365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
The Important Things
Day 73: Some few of you may know me well enough to know that I have been a loner most of my life. Perhaps that comes as a surprise to others of you, but it's true. As a child, I was known by my peers from an early point as "the Professor," and the nickname was not meant kindly. I developed only one close friendship with anyone, and that friendship endures even today. Marilyn was almost as geeky as I was, but her social skills were greater (which is to say she had some, which I did not). Even as an adult, I did not fit in, and was quite content to remain apart. It wasn't until I started working in the Park for the second time that I began to form relationships with other people, quite possibly because we were meeting on a literal "common ground." A little further down the line, I started Morris dancing, and that brought a whole new assortment of friends and acquaintances. Okay, rangers and Morris dancers are both a bit peculiar, but at least I felt I'd found places where I wasn't a complete outsider. Still, the recent outpouring of help and support from members of both groups came as a complete surprise to me. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by a family of unrelated people, adding a new definition to a word which had previously applied only to the feathered or furred critters who have been my companions over the years. If I now appear to be at a loss for words, it's because I am. I simply don't know how to express how much it means to have friends. You've had them for years; it's "old hat" to you. For me, it is a novel and humbling experience, coming as it does in this late stage of my life. Thank you for the best Christmas gift of all.
Labels:
Christmas card,
Christmas ornament,
Cocoa
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