It’s a Little Shadowy Out There

Have you noticed?

There’s been an odd, fairly strange vibration swirling around these past couple of days.

For myself, I’ve started my retirement plans, and none too soon. The company is changing, the people, the direction. It’s what every company does. Out with the old, in with the new. The old may have experience but the young have the moxy. I am the old.

And that’s okay. Us ‘tiques have other dreams to pursue, other places to visit, other friends to make.

But it’s been strange vibrations all around me, too.

Some of the blogs I’ve been reading lately have been tinged with melancholy, with sadness, with memories and lost loves and buckets of missed memories.

The news has been depressing and frustrating, even with the occasional stories on Facebook of people and the dogs they rescued and cats finding their forever homes.

I don’t know if it’s pre-Mercury retrograde or the discovery of 20 new moons around Saturn, but the universe is undulating in unsettling ways. I find I cannot listen to the news much anymore, or sad stories about animals and kids. I want to help heal the world, but I can’t.

Lots of violent, sadistic movies and TV shows out there lately, too. Lots of deaths mixed in with good looking heroes. Went to the movies the other nite; the Joker was packed, yet there were only six of us watching Downton Abbey.

How boring I must be.

People are posting and reposting stories about missing long-gone pets, family members, and lifestyles. A lot of sentimental sweet things, too, stories that pull your heart strings as you watch a moment in time disappear, reminding you how short life really is.

It’s probably my hormones again; my body and mind adjusting to getting older. But if you notice the world around you is unsettling as the days go by, perhaps its time to take a break from all of it.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Devote your time to people, places, and things that reinforce your faith in humanity.

For me that’s family and friends. My love of art. It’s writing and having coffee with friends and cleaning out my old clothes that don’t fit right anymore. Its eating my favorite foods and going for a walk and finding a good book to read.

I’m sure you can find a dozen things, too, that take your mind off the melancholy.

We must learn to leave the chaos behind now and then. The things we can do nothing about. Otherwise we will swirl down the hole of no return, alone and wandering.

Stay away from the swirling universe for a while.  It will still be swirling when you get back. Don’t let your sad or wonderful memories be all you see, all you are. Feel the melancholy, the dreams of the past, the vibrations of worlds gone by. But don’t let it own you.

Bake some cookies. Explore the worlds of artists you enjoy. Play Barbies or trucks with little kids or wear something you always wanted to but never did. Try a new hobby, a new restaurant, a new direction.

Don’t let the world take over. You’ve still got so much more to do and be.

And that is a happy thing!