- About Deliberate Living (1)
- Pictured (1)
- Poetry (1)
- Political (1)
- recipes (2)
- Thoughts (5)
- Uncategorized (4)
- 5. January 2012: Walk-in Closet
- 3. January 2012: Denuding the tree.
- 2. January 2012: Parenting challenges and the Mayan Calendar.
- 1. January 2012: I am resolved
- 20. December 2011: Diss ease and diagnoses
- 28. November 2009: Blood Orange Cranberry sauce with Pomegranate
- 10. November 2009: Untitled Poem
- 7. August 2009: Who am I?
- 9. July 2009: Buy Local or Buy Creative
- 21. June 2009: Happy Father's Day to the man I love.
Blogroll
Denuding the tree.
Maybe it is my ambivalence about Christmas, my strange sense of time, or having moved this year, but, taking the ornaments off the tree seems to be more onerous than ever. Of course, with my recent Fibromyalgia diagnosis and getting used to a medication that is making me feel nauseous for most of the day could be why too.
The holiday is something I don’t know how to manage to get my head around each year, because, I am not Christian. My childhood Christmases weren’t celebrated with religion in mind either. I feel less grounded to these traditions as the years go by, unsure that I should be celebrating without a lot of meaning or spirituality involved, but, unsure how to navigate family waters to make changes. My children love Christmas and all the trimming, just as I did when I was a girl.
I often think that if it didn’t happen every year the amazing effort and hype would have more meaning to me and feel less exhausting than it does now. To a mother of 5 children it feels like an Olympic event and like the Olympics it should occur less often. I don’t know if this would fix my attitude, but, I wish we could try it out for a few years, just to see.
Unpacking and packing all of our Christmas clutter this year reminds me of all the sorting and re-packing I need to do in the next six months and all the packing and unpacking we did in September. It feels overwhelming this year, more than usual, and as you probably can tell, I’m not good with this task in a normal year.
Maybe next year I’ll figure out a better way to get my head in the game. Maybe I’ll experience a conversion event and fully embrace the whole Christmas deal. Or I’ll figure out a way to skip decorating and go on a cruise. Oh that reminds me, I need to check the lottery tonight.
4. January 2012 at 00:41
I have had a problem with “The Holidays” for as long as I can remember. I would start getting depressed around Thanksgiving (I knew what was coming) and the feeling just continued to get worse the closer it got to Christmas.I wanted to be cheerful. Go to parties, shop for presents, bake like there was no tomorrow. But something about it always seemed wrong.
I always knew what felt right in my heart but couldn’t explain it. Learning about “The Old Ways” explained what i couldn’t. Winter in the time when things turn inward. Animals hibernate. Trees, plants, flowers all rest. This is the time to sit quietly by the fire and read.This is a time of rest and contemplation. The time will come to venture out. To celebrate and enjoy being social again. The time is just not now.