The Week Where Time Doesn’t Exist

The week between Christmas and New Years has always been a bit of an enigma for me. There is space for breath, down time, nothingness. For planning, dreaming, visioning. For working, executing, winning. I welcome this time to pause because it is something that doesn’t usually get scheduled. Sports, work, commitments, there is never a shortage of things to do or places to go. 

A two week break from school drop-offs and pick-ups, sports, lessons and everything else is absolutely luxurious. No alarms to set (although I’m still wide awake at 530am), pajama days for the kiddos, movie and popcorn nights, lots of time with the people I love. I love the years where Christmas happens right at the beginning of the break because it means we have almost 2 full weeks of time together once the Christmas crazy dies down. There is nowhere we have to be and nothing that needs to be done. I am here for all of it.

After all these years, I think I’ve figured out why I like all the hubbub to happen so early in the break. I need the nothing that follows. To go from (mostly)  beautiful chaos to quiet and rest time in a matter of a couple days, it’s like coming down off a bender. The emotional hangover just hits you in the days after, melting you into a puddle under blankets while watching Disney+  as you doze on and off and exist on whatever Christmas dinner leftovers are in the fridge. We subject ourselves to crazy hours, boundary invasions, less than ideal food and beverage choices and a metric crap ton of caffeine to combat our lack of sleep and rest. I am 100% guilty of this and need to work on why I keep doing it. 

So often, we move our personal needs to the bottom of the list when we know they belong at the top. Everyone knows that you can’t fill another cup if your own is constantly low or empty. A great friend reminded me that life will start to calm down when we centre our existence around our own well being. That is a reminder that I will need to take with me into the new year.

I’ll take some time this week to decide what I want to pursue in 2023 and what it’s time to let go of. I’ll make a plan for my growth and how I want to get to know myself even better. Maybe I’ll even learn to schedule some downtime.

Wishing you all some time to exhale this week. I hope your 2022 comes to a peaceful close.