my house the holidays are not quite behind us yet. Just today we finally started packing away all the Christmas decorations. It will probably be another week before everything is out of sight and out of mind. I love it when this finally happens because my home seems bigger and simpler without all the decorations. I admit I like them leading up to Christmas day but I tire of them quickly once the holidays are over. I am also weary of the cold, dark, and short days. It will only get worse before it gets better. The worst of winter in my part of the world is yet to come. The one part of winter that brings me joy is snow. At this time, however, we have yet to have a real snowfall. Typical of this time of year, I am also a little bored with life. The rock and roll road trips are months away and very few musical opportunities happen in winter. I do have a show planned for early March but that is really early spring and it seems far away at the moment. Work is also slow and uneventful. The days drag and minutes seem like hours. I try not to watch the clock but that is quite a challenge. When I catch myself doing it I secretly laugh remembering a Chris Rock comedy special where he talks about the difference between a career and a job. What I have is a job.

After being home nearly a month, my son returned to the seminary today to begin the next semester. Even he was somewhat lacking in enthusiasm. Becoming a priest is a lot of work. He hasn't lost the desire but like all of life's endeavors, it's often challenging to get back in the groove after being home for a month sleeping in every day and playing video games into the wee hours of the night.

A friend sent me the following quote. As someone who loves psychology, I really liked and it makes a great deal of sense to me.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.
-William James (1842-1910), American pioneering psychologist

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