The Let Down

The Big Day has passed. I can see on the faces of people I pass in the market, on the streets, a shared vacant-emotionally spent fog that clings.  It’s the holiday let down; the exhale from pent up excitement of pending joy.  Here is where reason for doing things comes into effect. Subtle as it can be, we get sucked into living for the future, and when that has a calendar date on it, watch out.  The amusing thing about all of that is how much effort I’ve put into dissolving the habitual tendency I’ve acquired over the years, yet still get lured into its clutches.  So it’s nothing where I can stand on the sideline and click my tongue in judging others, which by the way what’s that all about? Tongue clicking I mean?

  I was reading about Christmas early-bird gift raiders complaining about their gifts.  Most often it was this sense of recognizing parents were clueless to what their kids really-truly wanted.  I felt a pang of memory on that one.  It was so common, that eventually I stopped asking for what I really wanted; I’d just knew they’d either try to get something as a substitute or outright get it wrong; then I’d be disappointed.  To this day I’m hard pressed to ask for something I dearly want because of those experiences.  I eventually put it all together.  Realizing as I do where expectations really do indeed usher in disappointment.  Now I’m not one to advocate the ending of hope, or to dispel wishing entirely.  What I have grown comfortable with is sorting out my desire from the churning sea of lack.  Once I accomplish the task of putting desire into perspective, then I can accept not having a specific condition in order to be happy.  Of course when what I desire is added to my current situation, then I’m all the more merry.  And isn’t that an archaic word that fits the bill? Whenever talking about the gift of Christmas?

  Better still, isn’t that the very coal to keep hearts warm as we grow into the coming year?