Another Christmas done and gone. The onset of the holiday season can bring a very mixed bag of emotions with so many people these days with all the retail and materialistic pressures and wants these days. It takes so much away from the real meaning of the holiday. A holiday which should so simply be a couple days or weeks filled with family and fun and celebration of one of the greatest moments of life ever. Birth. It brings the financial pressure of spending too much. It brings the social pressure and financial worry on the opposite end of the spectrum of who is going to buy me something that I need to be sure I buy for. How much money should I spend on them. Sheldon purveys the exact feelings when he expresses not celebrating these things with gift because of the pressure of the requirement of returning the act but how to return it at the same level as what you have received.
My holidays are usually mixed with the turmoil of all of that in addition to the fact that my children are all thousands of miles away and the emptiness that exists with the absence of their presence every other year when I am not there with them. Yet, there also exists the thoughts of times spent with my mother and brothers and sisters and friends and neighbors. Decorating. Baking. Sharing. Laughing.
And photographing winter in it's finest clothing. Part of my holiday decorating is to change out the photographs on my walls from fall to winter photos. I even photographed and made my own Christmas cards this year. That was awesome and will be a creative feat I do more regularly now.
Now...all of that holiday emotion is gone. It is Saturday. Christmas has gone by with the wind ..three weeks past. Winter weather decorated the roads with ice last night and the road sides with vehicles and careless drivers in all directions. Sideways. Up side down. Bumper to bumper. On top of each other and twisted around each other. The sound of the clock ticking away whispers that soon it will be light out. The sound of sprinkles hitting the ground tell me that the salt trucks are out in hopes of helping to save those drivers that just can't seem to figure out what it means to drive safely when there is a sheet of slipperiness on the ground beneath them Another Saturday morning has robbed me of a wonderful sunrise with the winter clouds hiding the blue of the sky above. The sun...not warm enough to say good morning with a smile on his face.
My Christmas tree stands in the corner saying...today...today is the day. I am ready to retire for another year. My branches are exhausted from the adornment of ornaments. My feet are tired of standing. The walls of the living room agree as they are tired of the claustrophobic feeling from everything being arranged closer together than normal with the addition of the holiday decor.
I,with the release of all the mixed emotion and commotion, am also ready to get back to a so called normalcy. Added space. A feel of cleanliness and open air. Along with that comes the replacement of excitement that maybe spring will be near. I remind myself that it is only January and although winter snow has been minimal this year, February is yet to come. I hope that it will bring warmer weather than the abnormal 20 and 30 degree below normal temperatures that we have had this year so far. If that means a fresh blanket of white at the foot of the trees, flowing down the hillside of the back yard, warming the frozen garden beds and Milwaukee river frozen waters, I am okay with that. After all, warmer temperatures mean I can get outside and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors. My camera readily awaits the attempt to capture black and white while also searching for the colors within that frame work that will brighten our day.
Closing out Christmas. Just the next step to winter creativity and spring anticipation.
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