Thursday, January 01, 2009

Au Lang Syne. This is only a temporary parting.

“My Christmas tree is fake,” I tell my friend. “No rush to take it down.”

He’s standing in my kitchen as we share a cup of coffee on New Year’s Day and he’s telling me that he has to go home to take down the decorations because his tree is dying. This is when the post holiday blues hits me. Every season, when it’s time to take down the decorations, put all that festivity into boxes and store them in the dark cold basement for another year, I get a little down. Usually it last only a moment.

I start to think about the year ahead. The season that is still to come, with (hopefully) a few snow days, and then the gentle thaw of spring. I imagine the comfort of the first warm breeze of spring drifting through the open windows of my home. The idea of things reborn and starting anew. How this summer vacation will be the best ever, surrounded by friends and family. Perhaps there’s hope this year for peace, revival and prosperity for everyone around the world. Maybe. Just maybe this is the year we cure some awful disease or a country topples its own dictator or a brand new product is invented that makes everyone’s life a little better.

At that point I’m giddy, thinking of the days and weeks ahead, all the other annual occasions, the work I will do and the times I will have with my wife and kids. I think that my Christmas tree is fake, yes, and there’s is no rush to take it down, but it’s time anyway. To store those holiday memories away for another year because you’re not just putting them away in a box, you’re securing them for the future and the joyful rediscovery of old things as new again. For a time capsule of sorts where we gently place all out traditions, our hope and dreams so that next year when we unwrap them they seem fresh and new, and as beautiful as we remembered, or even more so.

Time to put away the memories of a year past and start off a whole new one. Here’s hoping that this coming year will be better than ever. There will be smiles and tears, pain and happiness, sorrow and joy, but it’s a new year. Let’s make it the best one ever.

Happy New Year.

Lon S. Cohen
www.twitter.com/obilon
lonscohen.com

No comments: