Good morning.

It’s February 1st.  A lot of people whom I love have birthdays this month, including all four of my shared children.  (“Shared children” being the phrase that I prefer to “stepchildren”, especially considering that I am divorced from their fathers.)  So, happy happy birthday month to Kim Fariello, Tshandra White, Cara MacLaughlin, and Ansel MacLaughlin.  I love you all and am so very grateful to have been part of your lives and to continue being part of your lives.

I’m particularly grateful to be a fairy grandmother to Miss Grace Kelley.

I awakened at 1:30 a.m. with a song in my head.  I fell back asleep at five with that song still nagging me.  Slip sliding away. . . slip sliding away. . .

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

Whoah and I know a man, he came from my hometown
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said Dolores, I live in fear
My love for you’s so overpowering, I’m afraid that I will disappear

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

I know a woman, became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said a good day ain’t got no rain
She said a bad day is when I lie in  bed
And I think of things that might have been

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

And I know a father who had a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he’d done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

Whoah God only knows, God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable to the mortal man
We’re workin’ our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway, when in fact we’re slip sliding away

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away

(Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel)

It’s no secret that I don’t sleep well.  For six or seven months last year, I claimed more sleep than I had in the past five decades.  That seems to have slipped away from my grasp now, but i’m not complaining.  I wake up each morning and that’s more than some people can say.  I’ll take each day, pain, sleeplessness, worry, and all.  For despite all of my burdens, and all of my sorrow, my days are filled with so much beauty and so many wonderful people that my problems seem like a pittance of a price to pay.

It’s the first day of the twenty-sixth month of My Year Without Complaining.  Life continues.