12.26.07
The After-Christmas Post
What is it about December 26th? Is there anyone else who feels a mixture of relief and melancholy that the Christmas rush is over? So since I rarely had time to post before the holiday, here are my after-Christmas ruminations.
This is the first Christmas in a long time where I actually felt organized with my shopping/baking/mailing/decorating/knitting tasks. I actually did many things early (wow!) - with the help of a list - (what a concept-duh!) - and lowered my stress level. I worked really hard at not feeling any accompanying holiday guilt and watching what I ate, and I am now going to give myself a pat on the back.
These are little things I was grateful for through the crazy-Christmas-rush:
- The wisdom to accept what you can and can’t control - the NYC post office line first coming to mind. Truly always mail early and if you can’t, go to an out-of-the-way post office with fairly short lines.
- The wisdom of shopping on Monday nights, right after work - I seemed to have lucked out in choosing that evening to shop, no matter where I went. It’s probably important to note I didn’t go to large venues, like Macy’s on 34th street.
- The wisdom of Internet shopping - no explanation needed.
- The wisdom of realizing the limits that you put on yourself and that you can remove them - long story short, I thought I had to do one thing or the other when I had flash of brilliancy and realized I could actually do both choices! The funny thing is this happened while waiting in line at Barnes & Noble - sometimes wisdom reveals itself during the mundane moments of life.
- The happiness of having no flight delays and short security lines - I’ve heard nightmare stories of friends and family having flight cancellations or awful connections.
- And the happiness of seeing friends and family - I know this is a given during this time of the year but it’s important to acknowledge it. While I wish I could see everyone I love more often, I’m happy to have been able to spend time with the people I care about no matter the length of time - from meeting for coffee, to a dinner out, to a short day trip or a long weekend. The one thing is you never can see everyone you want to see, which is why email and sending photos is a good thing.
Now this is the seven day period before the New Year when one can’t help but think of the might-have-been’s, should-have-been’s and the hope-to-be’s, and while I don’t usually write about things like this, I’m going to say the first two should only be done in moderation. Yes, reflection can be a healthy thing, but I know for myself I can waste too much personal energy obsessing on things that already happened. I’d like to focus that energy on more positive things.
As for the hope-to-be’s, I think I’ve gotten better at being specific as to what I want to do, rather than the big-picture declarations I used to make for myself. For example, I wanted to learn Fair-Isle and Alex found a class and now are going to take the Fair-Isle workshop at The Point. I also don’t limit myself to doing this for January 1st - no New Year’s resolutions for me. I used to do this, full of good intentions, and I would write my list on a big piece of paper in red ink, no less, that I would post in my apartment. Nothing like a list of things you didn’t accomplish glaring at you daily to remind you of your humanity. Done with that! It’s good to have things to look forward to but I’m I also want to enjoy “the now” of my life. So here’s to you and yours - hope you had a wonderful holiday in whatever way you celebrate and to the journey for 2008, whatever it may hold.
