‘Tis the Season.

The holidays can oftentimes be a little too much for me.  Though, it is a time of intense lights and sounds that are meant to brighten and uplight spirits, sometimes it can have the opposite effect; shining a spotlight on aspects of your life deemed inadequate or merely ones that haven’t lived up to your or others expectations at this end of year time.  It can be a daunting time full of expectations and disorientation.  The growing weight of which can be ballooned to unreachable heights and the subsequent disappointment can drown out the good that should be focused on instead.  All of this pressure is wrapped in the shiny visage of being the merriest time of the year that leaves little room for anything that doesn’t fit within it’s tightly packed confines.  

But, even more than the often overwhelming and overstimulating lead up to the holidays itself, I dislike the aftermath; particularly, the short time between Christmas and the new year in which the rollercoaster suddenly drops back down into supposed normality.  It can be hard to shift gears back into place.  After all of the presents have been torn open and the feast's leftovers have been packed tightly into the refrigerator, there is this limbo-like time in which you must wade through before the start of the new year.  It is a time geared for reflection, an act I find difficult and often ultimately hollow.  So, do you start on those resolutions early or merely wait for the calendar to tell you to start?  

Now don't get it wrong and twist my words into some form of attack, I don’t fancy myself a grinch that wishes for the holidays to not exist.  This is merely an expression of the complications that often coincide directly with what should be a time meant to be savored and enjoyed.  An exhalation to release the regularly built up tensions within.  A reminder for those similar to express in order to reconcile and eventually, move past.