Wine O'Clock

Someone mentioned to me that there is such a time as "wine o'clock," as the time to escape the feelings, anxieties and pressures that one has leading up to wine o'clock.  It is the time with which one rewards oneself for getting through something such as a day parenting, working with others in a job, accomplishing some burdensome task.  This is normal life to some people but a burden to others.  When life is a burden with no reward in sight, one makes up a reward.  The wine is the reward.  No longer is wine something that one enjoys with a meal, to enhance flavor, but rather it requires no food, and at worse, food only gets in the way.  Too much reward for a burdensome life, can lead to oblivion.  Life has its difficulties and challenges.  There is suffering at times.  I try to bring the attitude of acceptance, and see how it can be a service to others and to a better world around me, even in my small world of a monastery.  To get angry or self-pitying does not change the outsides a fig.  It only brings me closer to wine o'clock.  That was a bad time for me in the past, so I try to look upon the clock, as a gift of time.  There are no guarantees.