I like the time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve: I’m relieved the holiday mania has largely peaked and the calendar turning over makes me feel both reflective and optimistic. The new year feels like Saturday morning: full of promise and opportunity.
The flip side of this time of year for me is the comedown from the holidays. We return from seeing our family, from a real break from work, and plug back into ordinary time, normal life, chores, and the coming gray cold months. Living in Wisconsin for ten years (!) now I’ve learned that the hardest months are yet to come. And it’s not even February or March that are the hardest! It’s April and May. That’s when I am so tired of the cold, icy, gray season; when my friends and family in warmer climes are enthusing about daffodils and short sleeves; and when I long to see green things emerging. Eventually, they do: the light returns, warmth seeps in, and the world reawakens. Just like dawn comes every morning. Until it doesn’t.
Today is the anniversary of my father’s death and I am missing him and grateful that my memories of him are fond. What a thing to have stable, loving parents! It was a long time before I realized what a gift and privilege that has been.
In the spirit of this time– a death anniversary and the beginning of walking through winter– I am thankful to be starting a sabbatical and to have recently moved into a new studio downtown. I plan to work here through the warm months and on. I look forward to what emerges. Below is a photo of a plastic snake I found on the way to get my keys. I took it as a good omen and left it there.
