I'll drink to that!

It’s that time again folks!

The past two days have been extremely interesting to all those casual observers out there. Again it was that time of the year when otherwise normal people go out of their way to make the last few days of the year ‘matter’. Suddenly there is a surge of sold-out cruises, exotic holidays and of course those sudden visits/phone calls to a certain someone. An old friend separated by the distance perhaps or maybe an old friend separated by a long forgotten/forgiven tiff; a distant aunt maybe, or even a close cousin.

What is it about the ending of a year that sensitises each one of us to that ticking clock, painfully ticking away the hours, minutes and seconds of time before everything we know, as we know it, ends? Perhaps it is the painful realization that there slips another important slice of our lives lost forever, doomed to exist only in our memories embellished by weak recollections and wishful thinking. Or maybe it has more to do with our inherent fear of the unknown, over here the unknown being our future and whatever it brings with it. It might be our natural response to the unknown, aligning our surroundings with familiarity and all that we know and thus trust. Whatever the reason maybe, it stirs in us an urgency to make a desperate lunge for those times and those people with whom we had made, possibly, the best of those beautiful memories. The beauty of it is that for the duration of that brief phone call or meeting we actually are transported back into that lovely place where we made those memories before...before life took over as it so cruelly tends to. As both of us bask in the magic of a friendship rekindled we feel it’s warmth wash over us. Never mind the fact that its effect will probably wear off before our heads hit our pillows. For that brief moment life, once again, begins to make sense.

The knowledge that the past isn’t completely lost. That feeling is probably what keeps a lot of us sane throughout the year. And so holding on to reassuring ties and subtle promises of allegiance we face the new year and all that will come with it. All based on a gamble, if things work out, we’ll be ready to abuse yet another year around the same time, if not c’est la vie!