Another page turned.

Here we are, peeling back a little farther on the banana that is 2018. Every year feels like that, the slow peeling past the annual events -- holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, duties. Presidents Day? Check. Dental visit? Check. Memorial Day? Check. September 11? Check. Wife's birthday? Check. And so on. Sometimes these dates feel like stepping-stones, rocks to jump on, one to the next, to get across the rushing river of time. Some rocks are large, like Labor Day, some small, like my annual physical. And then there's the four big rocks near the end.

Halloween has become a big event; Thanksgiving always has been; Christmas more so; New Year's marks the end of so many things, being the last (and first) rock on the river. They seem like a strange collection of events, things that don't quite go together, holidays that collected at the end of the year in strange ways, but in fact, I'm starting to think they fit together quite well, and in order.

Thanks to BGBear for the awesome picture. Halloween cheats at cards, BTW.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. Fear, Gratitude, Peace, Renewal. Four phases we go through to end the year. Four phases we go through, period.

Notice that the gratitude must come before the peace, before the new beginnings. I think that's the key, something I need to remember, because fear strikes us all at different times and reasons, and there seems to be no cure for it. I must try to have courage, but that gets me through fear; it doesn't solve it. Gratitude is hard, maybe harder than courage, but I've found it to be a better treatment for the affliction of fear. Gratitude is the enemy of fear. It doesn't make it run away--sometimes fear wins. But not always.

Fear has its place; it is the great motivator. Peace is the destination we want, and gratitude is the way to find it. It is not always easy.

People say the holidays are a trial. They can be a trial, and they can also be a trail, one we can follow to a new and better place, where we can try again.

Happy 2019 to you--but let's get through the rest of 2018 first.