Shutting down

As I reflect on this crazy time of year and the past few days I am experiencing a sense of system wide shut down.

There is the obvious closing out of 2008. I am one of the few people still at work these days, many co-workers have already shut down for the year and will re-emerge in 2009.

Preparing for 2009 many of us are examining our lives and deciding what aspects we want to shutdown and leave behind in 2008. These are most often in the form of resolutions, but I think even people that don’t set resolutions can’t escape this logical opportunity to start over.

There is the shutdown we are seeing in our economies. I have been watching my trusted stocks shutdown consistently over the past couple months. One of them hit $0.05 this week. If only it would realized this is a logical opportunity for it to reverse direction.

I have been to numerous retirement parties watching many of my close friends at work shut down one chapter of their life and move onto the next. Other friends have taken voluntary or forced packages and while excited like breathing fresh air for the first time they have a healthy sense of trepidation that they might not remember how to breath.

All of these parties combined with the holiday parties I have been attending lead me to believe this morning that my kidney’s had decided to shut down for the year as well. There was drinks after work on Friday for Marjorie’s retirement, then the long awaited Red Party ’08 at Mitch & Kori’s, followed by the Christmas Drag show at the Stardust Lounge with Bianca & Vanity last night. Not sure how it snuck up on me but 3 days of intense party hit me hard today.

The final shut down I want to talk about was yesterday at 10:47 am MST. The winter solstice. At that precise moment, down to a second there was a shut down and restart all in the same instance. At Soul OUTing, a church group I attend we joined with another group to celebrate the shortest day of the year last night and the ceremony and discussion that occurred was very enlightening.

So whatever degree of shut down you are experiencing in your life, you aren’t alone. We are all shutting down with you. I remind you that shutting down is always followed by a restart of some kind. The affect of the restart on you is within your power to control. Embrace it, rebel against it, observe it, share it, but whatever you do RESTART!

If you choose to RESTART press play… if this isn’t your kind of music, pretend it is and listen to only the first 33 seconds, then you are excused. Otherwise Enjoy!