Sunday 25 March 2012

“Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere.” Anon

I love the Spring.  New things bursting (or sliding sneakily) into life.  Someone once called me a Moon Child - but I don't think you'd normally call me a hippy chick if you saw me.  No tie-dye t-shirts, open toe sandals, or flowers in my hair.  And it is really not advisable for me to go bra-less!  But I do like to see the sun after the dark days.
I operate on a cycle - on this I've mused before.  Sometimes the wheel turns quickly, and sometimes more slowly.  The seasonal changes are one great wheel, and lots of other wheels of different sizes all turn at their own rate.  The difficulty seems to occur when multiple wheels reach their lowest points at the same time. 

Everything is black then, and I had a time like that a few weeks back.  It really felt that there was no point to anything I did.  Why are we here?  What is it all about?  Does anything we do really make a difference to anything? 

And does it have to make a difference?  If not, there really is no point to anything.  If, we are merely here to exist, then the only thing that matters is having a good time, surely.  Obviously some of what we do is to put food on the table etc - working now so that the future can be covered and we can live how we want to then.

But what about the end of your life?  I've an aging in-law who has recently shown a decline in person, mobility and motivation.  At a great age, she doesn't really want to go on - that's clear, and that's even though she is still independant, mobile, and fabulous compared to many others.  All that's left is further decline.  So why should she.  I wouldn't.  I don't want to be a burden and I don't want to be a vegetable.  But how to manage that process.

I had a conversation with an old friend this week, who has, in the past, humoured my ramblings on the 'what is the point' topic.  Suddenly, she gets it, having gone through the same feelings herself very recently.  She's put it down to the 'M' word.  Eek.  Menopause.  Nooooooooo!  It is true that the realisation that it's all a bit pointless, is happening to us both.  But it can't be purely physically, and chemically driven, can it?  I hate to even mention the word.  It's scarey with a capital S (ok, it's a capital M).  Actually, it's just plain irritating.  And I won't accept that.  I will just keep on believing that the reason for my musings are that I'm aware of my extreme limitations in the bigger picture of life the multiverse and everything.

How to deal with them?  Live well, do good things.... oh, that's a whole other chapter.

She has found comfort in labelling her emotional state.  I'm not prepared to go there yet, and aim to understand more before accepting the inevitable.  It's one possibility, but I think I'm more than just a bundle of chemistry. I can be there for her - so I guess that's helpful, and the very act could conceivably help me through my own mini crises (very mini, in comparison to most people, of course.)

Another friend is showing the signs of coming out of a dark place, the wheel turning and lifting him upwards towards the light.  That makes me happy.  Very happy.  That's what friendship is for.

It's always tricky to see the sun before it arrives.  One doesn't always remember that it will return.  But the wheel turns.  Some times more quickly than others.  I'm ascending again now, and need to ride the wave for a while, recharge the batteries, and ignore the impending doom for a bit.  Someone once said, worrying gets you nowhere.

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened”  Winston Churchill