Body and soul need new challenges.
The Manual of the Warrior of Light

I’m in a bit of a post-Christmas funk. My visiting family members have left, my house is a disaster, I’ve eaten too much junk and hardly run, and I still have no idea what I am doing next year. Getting through the holidays is a little like an ultra: tons of prep, lots of work to make it successful, excitement, fun, love, endurance and commitment, and then it’s over. I come from a big family, so Christmas is always fairly chaotic, but it’s a blast. We are on overdrive the whole time. Then, when everyone leaves, it’s both a relief and sad.

There is never a dull moment. My sister, mother and I laugh for five days straight. The men can’t get us to shut up! We cook and eat, and eat and cook. We play the “humming game.” We drive around so that out-of-town relatives can see how everything is changing in El Paso. We light luminarias on Christmas Eve and then walk around the neighborhood admiring everyone else’s luminarias, taking in the stillness of the night and the beauty of the desert in winter – cold and clear. We hug and laugh and talk about our hopes and dreams for the coming year. My 93 year-old grandmother regales us with hilarious stories of her childhood when she “ran wild.” My father gives a Christmas toast that leaves us in tears, telling each of us how much he loves us and all that he is thankful for in his life. We stay up late and get up early, eagerly anticipating that first cup of coffee around the breakfast table where someone is always waiting to talk. We hear my kids awake at 4:00 in the morning, cheering in the den when they see what “Santa” (sadly, they don’t still believe) has left them. The adults smile at the irony that the favorite gift is the $15 marshmallow gun rather than the “big” gift. I feel love, and feel loved.

And now it is over. I’m trying to get my head around the coming year. Everyone seems to already have decided what they are doing. I feel a little lost. I’m ready to make plans, but have some scheduling issues that I’m not certain about. I feel slow, like a bear woken up early from hibernation. I just want to go back to bed! In fact, maybe I will. The Christmas mess will still be there in a couple (or three) hours, after a good nap. It is blowing like crazy (50-60 miles per hour), so I can’t (really) go outside. Yes, a nap sounds like a very good idea. Maybe it will refresh my brain and body so that I will be able to imagine new challenges.