The first faux snow day of 2017

I have a love-hate relationship with January. I love the slower pace and the opportunity the first month of a new year provides to reflect on areas of our lives we’d like to reset or change in some way. But, putting Christmas decorations up and facing the general dreariness of what is often our coldest month can take its toll on the cheeriest of souls. I feel like I have writer’s block more often this month than any other. January always makes me question my purpose and plans and start looking for ways to be different and better in the coming year. And, something about publishing a first post on the clean pages of a highly anticipated new year makes me a little anxious.

Alas, we all have to start again somewhere. My oldest two started back to school on Wednesday only to be out today for perilous “winter weather.” The Preschooler doesn’t go back until next week, so things are still wild around here. For that reason, I’m just going to bullet point a few post-holiday thoughts:

1) I think we may own the world’s most resilient Betta fish. The Spouse hid them in the shower of our guest bathroom just before we hosted people here on Christmas Eve. And, do you know when we remembered they were in there? Eight days later. Did the girls {their rightful owners} miss them or even mention them during their absence? No, they did not. Yet, Sparkles, Boomer, and Betsy Ross seemed unfazed by our total abandonment as they were all three still swimming after eight long days without food or human interaction. Clearly, we are unfit to be the caretakers of these fish. Please report us to the wildlife management authorities and have them removed from our home at once.

2) The Preschooler got a back scratcher for Christmas. I’m not sure how many 5-year-olds would be excited about having their very own back scratcher, but she is delighted with hers. The only problem is she has no intention of using it on herself but instead sees it as a convenient tool for someone else to use as they scratch her back for her. The girl knows how to outsource.

3) Prior to the holidays the Preschooler told us she wanted to have one hundred babies some day. As of yesterday, she has changed her mind and thinks she will have just one. I asked her why the change and she said, “When you have a lot of kids they just fight and scream a lot.” This is what too much holiday togetherness will do to a person.

4) Our Christmas decorations are all put up, but I think I’m going to leave the Christmas cards out for awhile. They remind me how much joy real mail can bring us. Whether it was a photo card or a card with a handwritten note inside, it’s always fun to hear from people near and far whose paths have crossed with our own at one point or another. I wish we didn’t limit our card sending to the month of December. I love the convenience of texting and emailing as much as anyone, but it will never replace the thrill of opening a piece of personal mail. This reminds me that I want to be intentional about sending more cards this year whether there’s an occasion to acknowledge or just a “hey there” to extend to someone.

5) I watched some of the best video clips over the holidays. One was an old Tim Conway skit where he plays the part of an over-anxious dentist who accidentally numbs his own hand. See it here. This would be me if I were a medical provider of any sort. The other video was just a silly little clip of a Canadian lady who can’t get her footing on the ice. If you haven’t already, you can see it here. The mother’s laugh in the background is what makes the whole video. I want to laugh like that more in 2017.

When I look ahead at a new year, I’m sometimes plagued by a quiet but powerful notion that we have to be making a big ripple in our spheres of influence in order to consider ourselves successful. I’m disappointed we don’t travel more or do more “important” things with our time. We {and by we I mean “I”} are often not content with the idea that our lives might have only local, relational impact. Technology and social media can connect us with happenings on the other side of the world and yet numb us to the fact that we are finite creatures created for a limited amount of information and a limited number of real relationships.

I don’t think our grandparents lived the way we live today. I wish I could ask them, but I wonder if they didn’t see their purpose as more localized to their families and their communities. Of course, their access to world news and mass communication was far more restricted. But, I wonder if they didn’t find contentment in pouring themselves into their very local responsibilities knowing they were building a legacy, no matter how small it might be. Hosting Sunday lunches. Taking afternoon drives. Tending their gardens. Taking meals to people. Shucking their corn. Talking to their neighbors on the front porch. They were fully present where they were because they didn’t know how not to be.

It’s not a profound revelation, but sometimes I have to remind myself that there is nothing more important than the people God has placed alongside each of us. The real people living and breathing in real time and space around me. We were made to do more than take in information; we were made for connection. So, maybe I should be less concerned about what I’m doing or where I’m going this year and more concerned with who I’m becoming and how I’m relating to my people.

Maybe 2017 can be about less instead of more. Decreasing rather than increasing. Purging rather than hoarding. Small things rather than big things.

Here’s to making this new year a great one, even if it’s a small one. And, here’s to remembering to feed Betsy Ross and her fish friends!