Mi Vida Loca · nonfiction · postaday · Uncategorized

Melancholy

JackieP

 

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I feel melancholy today. Not quite depressed, not quite happy. An in-between place.

Melancholy. A somewhat old-fashioned word meaning ‘sad in spirit’. Yeah, that’s me. Sad in spirit.

At first, I wasn’t going to write about it. After all, I’m kind of known for my optimism, my forgiving outlook on life. That optimism is still there, just buried right now under the melancholy.

Maybe it’s the weather. Humid, warm, overcast. But, I don’t think it is the weather that’s causing this. It’s more like life is causing this feeling of heaviness in spirit. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I feel the years settling in my bones. Knowing my time here is limited and wondering if there’s anything next.

I feel melancholy today.

I do the same things every day. I have a pattern in my life. I have a routine. I never used to. When I was younger I did things on impulse. I quickly made up my mind and just did things. If there were consequences to my decisions I paid them and went on. I was young. I was brave. I was determined.

Now I feel old. I feel tired. I feel weighted down by obligations and routines. Yet, somehow those same things make me feel…safe. Like if I stick with my routines, my patterns, I’ll be ok. I’ll be happy, I’ll be…alive.

Like cleaning the cat box, doing the dishes, feeding the animals, taking out the trash is going to keep me in a safe cocoon of happiness.

I feel melancholy today.

I’ve been thinking of a question my sister asked me last weekend. She asked, “Do you have happy memories of mom?” That question made me sit back in surprise. Then I had to think of my childhood, my teenage years, my life now. My sister waited on the other side of the phone. It was a question I never expected.

My mom and I very rarely got along. Ever. So, I had to be honest with my sister. I told her…..”No, not really and that’s sad.” I heard her sigh as she said she didn’t have many happy memories either.

My mother was a…complicated woman. She favored my brothers. Always did. We all knew that. I didn’t hold it against her. I knew who she was, I loved her anyway.

I feel melancholy today.

I don’t think my mother is the cause of my melancholy. I don’t think growing older is the cause. Maybe there is no cause. Maybe everything is the cause.

That’s the nature of the beast. Not just one thing. Everything.

I feel melancholy today.

 

Published by JackieP

I enjoy reading, writing, and painting. I love animals and at present have one dog (Sam) and 2 cats (brother and sister, Notwen and Pouncer). I've lived in various places in the USA and now in Canada. I've always enjoyed watching life and people and have developed an appreciation for it all. My outlook is sometimes out of the normal.... but that's what makes things so interesting! I am always interested in the opinions of others. Everyone has their own outlook and it's always worthwhile to listen! http://tobreatheistowrite.com

19 thoughts on “Melancholy”

  2. Sending you a big hug too, my friend. These are beautifully expressed thoughts – melancholic prose poetry. I believe life throws those feelings at all of us at times, probably more often as we get older…and realize we are not invincible after all. I feel something like that too today. As you know we were supposed to get a visit from our ‘grands’ this long weekend, but instead the 2 y.o. woke up today with sky high fever and is at the hospital right now with a viral infection. Curve balls.

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  3. I’m sorry you are feeling melancholy, Jackie. I think it’s part of the grief process and the life process. I run into it once in awhile too. Sometimes, I feel like I’m doing so much to outrun that feeling. It passes but it does take us by surprise when it shows up uninvited. Hang in there.

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  4. WOW, I really appreciate you sharing your feelings–“melancholy” is a rather lovely old-fashioned word for that emotion which is often hard to describe. And then as I read on, about your mom–triggered such melancholy in me. Wishing you more JOY tomorrow 🙂 xxoo, Stella

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  5. I love your honesty, Jackie. I also go through these times of melancholy and I really hate it. It can be difficult to climb out of the feeling. I don’t know what to say other than ‘hang in there’ – this too shall pass xxxxhugsxxxx

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  6. I get the whole routine thing…I have one myself. And when I break that routine, I pay dearly for it. Having fibro at my age makes me feel much older than the actual number and I more than likely have a long way to go.
    Hugs, Jackie. Melancholy is a state that I am in often.

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  7. I’m sorry you have had the melancholies. It must be in the air, because it seems you are in good company, but still. This is to be expected with transition in general, not that it helps much. ((hugs))

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