The year that was / a stream-of-conscious time travel

Photo by Marius Spita on Unsplash

I just saw today’s date out of the corner of my eye — Friday, November 4 — and it gave me a start.

November 4. When did that happen?!

I knew it was November, of course. It was Halloween on Monday, and then the next day it was November 1, and yesterday I was sending out invoices dated November 3… It’s not like it was a surprise, and yet, it was a surprise, because I though, “Holy shit, where did this year go?”

Wasn’t it just July?

What even happened back in February?

I don’t remember.

There’s been war in Ukraine, my daughter hated sleep away camp, I deepened relationships. We bought a house (oh, yeah…), I sat and watched sunlight dapple through trees. I gloried in the Hudson Valley of New York state. A friend had cancer and it gutted me. That friend is now ok. My cousin got married. Jordan started his new business (oh, yeah…). I wrote thousands and thousands and thousands of words.

I’m worried about the super from my old apartment building, whose daughter and grandson live in Ukraine. Last winter they visited and the little boy played in Central Park. He is my daughter’s age. He shares his grandfather’s name.