NO HAPPY NEW YEAR

As scientists tell us, time is relative.
But where they speak of it being relative to the speed of light -- the closer you get to the speed of light the slower time passes -- most of us know time is relative to the state of mind. When we are happy and truly enjoying time with someone, time simply flies past, like a speeding bullet. And when we are away from that someone, and enduring the drudgery of daily life alone, time moves achingly slowly, like molasses poured on a cold day.
As more and more time passes, too, each second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year grows increasingly insignificant, especially when spent away from the one we love. So that when a new year dawns, it comes more as a yawn than as a joyful opportunity. Instead of the new year bringing with it the chance for something great to come into life, for some changes, some improvements, some love, some romance, it only means another 365 days of more of the same, as time's passing slowly and surely grinds down all hope, all optimism, all dreams and leaves behind only the dust and grime of daily life.
That life must be endured, lived, completed, but without the dreams, hopes and sunny outlook that pushed away the obvious swirling gloom and despair that tried to overwhelm those younger days. Instead, without any chance at love, without any hope for the beloved, the darkness and grey skies blot out the sun and leave us, as it probably should, mired in the winter of our lives, with little to look forward to.
Especially the dawn of yet another new year.