a walk in the woods

Let's face it, sometimes the holidays suck.

Whether it's family strife, the expectations that come with the season, depression or chem dep issues for oneself or a loved one....or just...uh...the tyranny of the rabidly cheerful majority....

It can all get to seem like a funnel headed in one direction:  the droning repetition of a nightmare soundtrack like they used to play on endless loop at Kmart.

As a famed TV spokeswoman, who does not need any more publicity than she's already got, used to say:

Stop the Insanity!!!

My dad, one of seven kids, and a member of an even bigger extended family that would get together every Christmas, tells a story about this time of year....

One of his older brothers, my uncle, would push his chair back from the table after Christmas dinner and announce, "Time to go fox hunting."

(my uncle kind of has a Clint Eastwood aspect to him....figure that into this story...)

This was a Minnesota farm in the 1940's, and oftentimes, like today in fact, it was below zero out.  But my uncle would throw a hunting rifle over his shoulder and walk the back forty and the pastures on a quest for the elusive Christmas fox.  My dad, being much younger, would always ask him afterwards..."did you get one?  did you get one?".... and, of course, my uncle never did shoot a fox.

It was only later, my dad tells me...that he realized that my uncle wasn't really hunting foxes.  Never even meant to fire the rifle.

He was just hunting for a little head space and some peace of mind.  He was just taking a walk in the woods.

With that...I wish you all the best this holiday season....I'm off to take a hike in the woods.