I don’t claim to have any psychic abilities whatsoever, but I do get vibes from time to time.
The last time I had this feeling of impending doom was the year COVID hit.
It was nothing I could put my finger on at the time, but on New Years Eve 2019, I just felt this sense of despair.
I told friends about it and then I became a jinx for the whole year. Dr. Fauci and I got blamed for everything!
This time, just a scan of the headlines is enough to make one paranoid.
Here we are, in the third week of January, and things are a mess.
There was the intentional killing of revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Eve. It makes a person petrified to go anywhere in a big crowd.
Now I can’t stop thinking about the wildfires ravaging California. The loss of life, both human and animal, and devastation of homes and land is just sickening
There are brazen jewelry store heists across the GTA everyday.
Tent cities make my heart hurt.
And it was sad to lose a genuinely good American president and kind man in Jimmy Carter.
No doubt some of us have lost friends and family over the holidays, too.
We have a returning American president threatening to annex our country and make us another state. Yeah, it's a crazy notion, but even the thought of it fills me with angst. Truth, these days, is far stranger than fiction.
Here, we sit, in limbo now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation. No matter if you think that’s a positive or a negative, it makes me feel uneasy. It feels like we are a rudderless ship until a new leader emerges and a vote is taken. That’s not going to happen quickly.
Meanwhile, loose cannons south of the border mouth off about taking us over, or cutting trade and severing ties.
Add that to the fact that there is sickness everywhere, from norovirus to COVID and pneumonia to the seasonal cold and flu.
Every January, a lot of us are prone to depression with the lack of sunshine, or in my case a lack of holiday décor. Beige is back!
Heck, even the snow is dirty.
And don’t get me started on the arrival of December bill.
Postal rates just went up. Really, after a strike that ruined people’s Christmas card and gift mailings? That takes some nerve. I’d write the corporation a nasty letter, but I refuse to pay $1.24 for one stamp.
It all seems so bleak. Sadness at every turn.
Maybe I’m still too filled with festive cheeses to be optimistic. Is Gouda depression a thing?
How are we going to turn this sense of despair around?
Of course, everyone has their personal remedies. Some say turn off the news, which may help for a while. Not knowing doesn’t mean it's not happening, though.
Busy yourself in productive work to keep your mind occupied.
Sleep is always a good remedy.
A long drive to clear the cobwebs?
An engaging book or a favourite song cranked up loud?
Here’s what gave me a wake-up call: As I was wasting time, worrying, I was also loading up my car for a four-hour road trip back to my home, post-holiday. The backseat was jammed with Christmas gifts and enough groceries to last into March.
Then, there it was. A flat tire. Like a pancake.
Yes, it changed my schedule and will cost me money I don’t have, but then I turned my thoughts around.
It happened while I was still safe at my sister’s house. It didn’t happen when I had my cat in a carrier in a cold car on Highway 400, driving at 110 kilometres an hour.
Service people came to help me quickly. The fix was easy.
And it gave me an extra day with family.
When I started to think of it as a blessing and not a curse, a red cardinal peered in from the kitchen window — a sign of comfort from above? Maybe I was saved from a crash down the road.
My cat, who did not want to go home in that cramped pet carrier, was purring happily as I tucked him back in bed for the day.
There are still Christmas cookies to snack on. I think I saw some Baileys in the cupboard. We are warm, safe and lucky.
And when I do head back to Barrie, a day late and a dollar short, I can do it with the knowledge that I live in a relatively safe country where you can ask for help and get it.
Best of all, I still have a home to return to.
