As the song says...

...I'm going through changes.  BUT - for the first time in a while, I can say this may be a very good, positive one.  As of the first Monday in February, I begin a new job and I'm looking forward to the opportunity.  As one gets older, positions like this do not cpme around often and after several months of speaking, it seems like the interest they had in me was serious enough to merit an offer two days after my 58th birthday.  It took no time to consider and say "yes".  And while turning in my 3 1/2 weeks' notice turned unnecessarily ugly at the outset, I'm now just a few days from wrapping up my life of the last nearly-two years.  I'm fine with it. 

I'm hoping that good things lie ahead.  I want to do well; contribute, learn and succeed.  I don't have any preconceived notions about what will happen, but I would like them to be of value and positivity.

Ringing in the new...

Funny thing - as I've said on numerous occasions, the passing of another year is an anti-climax as one gets older.  I'm going to be 58 in a few days.  It still startles me at moments; to look at that number and think I'm of that age.  I'm glad to still be here - don't get me wrong - but aging is something I don't think any of us are truly prepared for. 

I was in bed by 12:15 on New Year's Eve - there's nothing much to celebrate, especially as time goes by and more people depart from our lives - either by the dissolving of a relationship or their death.  I'm not trying to be gloomy, but in the last several years, I've had to say goodbye to too many friends, prematurely.  It emotionally drains you.  And things that once held some relevance no longer have the same meaning.  I know that must sound terribly defeatist, but it's not.  It's just that things change; time negates a lot and what once mattered doesn't - at least not in the same way.

I do hold an optimistic hope that 2023 will be just a little better than 2022 - for me, a little less trying and stressful, with better/improved health.

I wish only good things and the best for everyone else.