'Tis the season...for goats and other things

by Kris Neri

Are you an optimist or a pessimist, or something in between? I used to see the glass as half empty. Half empty? At times all I saw were a few drops evaporating at the bottom. But if you think an old dog can’t learn to beg from the table at the eleventh hour, you’re wrong. Learned optimism and I are moving forward (mostly) in harmony now.

The thing is, even when I was a devout pessimist, the end of the year was always the most cheerful time for me. I started giving thanks for everything that worked in my life at Thanksgiving, and kept that up till the end of the year, at which time I would start failing at the resolutions I didn’t feel quite positive enough to write down. But now that I’m a more upbeat person in general, gratitude for everything and everyone just flows out all the time, and at this time of year, I’m practically drowning in it.

What I’d really like is to achieve some balance between the extremes I’ve swung between, but so  far I haven't achieved that. What can I say? I’m a work in progress. But…since I’m breathing in the ether of optimism now and because I believe we should express our gratitude for the happy circumstances in our lives, here's a tiny part of my end-of-year gratitude, in no particular order:

I’ve had two books released this year, my paranormal, High Crimes on the Magical Plane, and the latest of my Tracy Eaton mysteries, Revenge for Old Times’ Sake, and they’ve both done well. High Crimes on the Magical Plane garnered a Lefty Award-nomination

  I’m glad to report that my bookstore, The Well Red Coyote, is surviving. This horrendously bad economy has been rough on independent bookstores, and independent stores in general. But we’re hanging in there. We’re grateful for the support of loads of wonderful people, and we never take that support for granted. This holiday season, please give books to those on your holiday list. If you can buy them in independent stores, better still.

My dog, Annabelle, suffered a major health concern this year, but now her health is restored, and she’s as frisky as a puppy. My cat, Philly is in great health, too, and the fur kids play together all the time now.

I’ve lost eighteen pounds in recent months. Eighteen! If I can head into  January with most of it still missing, I’ll be thrilled. Nobody offer me food temptations this holiday season. Well, offer me a few, but not too many.

I had to stop teaching writing for a while to have time to better promote my own new releases, but I’ve taught a few classes recently, and I’ve enjoyed them so much. I’m happy to report that some of my former students either have been recently published, or will be in the year ahead. Milestones for them and me.

Mostly, I’m grateful that I generally wake up feeling eager to face what always threatens to be a chaotic day ahead, and most days even embracing the chaos. My resolution — written down this time — is to bring more of the harmony into my life…and lose whatever weight that happens to creep on during the season of plenty.

Okay…wait a minute. Swinging in the other direction for a moment, let me give pessimism equal  time. That’s what balance is, right? I’m making it sound as if my life is completely hunky-dory, and that’s sure not true. For one thing, a family bought the foreclosed house behind mine and decided to establish a farm on their one-acre lot. They started with pens of chickens, ducks and geese, and now they’ve added a pair of goats.

Mostly, due to the way the house is situated, I can’t hear the various fowl too often. Thankfully, there isn’t a roaster among the chickens — when neighbors keep poultry, a lack of a roaster is a good thing.

But I hear the freakin’ goats all the time. Strangely, they put the goat pen right under their bedroom window, and across from mine. I doubt they gave much thought to my peace when they set that pen up, but what about their own? I suspect that Farmer John has lost interest in his little project lately, because he seems to forget to feed them many days, and naturally, hunger makes them gripe in outrage. And this is Arizona, where we mostly don’t have grass. If he doesn’t feed them, they don’t eat.

Knitting together optimism and pessimism, I’ve decided I’m going to let them all have a nice holiday, but come January, I’m kidnapping the goats. Now that’s what I call balance.

Wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays. What are you grateful for this year?

Comments

[Mary S.]

First of all, I'm grateful none of my neighbors have put goats under my window. That sounds like something from a wild dream you thought could never happen in real life. :) Good luck with the January resolution on that.

I'm about 80% optimist now. A little closer to reality but far enough from it to enjoy and be thankful for every day.

I like your resolve to bring more harmony into hectic days. That's a good one to start my own new year's list with. Thanks!

[cadeau saint valentin]

Tres original!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Yeha, Mary, I'm with you.Grateful there are no hungry goats in my back yard. But I must say I'm kind of worried about those goats.

And there's a hilarous typo in your post, which you should definitely NOT fix. You called the rooster a "roaster." Oh, was that on purpose??

xoxo

[krisneri]

The goats actually sound something like babies crying. At first I wasn't sure what I was hearing. It's much better to pen goats than infants!

Thanks, Cadeau.

Much luck on your harmony resolve, Mary.

Hank, it wasn't intended. I didn't even catch it. I am more unconsciously clever than consciously, it seems. But I'll leave it there so others can have some fun with it.

[Dana]

I thought it was "roaster" on purpose, too, Hank! Made sense to me...

Sounds like the goats could use a good kidnapping, Kris. Happy optimism!

[Julie Herman]

I'm glad your neighbors didn't get donkeys. They don't have to be hungry to be annoying.

So glad things are going well in your world! Congratulations on the success of your books this year -- you so deserve this.

Julie

[krisneri]

Thanks, Julie!

I never thought I'd be grateful for goats, but now I am. Just don't anyone mention donkeys to my neighbor.

[Jackie Vick]

If he's not feeding them, you SHOULD kidnap the poor things. Maybe he put them by his bedroom so he could hear if there was a problem. Lots of big cats and coyotes in AZ.

So, are you going to share how to became an optimist?

[krisneri]

You're right about the coyotes here, Jackie. When this butt-head leaves the chickens and whatnot out of their pens, I worry about the coyotes jumping the fence and snagging dinner.

As to the optimism...it helps to own your own bookstore. I've read my way through our personal growth section, and some of it took.