Perfect on Paper

So, I realised that if I post just one more message this year, then 2010 will have exactly the same number of messages as 2009.
This is a rather disconcerting observation, and I wonder what it might mean?
I am effortlessly perfect?
Subconsciously symmetrical in all that I undertake?
No more and no less chatty this year than last?

Anyway, so be it.
147 messages in 2010... of which this shall be the last.
A message without a clear message: a message that skims across the surface of a period filled with doubt, unexplained anger and a pinch of gloom.

BB and I went to Marseille, and all was well. Then we came back, and the feeling that daily life requires slightly more effort than I can give returned.
Now I am packing the various bags for our holiday travels (Paris, Ile de Ré...) and trying to reduce the whole exploit to the bare essentials, both physical and mental.

Last night, an acquaintance with whom I spoke briefly after the theatre told me, just before we parted: "Remember this one word: demands."
"Demands...?" I faltered.
"Fewer of them," she nodded. "On yourself. Be less demanding. Just remember that, if you remember nothing else."

So this is the single thought I will slip into the suitcase alongside the eight pairs of tiny underpants, the boots, coats, gloves, etc.
I will meditate on it during those lost moments on trains and in the midst of holiday cheer... as we wait for midnight to strike in a picture perfect setting.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!