Blue Moon

Today is December 31, 2009.

 

This is the toughest time to work away from home, the last week of the year. Family and dear friends who came to visit from far away for Christmas before I returned to work on December 23rd have already gone back to their homes in other states. Like me, they have jobs to keep. The few days I got to spend with them just weren’t enough.

 

The week after Christmas is always a time of reflection and hope. I look back and consider the things I might have done differently and I look ahead with anticipation for the new year… another opportunity to be a better man.

 

I remember Christmas nights as a kid. After all the presents had been opened and the neighbors had gone home it was always so quiet. I still recall the feeling that it was all over for another year. I desperately wanted to know God and Christmas was the only time I felt close to Him. My parents didn’t claim faith so I never had an opportunity to learn of Him until later in life. But those sad Christmas nights still come to mind. I wonder if I was odd as a kid.

We didn’t have Gameboys and DS’s and Wii’s and internet and chat rooms and texting and who knows what all to occupy us like the kids have today. But even with all that I think some kids must feel a hunger and desire to know Him. I hope so anyway.

 

I don’t want to read the news today. I don’t want to know if someone else has set their underpants ablaze with the intent of killing 300 innocent people in the name of their god to prove the superiority of their faith. I don’t really want to know who else in the current administration hasn’t paid taxes for ten years or which congressman (or congresswoman) is writing secret legislation in a locked office that will be voted on next week without being read by a single “representative of the people”. And I don’t want to hear again today about health insurance that I will be forced to buy or taxes that I will be forced to pay to subsidize new tennis courts in the rural mid-west or even more studies of cow flatulence. And I sure don’t want to listen to Al Gore again deny the relevance of the recently revealed conspiracy to inflate global temperature data by the very “scientists” that all the proponents quote ad nauseam.

 

Nope, I just want to get my shift finished so I can go to my room at this remote Alaskan North Slope oil production facility above the Arctic Circle. After work I’ll get a Styrofoam “to go” box from the chow hall and steal away to my quarters for the evening. I’ll probably logon and see if any of my flight sim squad buddies are flying. They’ll likely all be celebrating though so I’ll patrol the skies over Okinawa in my WWII Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat and practice a few carrier landings to keep my hand in. Then I’ll tune in to the Discovery channel for a little while before I go to bed.

 

Family and friends won’t be home this evening because they will be in church ushering in the new year at our annual Watchnight service. They’ll be gathered in praise and song and worship and testimonies until midnight at least.

 

Tomorrow will be the first day of a brand new year… another chance to make a difference.

Happy New Year.

Author's Note

The photo features the "blue moon" that hovered above Kuparuk on December 31st, 2009. A blue moon is the second full moon of a month.

Reviews

[Winter McPherson]

A mixture of reflecting on today and the past. I enjoyed the simplistic style and the feeling of familiarity throughout. I like that you end on a hopeful note.

I could really relate to the part of not wanting to watch the news.........its depressing.

[Barry S. Maltese]

I feel as if I am reading a page from your Diary. How rare is it that we get to see inside of the soul of someone who went through what you did. We take for granted those who do the dirty work so we can have our oil, our farm fresh food, and all the other things that grace our lives. Thank you for the peek into your life. It gives me a new perspective.

[emmajoy]

In some ways, like other reviewers, I find this a little melancholy, but surely it's more retrospecive than anything and that's not a bad thing

I can remember my father - who didn't believe but was a doctor who was the most Christian of people - saying that Christmas was the time when people discovered whether or not they believed in a higher being because of what and how they felt at the end of 25 December. Maybe that's how you feel - or somewhere along those lines.. that there is more in life than gifts and drinks and all - not that they're useless or whatever - giving/sharing and laughing and feeling alive is why we're on earth.

Yes, new year's eve can be the loneliest time .. a time perhaps when reflection fills the hours. But, yes, yes .. ' another chance to make a difference.'

Your writing is such that the mind ticks and ticks, thinking back, wondering about the future. It's a privilege to share your thoughts. Thank you.

[Alicante lullaby]

be blessed.a beautiful mind...

[Emily B]

I am thankful for every chance to make a difference. Blessings to you and yours!!!

[TL Boehm]

such poignant writing. I remember that hunger for God during Christmas...my parents were pretty much pagan while I was growing up.
Peace. I wish you blessings in the new year.

[J]

What a melancholy flow of thoughts -- like standing alone on the edge of the world watching others make lights in the sky. I feel chilled and lonely, surrounded by nothing but white.absence.

I don't think you were odd as a kid, but clearly 'marked' by Him, special and set apart from the want of toys and more . . . clearly meant to make a difference. And you have. And you do. Every day you live the life you live. I love it when you write like this ...... I feel I can see your eyes.

[Emily B]

Happy New Year, Dale . . . your writes are always inspiring to me. So glad to have you in this virtual world of words.