One week away from yet another birthday and yet again, my life’s not what I imagined it would be.  I suppose I should start expecting life to surprise me and then I can enjoy the satisfaction of being right.

Nostalgia rears its head at times like these, along with the complications and worries that consume us.  Memories intermingle with the realities of bills and a difficult economy and health woes and I find myself drifting away into the past for a reprieve.  Springsteen nails it in “Glory Days”.

Today’s memory:  a stormy September in 1988.  My first face-to-face encounter with a hurricane.  My first and only meeting of relatives from overseas.  Drunken adults singing until the wee hours.  My mother being hospitalized, my father too.  Apparently, the trip had a certain cloud of doom over it.

But the music… it lives on.  It still brings a smile to my face, only now, with the wisdom of years, do I appreciate the difficulty of obeying its simple siren’s song.  Don’t worry.  Ha.  Don’t give me reasons to, then.  Ease up, life.  Be kinder.

But that’s really the key, isn’t it?  Learning to work with the uncertainty, to embrace it as something that just is and always will be.

I have a lot to worry about right now, but tonight, live music beckons.  Drinks and a good friend at my side…  why taint it with frustrations?  The problems will still be here tomorrow.  I suppose that’s why the adults sang this song so very loud and proud during our vacation reunion.

Be happy.  I deserve it.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin