25 days later

the month started with its usual expectations for most miamians. here comes another hot Christmas with the whole package of cluttered streets and dizzied minds trying to understand the necessities of there receiving parties. As a matter of fact, this December has been quite different for me than years past. Starting with the emptiness of not having a job to buy myself an itunes card to fulfill the simple pleasures that make me smile. Thankfully my family always seems to find a way to huddle together and spend a cheap ol' time together and have the best time manageable. So here i am 25 days later into the month and I'm in Tampa at my brothers place sitting in the dark with a full stomach and a tired pair of eyes jotting down my gratitude for all the sweets and meat while listening to some tunes on my months old laptop computer. I wouldn't have seen this coming if you would have told me so. A man learns to appreciate things when he lives in poverty after having 1500 dollar weekly checks to blow on whatever he thought would be a necessity at the time. now I'm living on 300 dollars twice a month, if I'm lucky, and i count it a blessing when i have butter with my bread. So as you could see, the computer and the music are a lovely addition but the gathering and the sweets plus meat are as a far reaching blessing as an ionic charged cloud in the middle of the dessert. Apart from the desire my eyes hold to shut away the light and go into a state of r.e.m., I feel the need to say that i am grateful for all the blessings that come in ways that remind my fractured mind of a wonderfully unexpected Christmas morning present tucked away in a box wrapped in colorful paper. Some days i would just prefer a present that would fit in between my molars and have the biodegradable qualities that make digestion easy. But in times of hardship and scarcity, a distracting sound and flashing image could help repress the hunger that begs to be silenced in the darkness of an empty bag inside. A bag for the gifts from God that are, indeed, consumable.