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Wednesday Dec. 9, 2015


Happy holiday wishes for everyone, have another Christmas with us, another Hanukkah …

In this season of giving and getting, do we know what we want? Do we know what someone else wants? There is an old cliché that goes, ‘be careful what you wish for’.

Discard that one. No purchase or saying guarantees happy times. I don’t always get my way, but it is clear what I’ll be wishing. Times spent talking, laughing, eating, drinking. Times taking in this season with family, with friends – season of joy, when merchants sell it, when we wrap it in tradition – we count days, we count candles but we rarely count this season as our last. For some it is. For some, a reprieve. Many more can be celebrated – or at least one.

Best to receive, not found in any mall, best gifts don’t come wrapped. Measured, not by boxes and tissue or tape – but by ticking of time that measures how long they last. Being with people who matter – with or without brilliantly wrapped packages, is our best gift to give. There are always those who can’t be there. And those who could be, if they wanted to be, but who choose to be somewhere else with others, or alone. Selfishly I want mine with me, wishing for missing person to show up.

Destinations are places we never get to. Life takes different trips, often on routes we planned but we end up in different places. Life’s journey starts in a hospital, often ends in one. Some would argue that journey starts sooner, ends later … one person’s belief beginning where another leaves off.

Mark Kolke

written / published from Calgary, AB

morning walk:  2C/35F, warm air but walks slick with wet ice, Gusta found some mucky-paws spots by a fence, traffic light, gentle breeze and birds chirping (about dawn I suppose)


Reader feedback:

DREAMS AGAIN

I have wondered about the term "functioning alcoholic".  It has been explained to me as some one who performs their daily rituals while being drunk.  Is an alcoholic a person who can not complete a day without drinking or a person who keeps drinking after the first one until they pass out or a little of both?  Alcohol was always something that accompanied the party not the other way around (for me).  I could still party without it because I was a stoner.  Didn't like losing control of my faculties which accompanied the alcohol but not the smoking pot.  Been to many AA meetings with recovering friends and noticed that while they did not drink alcohol there was an excessive consumption of coffee, or sodas or cigarettes.  The addiction appeared to still be present only a different poison, so to speak.  GW, Bon Wier, Tx. 


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