January. I don’t have much use for it; hate it, really.
January is a dark and cold reminder that we’ve eaten too much, drunk too much, spent too much, perhaps slept too little, for way too long. Boom. The scale. The credit card bills. Dry, cracking, pasty skin. Freezing pipes.
Every January I’d like to turn myself inside out and hide until the first crocus peeps through the thawing ground.
Not today.
Call me nuts, but today I added about 20 Christmas cards, which have trickled in over the last two weeks, to our sprawling display. Every year I use nearly two full rolls of masking tape to affix incoming cards to the molding around the doorways in our home. One hundred seven in all this year–so far.
Today it hit me. One hundred seven people or families expressed their love and good wishes – to us!
One hundred seven people went to the time and expense to buy or hand-make cards. Some signed their names or wrote lengthy personal notes. Some even addressed envelopes. They spent 46 cents apiece for stamps. They went to the mailbox. To wish us a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.
Today, in the frigid darkness of the month I despise, I counted 107 expressions of good wishes. And, as I counted these blessings, I saw light. I felt warmth.
In the rush of opening the mail, we can forget that there is meaning in the wishes that honor the holy event we celebrate in December, and there’s immeasurable hope in the wishes for a happy and healthy new year.
Fellow January-haters: Let us thumb our noses at seasonal affective disorder by re-reading our Christmas cards (if they haven’t already gone out with our dried out evergreens) or remembering at least one person who wished us well, and appreciate how much we are loved.
And let there be light.
Word Nymph 
Amen, Monica – let us all enjoy the new year and count our many blessings!
I enjoyed your post as always. I get excited when I see Word Nymph listed in my emails. Thank you for sharing your talent and a very joyous 2014 to you and Marty!
This is the true Epiphany after all, isn’t it? My hope is that all may find that understanding.
Very wise words from a wonderful word working woman.
Happy to have helped! So nice to see you and Marty on Sunday night.
Thanks Monica – I love this!
Nice. Very nice.
God made you so perfectly and we know through your writing/expressions/gestures and appreciation! So yes, Virginia, there is a God. Let there indeed be light! And less procrastination in telling my friends and family how much I care and love them, too. Happy New Year!
And Happy New Year to you too, Susan. We’ve had a lot of them, haven’t we?
YES we have, but you will always be “The Girl”. And always wiser than her years! My father says to me still, “I wish I had your youth and my knowledge!” Love ya kiddo. Hi to your Marty and I hope to meet your son soon. Hey, how about this spring?! Is he in Boone still? Let’s chat ‘fo long. xxoo
Son’s in Raleigh now. Doing well. Call me some time and we’ll catch up.