It’s that weird time of year that seems to be no time at all. Christmas is behind us, the new year is still ahead of us, and the outside world is a cold, dark, damp one that drives us to shelter at home with the central heating.
Christmas, for me, is a confusing tumult of emotion. It starts out with loathing and stress (I usually hate Christmas up until about mid-afternoon on December 24th) as the presents are bought and wrapped, the social commitments are hammered into some sort of schedule and the catering is finally sorted out. Then the big day itself is something of a fuzzy blur of too much food and a shocking amount of discarded wrapping paper. And then the next week is a sort of limbo.
Some of us are working during this period. Some of us are not. Either way, the world seems to have been put on pause; nothing much is happening, and nobody’s sure what to do. Not until January 1st, when it really is all over and we go into a new year with big plans to improve our lives.
For now, I’m just ticking over. I’m adding some more words to my writing every day (even Christmas Day, though it admittedly wasn’t many). There’s still a ton of food to eat our way through, and we have enough chocolate to last until Easter. The time for big plans and looking back is still a few days away.
Welcome to the void. Reality will reassert itself soon – in the meantime, stay warm, take each day as it comes, and relax. That’s what I’m doing.