Multiple Shades of Blue

     "The Blues don' Care Whose Got 'em." Ain't that the truth.
     I don't often get depressed or down or covered up by the blues. But August will do that to me. I can feel myself going down sometime in the first week and things get a little worse every day and because it's been a year since this happened, I've forgotten why it's happening. So while I'm sitting there feeling low and racking my brain for answers, feeling like a dork which brings on another shade of blue, and that curly blob of white matter that's my brain is tossing out things like, "Your dock blowing away is enough to give anyone the blues!" True. But it can be fixed. Anything that you can fix is not a problem, I say. And then it comes up with the cracked tooth. What about the cracked tooth? Yup. the one I thought I was going to have to refinance the house to pay for (that'll give you a deeper shade of blues) and don't forget the filling that fell out  - that was months ago, I remind my brain - Well, it says, I'm out of reasons - except that the cat peed on your new bath mat.
     I remember that. I'm hoping Miss Kitty's got a pale shade of the blues following my raised voice and door slamming behind her. But of course she hasn't. The door slamming may have given her pause for thought simply because it closed off the entrance to her automatic feeder but other than that, she feels she's made her point about me going away for two days.
     After a few days, my brain stops thinking, and I hear a whisper, "It was in August that you saw Drew for the last time."  
     Of course. It's strange how your heart, your spirit remembers and creates a physical reaction long before you've figured out, why all of a sudden, you're sad.
    Knowing what's wrong helps. I can find the way out.
    I adjust my sails and catch the first wind out of this blue morass. I leave my busy, physical brain behind and sail my mythical ship out into the ocean where the deep blue waves are smooth and long, cresting and retreating into never ending valleys, smoothing the way, evening out the the course. A course that is peaceful and very beautiful in its indigo mood. My being fills with its lullaby as starlight stabs pricks the darkness and my heart rests.  
     Soon I will notice the sunlight sparking the depths of this ocean, lighting the blues that color its surface with the translucence of violet and turquoise. And not long after that, the light-filled waves will lift my boat easing it towards the pale blue, shallow waters of the bay - a safe and peaceful harbor.

     And I will live another day to deal with Miss Kitty. Lucky for her, or she'd have to bone up on her hunting skills which might bring her down with a terrible case of the blues.
     So keep this thought. When the winds get low, pick up the oars and paddle. Keep paddling. Or as they say in Virginia, "Keep on Keepin' on!"