The Year of Unexpected Events

    2017 is over. The last glass of champagne (or sparkling juice) has been drunk. The revellers are off of the streets. Here in Minnesota, it's -13 degrees.The sky is slowly turning from black to blue. The first morning of 2018 is here.
   I am sitting at the computer writing this column, but I am not where I thought I'd be. Last year at this time I didn't see any big changes. I would go to work, attempt to stay caught up, try to take a day off once in awhile. I'd do all I could to take care of my customers. Maybe I'd get to spend a little time knitting, practising an instrument or spending time with C.
   What I didn't know was that seven months later, I would abruptly resign from my job. My safe job with a stable corporation, the place that I had worked for 11 years. I discovered one thing about working for a big corporation. No matter how many unpaid hours you put in, no matter how loyal you are, no matter how hard you work, you are expendable. You can be easily replaced by someone younger, someone less expensive. It was time to go.
   I'd never worked for anything but corporations and I was a little scared, OK a lot scared. I had to cling to the faith I had and the knowledge that there was something better.
   C did some digging and found a place that he thought would be perfect. It wasn't full time and it wasn't even a solid part-time job. It was a chance to keep working and maybe find something with more hours.
    I love my new job. It is perfect in about every way I could imagine. The hours are better, the work environment is not toxic. My boss had started this pharmacy because she felt that she could better decide what was best for her patients than someone sitting in a big office with little or no pharmacy experience. I have a chance to do what I do best and also the opportunity to help grow the business. I became part of the permanent staff and my work hours grew a little.
   This turn of events gave C and I the opportunity to look at our lifestyle. We decided that there were things we could pare out of our lives. We got rid of the cable TV, no reason to spend so much money on TV that we don't watch. We stopped eating out so much. We got smarter about our shopping.
  Working part-time gave us a chance to finally get rid of stuff. We hauled boxes of usable goods to Goodwill. We hauled carloads of junk to the recycling center. We hauled boxes of garbage to the curb.
  We have more time to do things that we like to do. C and I put together a duet for the church Christmas worship service. We hadn't played together in many years. We volunteer more.
   The other big change was the loss of our friend, Dean. Last year at this time we were looking forward to seeing Dean and Sarah in the spring. We had no idea that a few months after our spring visit Dean would be diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer.  We couldn't imagine that Dean, who was constantly active and seemed invincible would not see the end of the year.
  Big events have a cascade effect. Just like quitting my job cascaded into many other things, Dean's illness and passing had a cascade effect on C. He started to look at what he was doing. More importantly, he started to look at what he was NOT doing. He was not writing music, something he wanted to do.
  C was inspired write music for a poem that Dean recited to him.  C also wrote the last verse of the song at Dean's request. C wanted to record the song and was inspired to seek help from Sam, a musician he met once. This led to collaboration with Donna and Rob, two friends of Sam. Working on the song helped all of them to become excited about music again.
  Although there was loss in 2017, it has ended with hope. My store is doing well and we got some customer files from another pharmacy that went out of business. The song that C and Dean wrote has been well received and has the potential to become more than a regional hit.
  I don't know what this new year will bring, except hopefully warmer weather. 2017 has taught me that things that may seem solid may not truly be solid. I'd like to end with a quote that I think sums up my thoughts for the year. It was written by the author Mark Twain. "Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today."

 Happy New Year

from 

C, Sophie, Colby and Scamp