Opinion: Choose merry

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The delivery driver, obviously frustrated with the person who’d failed to allow him to merge into traffic, gestured wildly at the passing motorist. In an overlooked twist, his anger with the poor driving decisions of another caused him to inflict the same on others. Well, it is the season of high pressure. We all have somewhere to be, on deadline, scurrying to complete our shopping or other checklists, somehow imagining that if we work frantically now we will have time to slow down and enjoy later. 

Then, the elderly woman careens into the bank parking lot, single-minded in her desire to be first in the door to confront the teller.  “My credit card didn’t work,” she barked.  “How can I finish my shopping!?” Her issue promptly resolved, she departs precipitously, presumably back to finish her chores. The beleaguered young man employee apologizes to those of us next in line and sighs that “it has been like this all day.” 

With each season, the flora and fauna around us finds its own watermark. Leaves fall, then grow back again with the turning pages of the calendar. Likewise, each animal of the garden prepares for the long nights of winter only to rejoice with the long days of summer. If all adapt as our planet takes its annual spin around the sun, it would seem that we humans must accommodate it all, too. And if so, what does this season bring to us? Are we settled in our homes, loved and embraced by family; or, too often, are we struggling with stress, unable to manage the expectations of others, or ourselves? Do we have dominion over our own attitudes or are we driven to them by the phases of the moon? And, if we have choice, why wouldn’t we choose merry?

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