Lately I have been in a deep blue funk, a pile of heaping morosity, unsure of where to go from here. Vocabulary.com writes: When someone is morose, they seem to have a cloud of sadness hanging over them. This word is stronger than just sad — morose implies being extremely gloomy and depressed. We all can be morose at times, like after the death of a friend or family member. Whether you’re morose due to an event or just because you’re feeling blue, you should try skipping or whistling a little tune to perk things up. To find the other side of that mood, I do chores and concentrate on doing those efficiently and well. I am still arranging my little condo into a bachelor pad (for lack of a better description).

While doing chores I play Spotify on the TV or on a Bluetooth speaker I carry with me. A song list called “Classic Road Trip” is long, does not repeat until 700 songs later and sounds like old WSAI without all the Coke ads.

“I Ain’t Missing You at All“ by John Waite has words in it that captured my attention today. Usually the music is just background. This place is so quiet without Cheryl in it. Or maybe there is a hole that keeps me from being whole, nevertheless, he sang, “… And there’s a storm that’s raging through my frozen heart tonight. I hear your name in certain circles and it always makes me smile. I spend my time thinking about you and it’s almost driving me wild and that’s my heart that’s breaking…” I had been singing along but that got to me for a little bit. I had not noticed that the lyrics are generally sarcastic.

But I hear other’s words and relate them to things that I am feeling. I collect them on little scraps of paper. I found several while cleaning up a bit. Sometimes they are words to live by. Sometimes they are clever colorful descriptions from novels. Here are a few. It is up to you to discover the meaning.

To serve is to live. — Frances Hesselbein

Life is about living not existing – Arnold Schwarzenegger

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear – from South Pacific

Marooned in a blizzard of lies. – social media rant

Oh, to be thirty years old again and have a prostate the size of a peanut. – wistful thinking by an older man.

It is not often that you realize the benefit of talking to close friends, with no pretense, with no excuse. – unknown

This last line I read somewhere. I wrote it in one of my many notebooks. It is very true. Simply being with friends and enjoying their conversation, the conversation past, “how is Cheryl?”, “how are you?”, which are two questions that I wish I were never asked, is generally enjoyable and relaxing. They know that I will volunteer information if I want to do it.

Carpe Diem!