Oh, Mayan Apocalypse. Oh, Winter Solstice.

My mother-in-law was over on December 21st, 2012. It was a date I previously feared and when I told Cassidy that, he said, “REALLY?!” And I have to explain. I spook very, very easily. I’m sensitive from my head to my toes, into my bones too, I’m sure. I’m afraid of natural disasters and meteors and global warming and holes in the ozone layer. I’m afraid of violence and the processed food culture and racists and homophobics. I’m not sure why I related all of those thoughts, except to say maybe, that they all scare me. So when people first started talking about the Mayan Apocalypse of 12/21/12, several years ago, and then they even made a 2009 movie about it which Cassidy says stars John Cusack, because I previously thought Nicolas Cage. I just checked IMDB. It’s John Cusack. Even worse! I take him more much seriously than Nicolas Cage.

Anyway, it was just a movie. Anyway, the apocalypse didn’t happen.

It got smaller and smaller, I noticed, as the years went on. Until we were dealing with issues worse than the apocalypse, like our world going on and not changing. So on December 21st, two days ago, we watched as the day went from rainy to sunny to windy to rainy to sunny to windy. As the sun struggled to emerge, and then managed to do so, my mother-in-law said something to the effect of, “Maybe this is the moment that…” And I didn’t let her finish that thought, and maybe her thought was the same one I thought, as I said, “Maybe this is the moment the world is reborn.“

I like thinking of 12/21/12 as a day of rebirth. The end, not of the world, but of an era. And maybe onto something better?

2012 was a hard year in my extended family. And of course, we say it’s the year that brought us Des. Yet it didn’t even bring him to us easily! We’re grateful for all of the good and hope we’ll learn from all of the bad. It’s so nice to say, at the end of every year, “This next year is going to be the best year yet.” Sometimes it really is. Often it really isn’t. However we are struggling a bit and we know that 2013 is going to be better, because it has to be. We are survivors, after all, and we wish and dream of bigger things.