Well it’s official, the 2010 Holiday Season is over. The company’s gone, the tree’s likely coming down, and we’re eye-to-eye with the reality of a brand new year.
Just as the anticipation of the Holiday Season can lead to vulnerability, the dynamics of anticlimax can be just as treacherous. I wonder where you are in terms of feelings and thoughts just now.
Together, let’s find a bit of perspective. Okay?
My Side of the Fence
Now, if I’m going to be so bold as to inquire about your post-holiday emotional, mental, and spiritual state; it’s only fair that I share mine.
You know, I can recall times when I wished the Holiday Season would go on forever. I remember what I believed to be the most perfect of seasons 14 years ago. My parents were hosting the family at their home in South Carolina; and months in advance, everyone knew this was going to be the event of a lifetime.
Ever watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Save the disasters, there you have it. By the way, did you know Chevy Chase’s real name is Cornelius Crane Chase (not Clark Griswold)?
I was married at the time, and we had a four-year-old son and seven-month-old daughter. Even though my wife could only take a week of vacation, and would leave the day after Christmas, I took two weeks. And I was going to squeeze every drop of whatever-it-was-I-was-looking-for nectar from each and every second.
But you know what? I, indeed, sucked every drop. However, with each taste of sweetness there was the bitterness of dread for bedtime, January 1. Because it was then the party – fantasy – would be over.
Isn’t that curious, telling, and sad? No regard for the year to come, only grieving over the inevitable end of a dream.
As I write this piece; I’m not emotionally, mentally, spiritually, or physically there – and I’m deeply grateful. No, I’ve grown-up. This past Holiday Season was simply what it was, and I’m basking in the security and warmth of quiet anticipation for the year ahead. I like that feeling very much.
10 Suggestions While Inchin’ Forward
As each and every one of us inch toward the end of the diving board, looking down upon the pool of 2011; how ’bout some insight suggestions?
- A simple acceptance of 2010, and its Holiday Season. No judgments, as we manage our joys and disappointments – and move forward.
- Visualize 2011 as this warm and calm body of water, with easily accessible docks, awaiting our creative navigation.
- Ponder upon who (not what) we want – need – to be in 2011.
- What it is we’d like to accomplish?
- What needs to be different, as well as similar?
- Think and feel about where we want to go.
- Think and feel about where, and how, we’ll fit in.
- Ponder our opportunities for growth.
- How can we make a positive impact upon others and the world in which we live?
- And, yes, how will we receive and process the Holiday Season ahead – and anticipation of a new year?
We’ve bravely taken each and every step on the way to the top of the platform. And though we never thought we could, we’ve found the audacity to inch forward to the end of the diving board. We deserve congratulations and admiration.
Now it’s time to spring forward.
And off we go into the pool of 2011. Knowing it’s all gonna’ be alright. Yep…
