Normal. Not Normal!
Face it, the holidays are tough. It is like living life with an exclamation point.
Parties! Friends! Family!
Not only did I feel like I had to be happy all the time, but it seems as if I was responsible for making everyone else happy as well. I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted from all of this happiness — real and imagined.
Cookies! Trees! Santa!
It is time to get back to normal. And by normal I mean eating normal meals around the table, normal bedtimes and normal wake times, normal clothing (no more jammies for the entire day, girls), and normal activities. I believe we can transition out of having to be hyper-happy all the time to being content and appreciative. Did you notice how one can barely able enjoy all the gifts given before having to move onto the next activity?
Movies! Skating! Dinner!
I heard someone say yesterday he didn’t mind the commercialization of Christmas, but dreaded the growing sentimentality of it. He rationalized the emphasis on shopping helps the economy and that can be a good thing. But investing our happiness into a day that roles around once every year can make the other 364 a little harder to swallow. Christmas can make today a total let-down.
Laundry! Groceries! Carpool! (It just doesn’t have the same ring to it.)
I love Christmas but am thankful the holidays are over. It is time to get back to life with a period instead of an exclamation point. I am going to take things more slowly, more deliberately. I hope to infuse the other 364 days with some of the residual happiness of Christmas (it is, after all, a joyous time of rebirth and love). I long to tone down the amplified voices I’m so used to hearing.
Sale! Buy! Eat!
It is time to let the soothing music of silence back in; to listen instead of scream.
Love. Family. Time.
My goal next year is to decorate less and feel more. I want the spirit of Christmas to surround me and mine without having to put up a plastic Santa as a reminder. This way, I pray, our lives won’t feel the seemingly inevitable post-holiday let-down* but maintain a slow, constant burn of warmth. Of course, Christmas sentimentality will always be there. But there’s no need to shout about it.
* Some people have Seasonal Affect Disorder. That isn’t what I’m talking about but if you still feel blue, after all boxes are back in the attic, you should check it out. http://www.everydayhealth.com
You need to spend Christmas with my inlaws. My mother-in-law is Norwegian and thus disapproves of exclamation points. My stepfather-in-law is too phlegmatic to generate exclamation points. My sister-in-law does generate exclamation points, but in the nature of: “I couldn’t sleep in that bed!” “We don’t put corn kernels in our corn pudding!” “If you’re not going to make a salad, I will!”
Thus I am in accord with a life without at least some exclamation points. Squirrel!
| Posted 3 years, 4 months ago