January restlessness

Photo by Arnold Exconde

There is a restfulness to January, but also a restlessness.

January begins as the end of the holiday season.  The craziness of December fades and the cold and quiet of January covers like a blanket.  It feels good to be done.  Finished with the shopping, baking, parties, excitement, craziness and anticipation of the Christmas and New Year's holidays.  It feels good just to rest in the regularness of days.  To cuddle up with family by the fire, drinking hot chocolate and watching snow fall.  To play board games.  To organize that cabinet you've been meaning to get to. January is a time to breathe.

And yet, January is soooo loooong.  I get restless indoors for so many days in a row.  After the third snow day, my kids are at each other like squirrels going after the last nut and my nerves are shot.  I'm freezing and tired and I just want to go outside and lay out in the sun.  But not yet, not for about five more months...

January brings with it a sense of newness, of starting over.  You can believe you'll do anything in 2018, that all your hopes and dreams will be fulfilled.  Or, like me, you may not be as excited about 2018 as you have been about other years.  I have a few more fears this year.  A lot of wondering.  A lot of praying and thinking and deciding to do.

I can't complain too much about January, because it is also the month when I have fallen in love.  Three times.  My very first love began in January, many years ago.  Another great love began while building a gingerbread house together in the middle of this long month.  My greatest love began its fulfillment as I married my husband and gained a partner to walk this snow-covered journey with.  In the quiet and cold we hold hands to keep warm.

I pray that, as your January concludes, that you find warmth, that you find confirmation of your dreams and that you enjoy the beauty of bare trees, ice crystals and the crackling of the fire.