Santa, bring me a bike
Each year there is one Christmas card that stands out from the other cards on my desk. It is the one sent by my English friend. Every year along with her greeting card, she includes a one-page summary of the highlights of her life during the past year: “I got married, our baby is now walking, my husband changed his job, we took a one-month trip to the north pole, etc.”. All of this garnished with the famous British humour.
This year, I decided to do something like that, just for myself, as an exercise. The result was not so pretty. Last year was rubbish to put it mildly. Half of the year passed by my miserable attempts to get a permanent position, the other half was spent trying to recover from my defeats and go forward. Quite charming! My friends should feel very lucky that I didn’t send them my “report”.
Ok, I don’t have any Roman blood, and yet I tend to dramatizing any situation. The big lines that marked me last year are dark. In between, there were lots of light and cheerful moments, which are probably what really count. As our dear John Lennon said: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”. So my Life according to John Lennon, despite few low notes has been positively animated during last year. It has been filled with laughter, love, warmth, unforgettable moments spent with adorable people, tears of joy, new encounters and discoveries of beautiful music and art that make life so worthwhile to live.
Maybe I should have sent my annual report after all.
Today, 31st of December 2011, I woke up to a grey, rainy but romantic Paris. The last day of the year is a special day. As a kid, I remember the effervescence that existed in our household during this day. My parents always threw big parties for the occasion. So the day used to pass with organizing the dinner. For me, all that mattered though was to plan strategies to catch the Santa, “Dzmer Babi” as we call him. I used to ask my dad millions of questions: “Where is he coming from?, how will he enter the house?, how can he fit in the chimney?, etc.”. By the way, the Armenian Santa comes on the New Year eve and not on Christmas night. Probably there is delay issue due to his European trip.
As we grew up, the excitement diminished and the Santa visited less and less. There were years that I wished there was no 31st on the calendar. Sometimes, as much as we might want to ignore it and convince ourselves that it doesn’t mean anything, that its a day like any other and it will pass, and try to rationalize by asking: “What does it really mean to change the year?”, still some little voice tells us that it is the time to do some mental cleaning and welcome new beginnings. To believe that the Santa will come, and maybe he will bring what we have been dreaming for a while.
For me, this year will forcibly have new beginnings. They might be welcomed and desired, or imposed. In anyways, I somehow can’t wait to see what they will be. In making my “list”, I realized that for the past couple of years I have been pedaling on an apartment bicycle. Even though I have built some muscles, I haven’t advanced much. Time to get on a real bike and move.
I like this picture. I wish Santa will bring me a bike and a helmet; you never know, better be prudent. I will chose a destination and go. No other choices left.
In the mean time I wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2012 will be a less aggressive and turmoiled year on global level and more generous and harmonious for all of us. Will keep you posted where my bicycle takes me during the new year.
