Greetings from the “Creepy Elf”

So in the PT room of the rehab I’m in, there’s a “Creepy Elf” and “Creepy Yoda” that appear separately at places around the room. The places are different everyday—I think the creepy ones come alive at night and move themselves around for maximum effect. Yesterday Creepy Yoda was staring a hole in my back as I did some chair exercises. But on Christmas Eve they were both “hanging out” together—doubly creepy. I sure hope they don’t walk the halls at night.

But honestly, a Grinchy, Creepy Elf is kind of where I’m at right now. With this knee replacement thing, I basically put the holidays on a back burner this year. It’s my first holiday season without Steve so maybe PT sessions (and abysmal rehab food) are functioning as a distraction. But I will admit, in the past few days I’ve had some mini panic attacks, like “How do I live the rest of my life without Steve when I spent more than half of it with him?”

Of course the flip side of that is that I get to purposefully design a new life. Whatever that means. There are lots of unknowns. And lots of possibilities.

But I can’t dwell on that now. I’ll think about that after I’m home and adjusted to my new knee—and actually mobile once again. In the meantime, I’ll adopt Scarlett O’Hara’s philosophy at the end of Gone With the Wind and think about it tomorrow because “After all, tomorrow is another day.” And 2025 is another year.

Regardless, this bit-of-a-Grinchy-Creepy-Elf (me) sends you warmest Holiday Greetings, and wishes you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year.

I think 2025 is going to be a very interesting year. And I don’t mean in a bad way. Just as I will be designing a new life for myself, we all get to design the Path we take from here in the new year—as individuals, as a nation, and as Humanity.

And so I don’t leave you with the “creepy” image above, let me give you another one—a gift from me to you. This is a mandala I colored on my iPad using the “Happy Color” app. I think the image and colors are magical and mystical. Maybe that’s how 2025 will unfold.