It's hard to believe Christmas was almost a week ago. Usually I am all for taking down our decorations and getting our home back to our regular décor and open feeling of springtime ahead. I'm not sure why, but I am having a hard time taking down the Christmas decorations this year. The house seems so warm and cozy. Perhaps because the world outside seems so at war in so many ways. Perhaps our beautifully decorated trees remind me of family we didn’t get to see this year. It's been a very challenging year for many of us, yet at the same time, as much as we look forward to this year ending and the new year to come, I'm just not ready to let go of this slow time. We spent the month reading Christmas stories, listening to Christmas music, baking our cookies, wrapping up gifts and waiting for Santa. It all goes so fast as we are left with only silence the morning after Christmas.
And here it is only about week later, yet in a way it all seems so long ago. I'm not ready to take everything down, yet at the same time, I like to start the year a new. New hopes, new challenges, new ideas. It's much easier to do all that with white space….clarity around us, where decorations rest quietly, awaiting their turn once again to spark amazing magic of the season in the new year to come.
So I brought the bins up, ready to clean up. Glass will be wrapped, memories packed for another year, and our home will be back to its original way. We will be ready to face the new year to come with as much hope and drive and creative ideas we can hold in our minds. For we are blessed for the chances we get, and thankful for the chances we had. This year taught us many unexpected things, as I believe it did for many. There is light ahead for all of us. There has to be.
We will enter this new year with that thought. With that hope. We will still try to embrace slow in many ways, yet with a new hope and drive behind it. With knowing once again no matter what comes our way, we will make the best of it. We will create a magic that can only be found in hope for we will continue to look for the light even in the darkest times.
So tomorrow is a farwell to 2020 and a welcome joy to 2021.
Wishing you the best of the new year to come. Remember to look for the light. Always. Remember, light shines on everything, even through the darkness.
Leave a Reply