Midnight in California

Today Yesterday back in Florida, E. dropped a double-hung window on her fingers and thought she had severed her finger tips. That did not happen. When she visited her sister at the rehab center where the sis is recovering from hip replacement, she showed the wounded fingers to one of the nurses, who said she didn't need stitches.

But E. was very tired, depleted in mind and body, when I talked to her about 9 p.m. EST. She said she was going to put her mum to bed and then go to bed herself and not wait up till midnight.

Midnight here I was answering email and sipping a glass of heart-healthy wine for just that reason. Didn't hear any sounds of celebration. Odd thing. If you are with people, you feel the arrival of the new years. I suppose it has something to do with the sense that the passage of time has meaning only if it is shared, part of the call and response of relationships.

But sitting here by myself, I think: Did the clock stop? Did all the clocks stop??