100 Days til Christmas!

Today I was informed that its is only 100 days till Christmas. This festive season fly's around ever so fast and every year seemingly time surges forward ever so quick defying the whole conceptualisation of time. Where is the constant of the residual full quartets of season that we once depend upon so aptly throughout history which the celestial bodies bore witness to along with the meridian since when I could remember. Now the borders of the equinoctial points are all but devoured and blurred by commerce, retail and the effigy of the red suit. Spinning out of control and spiraling into another religious conquest the season of hope has left its emphasis in the quaint memorial writings of the largely and infinitely produced Christmas card. The approached season reminds me of a freight train, tonnes of raw steel hurtling towards us on an approach of inevitability. On the distant horizon we look out for its silhouette and wait patiently for the sum of its arrival. Heavy laden and pounding the tracks it noise ferociously acute resounds the distant timbers whilst wildlife scurry and the train continues to bear down, full throttle. Never missing a beat we hear it in the distance and see its plumes of diesel. The anticipation of its arrival now enkindle's all and the children frenzied with merriment. Closer the approach the day is all but here and the noise deafening, the emergence of the enormous locomotive is mesmerising and powerful.
Where did the time go in those one hundred days, with the hum drum routine of finalising our in trays, booking in attendance the end of year parties, the stresses of the season, accommodating family and menu planning. With all the retail skulduggery and the onslaught of the masses invading our personal space whilst the constant checking off, of the proverbial list, its all so imminent. The year has diminished into another incomplete agenda full of the things we never achieved or the resolutions we never adhered too for no longer than a day. Or what happened to the many we invited for a meal which never eventuated and those we never once called! after bumping into them on the street and giving them an invite we knew that we would never keep. Throughout the months gone by we again deferred that holiday to the relatives through busyness, have many unfinished books piled next to the bedside and incomplete projects around the house. Why, our lives have changed and the hectic pace of today's New World causes us hurried anticipations of an illustrious lifestyle, a pipe dream of materialism and the promise of a simple life with every modern convenience and electronic devise that should break the back of our daily workload which has somehow eventuated into an ever increasingly more demanding life, squeezing more and more into its already strained day.
The simplicities of running your life in the daylight hours and relaxing over good conversation with a home cooked meal, loved ones by your side whilst regaling tales and antidotes of the days happenings have surpassed us by. We somehow now have slipped into a parallel universe where we work 24/7 and two jobs as the microwave cooks for us whilst the television or Internet raises our children.
The train is now upon us passing us by at a phenomenal speed with wind gusts and debris sailing about us as our eyes are tightly squeezed shut to protect us from the dust that has eclipsed our view. The train races off into oblivion, if we'd blink we would miss it. The distant rumble of the engine still is heard along with the faint clickety-clack of the chorused tracks. Out of sight now its over in a moment the enormous build up and ruckus of the season has completed its crescendo, all is still, all is silent, now realised another year is over....

By the way, if I forget....Merry Christmas!

Rinaldo